OUR STORY
This all started with a trip to the country
Growing up, I heard stories about the family tobacco farm and one day, when I was around 8 or 9 years old, I got to visit what was left of the Holbert Farm with my Grandmother, and her two crazy/fun sisters, Mae and Mary (Mom's side).
They knocked on the farmhouse door, told them who we were and convinced the owners to let us in. I remember the rolling hill view from the porch, the "courting room", the huge apron on the farmhouse sink, where the table was, the steep staircase to the bedroom where tiny babies once slept in an open drawers.
That was the day I decided I either need to hit the lottery to buy back the old farmhouse and 100 acres that was now a trailer park or, I had to get my own farm.
So I bought my own farm.
THE HILLCREST FARM STORY
I meant to get a farm sooner, but life sometimes throws us curveballs.
In 2017, I purchased a cute home in a cute neighborhood called Lakesite. I had no intention of leaving for awhile, but remember those curveballs?
Around Christmastime of 2020, one of my friends let me know that he and his wife were selling their mini-farm to move closer to family in the Maryville area. If I was interested, they wouldn't list and would sell it to me -- if I could afford it.
Driving to the farm that December day, there was still snow on the ground. It made it even more magical and I was about to bust I wanted it so bad. Fast forward three months and we closed on March 1, 2021.
My eight backyard chickens were very happy to be on a little over five acres and I soon added my first two goats, Thelma and Louise. And more chickens, of course. The only thing I needed was a name for this place.
After posting online about canning a few times, there seemed to be interest in classes and then I REALLY needed a name, a brand. So Hillcrest Farm was born.
Yes, the farm is flat, but technically it's at the top of a mountain, or a crest of a hill, if you will. But there is more to this name.
In the1930s, my great great Aunt Rose McNeil (Dad's side) and her husband, Albert, owned a saddlery in Knoxville on Magnolia Avenue. They were very well-known in the show ring and had beautiful thoroughbreds - their saddlery was called Hillcrest Saddlery.
So I decided to build on the Hillcrest "brand" and start the farm side of the business, almost 100 years later. I told you I meant to get here sooner. :)
Hillcrest Farm combines the heritage of both Holbert Farm and Hillcrest Saddlery from both sides of my family and I am blessed to build my own farming legacy with my husband.
I think my Great Grandparents would tell me it's hard work, but it's worth it.
WHAT ABOUT THE CHICKENS?
They multiplied - chicken math is a real thing, and if you have property with chickens you start saying things like "what's one more chicken" and all of sudden you are close to 30 birds in your flock.
We started with eight hens, three breeds, and today we have one rooster, 32 confirmed hens, and five babies we aren't sure about sex yet (silkies).
We are up to ten breeds including: Rhode Island Red, Mille de Fleur, Silkie, Silkie Polish, Golden Comet, Black Sex Link, Americana, Easter Egger, Speckled Sussex, and Barred Rock.