– Every Farmer has a Story with Jeremy Mack –
Family ties that rise
Mack family goes from veggies and chickens to rolling the dough
Story and photos by Page Haynes
– Every Farmer has a Story with Jeremy Mack –
Family ties that rise
Mack family goes from veggies and chickens to rolling the dough
Story and photos by Page Haynes
Bantam Farm really began as an inside joke. But now, it is a household name in many homes around Middle Tennessee and has developed into a booming bakery business for the Mack family. While sourdough bread is their specialty, the Macks sell all types of delicious creations every week at a local farmers market.
“Our urban farming adventure began in 2015 with an outdoor garden,” say Jeremy Mack, pointing out that his family lives in a suburban home on three-fourths of an acre. “We really loved it and expanded into hydroponic gardening, or raising vegetables indoors in a solution of water and nutrients instead of soil. We grew microgreens in our home and had indoor lights on them. I was also linear-growing tomatoes, and they were all over the place.”
Jeremy says that when the tomatoes grew large enough, he would move them outside to a 100-foot-square small-plot intensive, or SPIN farm, which refers to high-yield farming on a small amount of land.
“We also grew perennials like blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries and raised chickens in our backyard,” he says. “Our friends would come over and say, ‘This place is like a farm!’ Because it was so small, we jokingly nicknamed it Bantam Farm.”
Over the months, the Macks’ urban farm project, which relies heavily on inputs from both United Farm & Home and Rutherford Farmers Co-ops, expanded. The family regularly sets up at the Smyrna Depot Farmers Market to sell items like multicolor cherry tomatoes; Cherokee purple, Bradley, and beef steak tomatoes; pickling and straight-edge cucumbers; zucchini; squash; okra; peppers; corn sweet potatoes; green beans; carrots; cabbage; and a lot of different types of lettuces. It was all going well until one week when they were hit with an onslaught of bugs, pests, and a ruptured water line. Jeremy says that his wife, Michelle, came to the rescue.
“She said, ‘No problem, I’ll bake some honey-wheat bread for the market,’” he recalls. “She had been making loaves of the bread for us at home, so we took about five to sell, and in about 15 minutes, we had sold out. The next week, we took eight loaves, and they sold in an hour. We soon transitioned from growing vegetables to baking bread. And over time, we learned how to run a successful farmers market stand.”
“I couldn’t think of anything more important than getting involved in farmers markets and growing local food.” — Jeremy Mack
Since 2018, Bantam Farm has maintained a booth at the Nolensville Farmers Market every Saturday and currently offers a variety of sourdough breads, both soft and medium-crusted, as well as many flavored breads and pastries like danishes, cinnamon rolls, and gluten-free/dairy-free options. They also hope to return to the Murfreesboro Ag Center on Fridays this year.
Many of their customers are now loyal patrons and friends, says Michelle, adding that the best thing about setting up at the Farmer’s Market is the great relationships that have been formed along the way.
“I enjoy getting to know the people at the market,” she says. “A lot of times, our lines are so long because our customers want to visit and see how we are. Any given Saturday morning, when I’m tired from baking on Thursdays and Fridays, I think about the people we’re going to get to see, and give them a smile where they may not have had one that day.”
A fulltime pastor with Smyrna’s Solomon’s Porch Christian Church, Jeremy says he also enjoys being involved in the local farmers market because he is a committed “localist” who believes strongly in local food and local systems. He says he became involved in urban farming because he’s “committed to rebuilding local businesses and local networks.”
“With cottage food laws now expanding into Tennessee, it’s really a good time to be an entrepreneur and to rebuild these systems,” he says. “It looks like even regulatory systems are about to get in line with what many of us think should happen — the need to be more geared toward making our food nutrient-dense and locally oriented. I couldn’t think of anything more important than getting involved in farmers markets and growing local food.”
By Page Haynes,
Contact phaynes@ourcoop.com