Spring Hill FRESH sat down with the Hippo Hollow Farm at the Thompson’s Station Farmers Market recently and learned of the remarkable story of how this farm got its start and about the interesting family that owns and works this farm!
Hippo Hollow Farm owner Adele, her husband Joe and their four children ages 5 through 15 years old have a passion for next generation farming! They use methods known for it’s regenerative holistic management practices and innovative ways it helps heal the land while allowing them to do their part in taking care of the earth. More about that in a moment…let’s start with their very interesting story on how they came from being farmers in South Africa to now weekly regulars at theξ Thompson’s Station Farmers Market!
In our interview with Adele, she explained her husband grew up on a farm and they farmed as a family for 13 years in South Africa. They had a beautiful farm that produced avocados, bananas, ginger, macadamia nuts and more! In fact, their relatives are also generational farmers as well.ξ Unfortunately, as the political climate and situation in South Africa begin to worsen, farmers were having their lands taken from them. As it would be, they fell victim to this injustice act and their land was claimed by the government which soon led to them being notified they had to get off the farm and give it up completely to whomever the government wanted to allow to take it over. Adele states they weren’t the only ones in this terrible situation though!
As the political situation worsened, more and more farmers we’re finding themselves in difficult and grave situations. Adele explains in the last 20 years, more than 20 farmers they knew of had been killed, beaten and sexually abused. Realizing they had to get their children out of these dangerous perils, they consulted with family and friends as to whether they should try to come to America. They had missionary friends who told them about a program called the Green Card Lottery and encouraged them to submit their names. This is a program that would help people in countries with ongoing political unrest get a chance to come to America. It was a long shot but they submitted their names and after seven years their names were drawn so they made the very difficult decision to leave their homeland and their family and friends because things were getting worse in their country. Heartbroken to leave their family they took everything that they could carry with them and came to America. October 31st 2012 the family arrived in Cool Springs, Tennessee to embark on this new journey in the States. Joe had once came to the states to help some other people they knew and Tennessee struck a cord in his heart. He told Adele if they ever came to America this is where he wanted to bring his family!
It took a lot of hard work trying to get settled, learn our area, find a place to live, which that alone presented lot’s of difficulties where at times they even faced discrimination when people found out they were from South Africa and did not want to rent to them. They ended up leasing some land to start farming in the area and were also looking to purchase a farm as well. In addition, they planned on farming in ways they were accustomed to which helped heal the land that produced their bounty. Once again, missionary friends encouraged them to do some training, which they did, at PolyFace Farms which is known for their integrity food movement and the incredible Joel Salatin, a sought-after conference speaker, who addresses a wide range of issues, from “creating the farm your children will want” to “making a white collar salary from a pleasant life in the country.”ξ They learned even more about sustainable farming and met a wonderful network of farming families changing the face of American family owned farms.
Now ready to farm and help supply ‘better than organic’ foods to the community, they set-out to buy a farm they could call their own once again! They were turned down lots of time but finally got a break with FSA (Farm Service Agency) even though FSA was not familiar at all with their regenerative pasture based, holistic management practices. Approved, they purchased a farm of 165 acres situated between Spring Hill and Columbia and have a thriving homestead using all the methods they believe are good for the entire cycle of a well balanced food source system we all rely on! Their family works the farm along with help from interns who come from all over the world to get hands on experience of this type of farming which is gaining popularity fast.
Adele says, “The average American farmer is 65 years old and many do not have family members who want to carry on the farm. We need young farmers and farm families to step in and connect to the land and their communities using 4th generation farming which does everything different than industrial farming to produce food in a way that works with nature, not against it. Using the symbiotic relationships of animals and their natural functions, they produce high quality, nutrient-dense products. We follow the practices of nature for example, birds follow the movement of hervbivor replenishing and nurturing the land. There is an entire cycle of things working in unison as animals graze. We too move our animals daily in this manner along with many other processes that replicate the way of nature. This is a farming method and lifestyle that will transform our future! ” ξ
To find out more, take a farm tour or signup for their Farm Buying Club, contact them at:
Hippo Hollow Farm
803 Mahon Rd.
Columbia, TN.
(615) 574-9106
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