Eric Smith

Eric came to TN from PA in 1993 to apprentice on a medicinal herb farm shortly after losing his mother to cancer. He soon met Jeff Poppen and was greatly inspired by his homestead. In 1996 he found his own farm, met a feral maiden on the path to the creek in ‘98, left the farm to chase her, married her in ‘99 and then New Year’s Eve 2000 over a toast of homemade wine they agreed to go back to the farm and “give it a try for a year”. Over the course of the next 23 years he and his amazing wife Cher and their four children have managed to salvage two worn-out farms and pay for them with their own production. All the while, generating on-farm fertility through intensive grazing of cattle and sheep, with direct marketing everything they produce through a CSA for 17 years and 15 years at the Richland Park Farmers Market in Nashville. He loves to share what he has learned but really his not-so-secret recipe is the love and strength of his family as the foundation of his success.