When Travis and Candace Buchanan launched Buchanan Farms and constructed its large produce stand and garden supply shop along Broadway Road in 2022, Candace wrote then that their dream was the result of Travis’ lifelong love of farming. “We hope this will be a place where the community will love to stop by and visit us and pick up some locally grown produce and supplies for your own gardens,” she posted that March on the new business’ Facebook page. “It’s super exciting to see this dream become a reality.”
Their dream did become a reality, and the Buchanans — in a short time — became a big part of the Broadway and Lee County farming communities. In May, cars packed the empty field across from the farm as hundreds enjoyed Buchanan’s third annual Strawberry Festival, and when heavy rains on June 7 derailed plans for the Farms’ third Summer Festival, the couple invited kids and adults to play in the mud (and get hosed off by the irrigation reel).
Buchanan Farms was weeks away from its Watermelon Festival this month when news of the tragic deaths of Travis and Candace and their young children, Aubrey (10) and Walker (9), spread across news sites and social media on Monday. All four were killed when their Cirrus SR22 airplane crashed in a field along Riddle Road Monday (just five miles from Raleigh Exec Jetport on their way home from a beach vacation, according to several news outlets).
Early reports of the crash did not list names and listed “at least one” fatality. News of the Buchanan family began circulating around 8 p.m. Monday night. Throughout the night and the following morning, residents and business owners in Broadway, the farming and market community in Lee County, churches and friends of the family wrote of their heartbreak on social media…