Join our chapter as we participate in Ag Day on the Hill in Nashville and meet with lawmakers!

We will hold a prep meeting a week before the big day to make sure everyone is ready. Carpooling may be available.

Join Steven Ussery of Stewards Unlimited for a workshop on business planning and grant writing for farms and agribusinesses. Randall Tomlinson will also share about his experience accessing grant funds to expand Sequatchie Cove Creamery.

Snacks will be available during the workshop. You are welcome to bring a snack to share if you’d like!

The workshop portion of the event will be followed by a tour of Cove Creek Farm. Cove Creek Farm raises grass-fed and finished beef, pastured chicken, pastured hogs and has an agri-tourism enterprise. At their Monteagle farm, you’ll see their beef cattle and agri-tourism, which includes a petting zoo, on-farm shop, and extensive indoor and outdoor play area!

Come out to celebrate the beginning of the 2025 Southeast TN CRAFT curriculum with a fun and competitive game of farm trivia!

CRAFT stands for “Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training,” and Southeast TN CRAFT is a farmer-to-farmer training program organized in partnership with Crabtree Farms. The curriculum consists of educational workshops taught by farmers or farmer-adjacent folk, followed by (or led by) a community potluck.

For our CRAFT kickoff we’ll enjoy a potluck dinner together, then jump into a farm trivia game! Come prepared with a team or join a team when you get there.

Join us for the second of a series of virtual books club on Sunday, February 16th from 4-5:30 CST/ 5-6:30 EST. During the meeting, we will continue to reflect on Chris Newman's First Generation Farming - a blueprint for coordinated, cooperative agribusiness that will get you on the land and keep you there for generations. Learn more about the book through this article from Modern Farmer.

Our first book club meeting focused on chapters 1 and 2, so this meeting will focus more heavily on the second part of the book. Folks who didn’t join the first book club are certainly encouraged to join. We ask that you come with an understanding of the full text, not just the first two chapters.

First Generation Farming is available as an e-book, with the first 2 chapters of the audio book available now. To access the e-book and audio book chapters, you can subscribe to the author's Patreon for $5/month or by purchasing the e-book through the Sylvanaquafarms online store. If you have trouble accessing the book, please reach out to us. 

If you feel you would get more out of an in-person book club meeting, we encourage you to get together with a group for the Zoom meeting. That way you can keep the conversation going.

When you sign-up, you will receive an e-mail with Zoom log-in information leading up to the day.

Explore Sequatchie Cove Farm’s regeneratively-grazed pastures as a panel of growers, grazers, researchers and an herbalist digs into the topic of resilience in farming and its many facets: ecological, financial, social, etc. Tour the farm and learn about how the farmers at Sequatchie Cove manage its pastures, animals, and enterprises, which include a large pastured egg operation, a flock of Khatadin sheep, heritage-breed pigs, beef cattle, gardens and heirloom corn. Along the way, we will stop for a series of chats with our panelists. Following the tour, we will gather for a potluck lunch and close up the afternoon with our winter quarterly meeting. Please RSVP and sign up for a potluck dish here. 

As this is the first chapter meeting of the year, we will be electing new leadership team members and revising our chapter priorities. If you are interested in being on our chapter’s leadership team, or generally getting more involved, please reach out to our chapter president Jess Wilson at setnyf@gmail.com. 

*In case of rain, we will hold the panel discussion indoors and may need to cancel the farm tour.

Join us for a virtual book club on Sunday, January 12th from 4-5 CST/ 5-6 EST. During the meeting, we will reflect on Chris Newman's First Generation Farming - a blueprint for coordinated, cooperative agribusiness that will get you on the land and keep you there for generations. 

First Generation Farming is available as an e-book, with the first 2 chapters of the audio book available now. To access the e-book and audio book chapters, you can subscribe to the author's Patreon for $5/month or by purchasing the e-book through the Sylvanaquafarms online store. If you have trouble accessing the book, please reach out to us. 

The book club will focus on chapters 1 and 2, but it would be helpful to read the full text if you have time.

If you feel you would get more out of an in-person book club meeting, we encourage you to get together with a group for the Zoom meeting. That way you can keep the conversation going.

When you sign-up, you will receive an e-mail with Zoom log-in information leading up to the day.

Join us for our annual farmer friendsgiving celebration! We’ll enjoy a delicious potluck feast, hear chapter updates during our Quarterly Meeting, and learn about the farming practices and enterprises at Quail Run Farm through a farm tour.

Quail Run Farm is a 120 acre veteran-owned and family-operated multi-animal, multi-crop regenerative farm on the border of Tennessee and Georgia – just 10 minutes from downtown Chattanooga.

**We ask that you please RSVP so we have an approximate head-count. We will send out location information leading up to the event and additional details if necessary.

RSVP and sign up for a potluck dish here!

Walk in a native grassland area with local birder and co-author of Birding Sewanee, Richard Candler. During the walk we will observe migratory birds and learn tools for bird identification on pasture. The walk will end with coffee and light breakfast foods.

We will then migrate to the library at the University of the South for a virtual Q&A Session with Peter Byck of Carbon Cowboys and Roots So Deep. The Q&A session will focus on the bird counts and habitat assessment components of their team’s research on regenerative vs. conventional grazing land.

**We ask that you please RSVP so we have an approximate head-count. We will send out location information leading up to the event and additional details if necessary.

RSVP and see additional details here!

