When is comes to local, Delvin Farms is a staple name around Nashville. They are a three generation family farm located in College Grove, TN. They farm over 96 acres of vegetables, have a peach and apple orchard, and lots of berry plants to produce the most beautiful and delicious certified organic produce. You can always count on Delvin’s produce to be top notch and looking spectacular but with a home grown – down to earth, local root. They are the real deal folks and have figured out how to make a living (thanks to all ya’ll) off a family run local farm. Thank God for the Delvins as they supply families with their CSA, local farmers markets, local grocery stores, restaurants, and even schools with their produce.
INTERVIEW WITH AMY DELVIN:
What makes your farm unique?
My mom and dad started the farm in 1972 so my brothers and I grew up on it, however it didn’t become organic until we were off the farm and in college when my brother, Eric was in the Peace Corps in Nepal and came back home with the idea to go organic. At that time Nashville was not the organic, eat local community it is now, so for my parents to take a leap of faith and trust they could make a market as a certified organic farm was huge. They became certified in a year, learned about CSA and started the CSA that same year. It started with 25 members and by the end of that first year grew to 125. And if you’re wondering, no, Eric and his wife Rain do not farm with us, they live in WA where she is an acupuncturist and he works for the Nature Conservancy. Hank and I both came back to Nashville in 2007. I taught middle school for 12 years and Hank was an engineer at an environmental engineering company in Boston. We’re now supporting three families on our farm and loving it!
Why is having a local farm important to you?
Although we are organic and farm sustainably, we believe it’s as important to eat local and support your local economy as it is to eat organically. Besides the value of supporting your local economy, we enjoy having a business in which we can work together as a family. Hank and Liz’s children are growing up on the farm with their Aunt, Uncle and Grandparents, and one day Brandon and my children will grow up with their cousins and grandparents on the land we love.
If you were given $20 to spend at the Farmers Market, what would you buy and why?
I would buy milk, cheese and bread. Since I already have as many veggies as I would need, I can have an all local meal in minutes by adding cheese, bread and milk from my friends at the market. Even better, I like to barter…so that $20 added with some of my strawberries, kale, tomatoes, lettuce or whatever, would also get me Jenny Drake’s amazing soap, Rosemary’s lemonade (all that shopping makes me thirsty), some bacon from Jenny for Brandon to smother on top of whatever we’re eating (as a side note, Jenny asked us what we wanted for a wedding gift and Brandon told her bacon, so she gave us a TON of bacon:) ) Our family always buys a cow and splits it so I often have beef, but I also love to barter a CSA share with Jenny. She takes home veggies and I take home chicken, goat, roasts, and of course more bacon..it’s great!!
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