Featured Farms
We want to help you get to know your local growers! On this page, you’ll find photos and videos of visits to local farms and homesteads, written and photographed by one of our AgroshareMD Core Team members. We feel it is vital to connect the folks in Alabama with those responsible for our sustainable food production. We also feel that it helps you to make healthier choices when you have a personal connection to those responsible for your food.
We hope you’ll learn a lot as you follow this series. It will also include interviews with the farmers, when available, so you’ll be able to dive a little deeper into the ideas, personal philosophies, and growing practices of those in our state. We also hope it will bring greater awareness and publicity to small, local businesses and the incredible hardworking people who run them.
Do you know a farm or homestead you’d like to see featured? Please contact us and we will add it to our list of places to visit! Small, sustainable farmers only (no standard/chemical practices), please.
Echo Ridge Farm
Location: Collinsville, AL
Photographed by: Breanne Brazeale, Dr. Frannie Koe, and Tim Martin
For Dr. Koe, food, farming and medicine are inextricably linked. She completed medical school as part of the Rural Medical Scholars Program, and always knew she wanted to live and work outside of an urban environment. Her home and farm, 70+ picturesque acres about 4 miles and only one stop sign away from her clinic in Collinsville, AL, is the culmination of many of her dreams and years of hard work. She shares the property with her partner of 20 years, artisan, craftsman and woodworker, Tim Martin.
I’ve visited Dr. Koe’s farm many times, sometimes with my three children in tow, so the rutted gravel drive is familiar to me. Her property, named Echo Ridge Farm, is both constantly evolving, and a reflection of her own health goals and personal beliefs. The way she’s chosen to make her home is about as far from the stereotypical doctor’s abode as you can imagine. It is as warm and unassuming as her personality and self-sufficiency and utility are Dr. Koe’s priorities.
Smith’s Blueberries and More Farm
Location: Collinsville, AL
Type: Organically grown (not certified) without the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides, or sprays
Products and services available: U-pick (or pre-picked) blueberries and muscadines, available seasonally
Written and photographed by: Breanne Brazeale
Smith’s Blueberries and More is a u-pick blueberry farm nestled on a scenic county road in Northeast Alabama. In addition to blueberries, they have several varieties of muscadines to pick seasonally as well. You can pick blueberries or muscadines yourself by the gallon at a discounted price, of purchase the fruit pre-picked for a higher price (to account for the labor). Blueberries are typically available at the end of June through early to mid-July, and muscadines are ready in early fall, usually September. Check with Smith’s Blueberries and More for field updates, to plan a visit, and current pricing.
The Farm at Windy Hill
Featured Farm: The Farm at Windy Hill
The Farm at Windy Hill
Location: Mentone, AL
Farm Manager: Brent Halderman
Farm Communications: Megan Halderman
Type: Produce grown without the use of synthetic chemicals or pesticides, only biologically friendly and regenerative growing practices are used.
Products and Services: seasonal produce, grass-fed & finished beef, pasture-raised pork, pasture-raised eggs (non-GMO & non-soy fed), fresh cut flowers and bouquets, artisan small-batch sourdough bread through Valley Head Bread Co., and locally grown apples from Little River Orchard (seasonally).
Written by: Breanne Brazeale
Photographed by: Breanne Brazeale and Adam Stephens (drone footage)
Whirlwind Farms
Location: Geraldine, AL
Owners: Dove and Russell Stackhouse
Type: Organically grown (not certified) and regenerative ecosystem
Products/services available: seasonal CSA/produce box, provides vegetables and grains for area restaurants, home of the Sand Mountain Seed Bank and future teaching farm.
Written and photographed by: Breanne Brazeale
Dove and Russell Stackhouse are the owners of Whirlwind Farm. They’ve each been farming for over 30 years, and have been working their land in Geraldine, Alabama for more than a decade. Russell is a Vietnam Veteran, and they are both founding members of ASAN (Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network). Dove and Russell’s Indigenous heritage (Cheyenne and Penobscot ancestry, respectively) inform their personal philosophies and decision to steward their land as holistically and mindfully as they can.
Section Farm Market
Location: Section, AL
Type: Mennonite-owned farmers’ market
Products and services offered: seasonal produce, homemade and locally grown products including sorghum syrup, jams and jellies, baked goods and sauerkraut.
Written by: Breanne Brazeale
Photographed by: Breanne Brazeale and Adam Stephens
The Section Farm Market is entering its third growing season providing fresh food and produce to Section and the surrounding communities in northeast Alabama. It is open seasonally spring through fall, is owned and operated by the local Mennonite Community.