Join farmers Caleb Rae and Randall Tomlinson with grazing specialist Greg Brann for a pasture walk at Solace Farm. Solace Farm is a small diversified farm in Grundy County, TN, producing grass fed beef, lamb, goats, garlic and animal based body care products. In 2008, Caleb and Amy Rae bought part of a reclaimed coal strip mine, and in 2009 began their efforts to rehabilitate and return it to productive farm land. Come hear about the challenges of farming with minimal soil and the additional challenge of off grid living, and see and hear about the solutions they have found. Greg Brann is an expert in grazing and pasture-based systems with over 40 years of experience. After a potluck lunch, Professor Deb McGrath (University of the South, Sewanee) will give a talk on her research involving soil carbon sequestration on local farms (including Solace Farm). Learn more about the event by reading Caleb’s one-pager.

Please bring a chair or picnic blanket and potluck dish to share. We also recommend wearing long pants, closed-toed shoes and bringing bug spray, sunscreen and possibly a rain jacket.

RSVP and sign up for a potluck dish here!

Join our chapter and our very gracious hosts at Kimberly Ann Farms for a farm tour, potluck and Quarterly Meeting and a story circle to finish out the evening. Kimberly Ann Farms, located in Ten Mile, TN focuses on organically-grown produce, grass-fed beef and pasture raised chicken. RSVP and sign up for a potluck dish here!

We welcome market managers, food hub coordinators, local food grocers and wholesale buyers of local food to join us in learning about Coordinated Production Planning (CPP). CPP is a numbers-focused supply planning tool for buyers and markets that involves tracking demand and meeting with farmers before the growing season to plan. This meeting will be held in collaboration with Tennessee Local Food and the Tennessee Association of Farmers Markets. Please register at tnlocalfood.org through their event page here.

Questions? Please reach out to us at setnyfcoordinator@gmail.com

Patagonia is generously sponsoring an evening with Brooks at their store in Nashville — and partnering with the Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers Coalition to support the next generation of Tennessee farmers. Brooks will do a short reading from Love for the Land and offer a few thoughts about the state of agriculture in Tennessee and beyond. There will be good food, engaging conversation, giveaways, and more. Thanks to Patagonia’s generous contribution, the first 40 attendees who donate to the Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers Coalition will receive a complimentary copy of Love for the Land! Brooks and Patagonia are also partnering with Hank Miles Smith — an incredibly talented artist based in Memphis — to create materials for the event. To learn more about the evening and RSVP, visit this link.

Spend the afternoon (12-3 p.m. EST) learning how to make super-charged compost with low-cost, readily-available materials at Askew Farms in Rock Spring, GA. You'll get more insight into what makes a batch of compost "super-charged" from compost expert Krisi at Alter Eco Farm. 

Enjoy a lunch on the farm, followed by a Southeast TN Young Farmers Quarterly Meeting. Then participate in a compost potluck!

If you're wondering what a "compost potluck" is...

Krisi will direct us as we pile up the inputs (manure, wood chips, grass clippings, etc.) to build a wonderful environment for our microscopic friends! Please let us know what you plan on bringing so we can be sure we'll have the essentials needed to make a supercharged batch of compost. Please see ingredient suggestions here. All compost ingredients should be measured, or approximated, in 5 gallon buckets. If you have a couple 5 gallon buckets and/or a pitchfork you can bring to use and possibly share, that would be awesome. 

Please let us know what you plan on bringing, and RSVP here.

Join us for a tour of Summer Fields Farm, with newborn lambs jumping about and, if we’re lucky, perhaps a birth sighting!

You will also have the opportunity to learn about NRCS Conservation Stewardship Programs with District Conservationist Matthew Cody Brown.

We’ll begin with a potluck lunch (please RSVP here!) to fuel our action-packed afternoon of learning!

Join our chapter Tuesday, March 19th at Ag Day on the Hill in Nashville! We're heading up to the state capital to meet with lawmakers and talk about issues facing young farmers! Having trouble finding/purchasing/staying on farmland? Want incentives for sustainable farming practices? No processing facilities nearby? Other issues where the state could help?  Come have your voice be heard.

Send us an email if you're interested in attending. We've already set up some meetings with lawmakers, but we encourage you to schedule a meeting with your own state senator and/or representative as well! Our chapter will host a prep call about one week beforehand to familiarize everyone with the process. Carpool opportunities available.

Pack some seeds to share and come on out to celebrate National Seed Swap Day at Crabtree Farms! This event, hosted by the City of Chattanooga, will feature a seed swap, gardening and art-making workshops, live music, and a bonfire.

Join our chapter as we walk alongside Crabtree Farms, Chattanooga Food Center, and Main St. Market at the Mainx24 Parade. We want to show the city of Chattanooga the energy behind the local food movement!

Poster-making party will take place at Crabtree Farms Tuesday, November 29 at 5:00pm ET.

Send a message to Melonie Lusk if you’re interested in participating in either event!

We’re headed into the city! Join us for our quarterly meeting and potluck, plus a tour of Urban Horticulture Supply in Chattanooga.

RSVP here and let us know what dish you’re bringing!

Couldn't make it out to our pasture walk even with Greg Brann? Still interested in innovative yet simple ways to improve your pasture? Join us for an evening with Randall Tomlinson of Sequatchie Cove Creamery, as he walks us through (literally) his overseeding strategy!

If you're a born grass farmer, this is one you can't miss! RSVP here