About Atad Valley Farms

Our farm is centered around goats - one of our favorite farm animals! We began years ago just raising Nubian goats for our personal use. We quickly became inundated with goat's milk. So what do you do with all that extra milk? Well, you make things, of course. We made all kinds of cheeses and yogurt to use up the milk so as not to waste, but we still had quite a bit left. So, we started making goat's milk soaps and other natural skin care products, again for our personal use.

But then a change came. We sold all of our farm animals and moved from NC to Tennessee. No farm, but the dream of operating a farm did not die. The dream was placed on the back burner on a very low flame! Working full time at a very demanding (time-wise) job did not leave the extra time needed to devote to starting a proper farm. After many years of waiting, business conditions at the manufacturer I was employed with resulted in a lay-off. And that's when we decided it was time to step out in faith and make a go of the farm business.

We are in the beginning steps of starting our farm business. We don't have our own place just yet (we are renting at the moment); we have not yet replaced our goats; our vision is grand but funds demand that we start small and scale up in the future. But we have a beginning. It really began a year or so ago when someone asked if we knew anyone that made or sold goat's milk soap. We didn't know of anyone but mentioned that we used to make it and offered to make her some. That started the new journey. We obtained some goat's milk from a local farm and started making soap again! It was a huge success and thus began our journey into the farm business.

The vision of the farm is much, much more than just making and selling goat's milk soaps. Fresh, clean garden produce also plays a huge part. But how do you get that produce to market? Local farmer's markets are an option but do not conveniently fit into our model. So we are building a mobile farmers market! The idea is to have our mobile market operate similarly to a food truck, taking our produce (and soaps and such) to a different location each day. Since we don't have clones, we will be partnering with other local growers to supply the mobile market. All of our partners will have the same commitment to growing food based on organic principles - no chemicals, pesticides, or other things we don't want to put in our bodies. We have already purchased the trailer to build our mobile market and are in the process of getting it ready for the spring growing season. We are working on an online store for our natural goat's milk products as well. Things are moving so stay tuned for more.