Samantha Lamb puts the “art” into artisan farming. Her garden explodes with the colors brought about by rainbows of cherry tomatoes, carrots, and beets, five different varieties of peas, and edible flowers such as snapdragons and drift roses. Not only is she a gifted photographer (which allowed her to finance the farm), but also a knitter. The Farm and Fiddle is twenty-two acres in Fly, Tennessee, an unincorporated community about forty-five minutes southwest of Nashville. Samantha’s beau, Daniel Foulks, is an accomplished fiddle player, hence the name. When the couple first arrived on the farm in the dead of winter three years ago, there wasn’t much there—neither water nor electricity. But there was a barn and a freshwater spring, and so now there’s a house, built by Samantha and Daniel themselves. There are also dairy sheep and dairy cows—sixty of the former and four of the latter, three of which are in training. (Yes, it takes training to be a good milk cow. You have to have a great temperament and be willing to be led back and forth each day.) “It’s a bigger commitment than marriage,” Samantha laughs. “You’re the sole caretaker!”
She definitely has the magic touch. How else to explain how a fallow field in the middle of nowhere transformed in just a thousand days into a growing farm with 35 CSA members and an expanding list of restaurant partnerships? A place where you can go to learn about organic gardening or milk and cheese-making, or even mushroom growing? A place where, in October, you can visit for an Italian-themed farm dinner?
The Farm and Fiddle is, above all, a place where the soil sings and the food is that much better for it. “I always like to say ‘love life,’” Samantha comments, “because if you look around, it’s obvious how life aches to love you. Why not bring more joy into the world if you have the talent to do it?”
Farm and Fiddle | Thefarmandfiddle.Com