As we meandered and snaked our way up the mountains passing acres of rolling nothingness, my summer vacations spent in my grandparent’s beloved mountains came back to me and for a brief moment I felt as if I were headed towards another Smoky Mountain vacation. Rest assured, I was not on vacation. We were instead headed up the steep mountain road to the Southern Valley farm in Tennessee.
I had heard many stories about this farm and the people who lived there and spoke using typical Appalachian phrases such as “You’ens” and “Yall’ens” and I was pretty pumped to finally be meeting them. These people, also known as the Henderson Family, were introduced to Southern Valley a few years back through mutual friends in the farm auction business.
Starting in 2010, Southern Valley partnered with the Henderson Family to grow cucumbers, pepper and squash on their mountain-top farm during the summer months. The Hendersons had been tomato farmers all their lives, but looking to venture into some new territory this was an opportunity they were interested in. As the partnership stands today, Southern Valley handles the picking, packing, and selling of the product while the Hendersons manage the day to day aspects of the farm.
So if you don’t mind, I’d like to introduce you to another side of our Southern Valley Family, the Hendersons:
First there’s Donald. He is the patriarch of the family and farming is the only lifestyle he’s ever known. Donald started farming with his brother as a young teenager and once he reached the age of 18, his brother made him a partner in the business. Years later, his brother opted out of the business and Donald decided to continue farming with his wife Vanessa by his side. Vanessa had grown up as a farmer’s daughter and she was happy to continue the farming life with Donald. She and Donald farmed together and raised their two children, Donnie and Christy, on the farm they knew and loved.
Being raised on the farm, Donnie soon knew farming would be his life’s work. While he and his now wife Stephanie were dating in high school, they spent all their time together on the farm – she loved being outdoors and was a perfect fit for the family farming business. Stephanie and her mother-in-law Vanessa now spend their days overseeing the irrigation and chemical input in the fields, as well as completing all the paperwork for the farm. Donnie and Stephanie have one son, Levi, and he is following in his father’s footsteps and learning to love farm life at a young age.
Christy Henderson with her racking horse.
Then there’s Christy (pictured on her horse above), who recently graduated from the local high school and is set to start college this fall pursuing a vet tech degree. Christy is not unlike the rest of her family and has been integrally involved with the farming business for years now. She works alongside her parents and is responsible for irrigation and fertilizer application on select fields. She also has a passion outside of produce, which involves showing Racking horses, and she was recently named the Speed Racking Champion at the Spring Celebration in Decatur, Alabama.
Henderson Farms is a family business and always has been. They couple their summers growing produce with winters spent caring for their herd of commercial cattle. Any remaining spare time they have is spent breeding and showing Racking horses. Outside of this hobby and faithful church attendance, their lifestyle leaves time for little else besides farming.
The Henderson family members have all partnered in the farm life together and love that they are able to work together as a family while getting to do what they love and spend their days outdoors. They view farming as hard, honest work with its own rewards and it is a life they can’t imagine living without. As Vanessa so aptly puts it, “Once you’ve experienced farming, it is kind of in your blood and nothing else can take the place of it.”
We are so happy to be partnering with the Henderson family to continue providing the same high-quality produce that our customers have come to know and love.