Blue Heron Farmstead

Brittney Blackshear of Blue Heron Farmstead is busy.

By the time we spoke over the phone one crisp November morning, she and partner Colton van Assche had just finished feeding and watering their goats, pigs, chickens, and Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dogs. They were preparing to gather eggs and harvest produce—turnips, mustard greens, Swiss chard, and other things—for a partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank to provide seniors in Middle Tennessee with healthy foods. And they were making plans to plant garlic soon, which they’ll later sell on Saturday mornings at the Nolensville Farmers Market.

“When I first started farming in 2018,” Brittney says, “it was a struggle. But through endless on-the-ground lessons and support from our community, we’ve really started to thrive.”

Brittney didn’t grow up on a farm. She first came to agriculture after owning and operating a food truck in Nashville for years. She began sourcing more and more of her ingredients from a local farmers market, and when she cooked with these fresh ingredients, her customers could taste the difference.

Intrigued and inspired by the farmers she befriended at the market, Brittney decided to dive into the agricultural world after taking a permaculture farming course in Summertown, down in Lawrence County. Soon after, she left the food truck business behind and bought a small, 11-acre farm in the rural Rutherford County community of Milton.

Colton also came to farming later in life. Growing up in Washington state, he and his family saw the importance of agriculture, particularly through the abundance of apple orchards in their area. Yet he also saw those orchards struggle, and many have closed since his childhood. Now at Blue Heron Farmstead, Colton feels a calling to make agriculture a viable part of the local economy and ensure more people of various socio-economic backgrounds have access to healthy foods.

As new and beginning farmers, Brittney and Colton have certainly faced their share of challenges. Good farming is both a science and an art, and it takes time to learn the ins and outs of agriculture. Uncertain, volatile weather patterns—like the extended drought currently affecting Middle Tennessee and broader swaths of the South—offer another obstacle. And high costs of land, which is listed as the biggest difficulty facing young farmers in the United States according to the National Young Farmers Coalition, often make secure land tenure elusive. Yet Blue Heron Farmstead perseveres.

The farm’s success isn’t going unnoticed. Brittney and Colton were recently awarded a nationally competitive Brighter Future Fund grant from American Farmland Trust to help support their operation. With funding from this program, which is supported by Tractor Supply Company (headquartered in Brentwood), they plan to install new, high-quality perimeter fencing. The fencing will enable them to better rotate goats to fresh pastures, expand their poultry offerings at the market, and grow their goat dairy sales. They’ll also be able to explore the integration of cattle or sheep into their system.

Enhancing the economic viability of small farms is essential, especially in places like Middle Tennessee, where small and midsized farmers are under many different types of stress. For example, the pressure to sell farmland for real estate development is particularly intense in the region.

American Farmland Trust’s research suggests that if development trends continue, Tennessee is projected to convert or compromise over one million acres of agricultural land between 2016-2040, making it the third-most-threatened state in the nation for farmland conversion. Sprawling subdivisions, strip malls, and low-density residential development are literally and figuratively reshaping the landscapes of rural communities in Tennessee. Rutherford County—where Blue Heron Farmstead is located—ranks first in the state for projected farmland loss.

Brittney and Colton have seen the impact of farmland conversion firsthand. “Just down the road, a farm was sold and split up into many different tracts,” Colton shares. “It’s heartbreaking. We see those farm conversions taking place around home. We see it happening around Nolensville when we drive to the farmers market. Developers will come in with huge amounts of money and out-compete what young farmers can ever pay for a property. Once that land is developed, it will never return to farmland. Farmland is so valuable, and we need to think about how we conserve it.”

Part of that conservation strategy is more strongly supporting farms like Blue Heron Farmstead. Ensuring that these sorts of small and midsized farms are economically vibrant can help retain agriculture’s significance in the region and support local food systems. After all, fresh, high-quality food is so important to the success of famed Nashville restaurants like Husk and Margot Café and Bar, both of which buy from Blue Heron Farmstead.

Brittney and Colton rightly see their work on the farm as contributing to the broader community. For them, farming isn’t just a job. It’s a calling.

“To me, farming is unlike any other endeavor. You have to experience it. You have to be there. You have to know the plants, soil, climate, animals, the diseases, the challenges,” says Colton. “It’s every minute of every day. You have to pay attention, adapt, and be ready to make the changes needed to adjust. Farming is a dance. You’re not in competition with nature, but you’re cooperating with it. And if you don’t respond thoughtfully, you’ll trip up, and the dance will be ruined. It takes your full being to farm in the manner that we are and that many of our inspirations, like Wendell Berry, do.”

Brittney builds on Colton’s comments. “Farming is important for food security, for quality food. And seconding Colton, this is a way of life. I get to keep my body active. I get to be an observer of nature. I get to care for the land and our place. I get to be present. And I get to learn—there’s so much to learn!” she laughs.

Whether talking with customers at the farmers market or hosting people through the WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) program, Brittney also gets to connect with others and show why regenerative agriculture is important. “Getting to share these experiences with other people who are excited and curious about farming and food—that’s special.”

It is special. And with a new year on the horizon, bringing with it a fresh opportunity to nurture community and push for more vibrant food systems, it’s a reminder that we should be thankful for local farms and farmland—and the hardworking people who care for them.

Brooks Lamb is the Land Protection and Access Specialist at American Farmland Trust. He is also the author of Love for the Land: Lessons from Farmers Who Persist in Place.