Barton Creek Farms

This is the fifth article in a Vendor Profile Series intended to share the history and diversity of the Market through the stories of our vendors, as we celebrate our 25th Season. This article is written by journalist Barry Courter.

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To understand just how the local food scene and consumer tastes and habits have changed since the Chattanooga Market opened in 2001, look no further than Barton Creek Farms, a vendor selling meats there since 2010.

As customers have become more aware of the importance of buying local and healthy, their demands have changed. Where once customers wanted just ground beef, or steaks, roast or brisket, now, as in days past, they want all parts of the cow.

“The demand for organs has hugely changed,” says co-owner Mary Roller. “Before, we couldn't give organs away, and now we can't keep them in stock.”

The Roller family has been farming in the Rock Island part of Tennessee for more than a century. Mary's father Danny has been working the property since it was a dairy farm in the '60s. A decade or so later, he transitioned from milk to beef, selling to local restaurants in Chattanooga and to a few customers in the nearby McMinnville, Tennessee, community.

Mary said lots of people in the area had their own small farms, so they looked outside of the area and found the Chattanooga Market. She was 15 at the time and remembers doing what most teenagers would do during those early morning commutes from middle to southeastern Tennessee.

“I slept,” she said.

Barton Creek's story is reflective of the changes in farming a couple of decades ago and is similar to that of the other vendors at the market. The Rollers found a regular location and audience where growers, producers and creatives can sell their products while getting to know their customers.

Over the years, they've also been able to share their story about how they raise their cows, as well as the benefits of buying directly from the people who feed and care for the animals on a daily basis.

As the farm-to-table movement has taken hold with consumers, Barton Creek has been there to introduce “new” ideas, like using all parts of the cow.

“Nose to tail, like back in the day,” Roller said. “Back in the day, people wasted nothing.”

Roller runs the nearly 1,400-acre farm with her father and her boyfriend, Herman Taylor, and his son, Herman IV. They grow hay and trees and tend to 350 head of cattle, which she said are fed a healthy diet of corn-based silage.

“The cows love it,” she says.

In addition to the meat and organs Barton Creek sells, it provides customers with bones and cow fat, which people are using to make their own moisturizers.

The market generates about 50% of the Rollers' business, she says.

Barton Farms isn't Mary Roller's only connection to the Chattanooga Market. While a student at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee, studying agriculture business management in 2014-2015, she got involved in an AmeriCorps program with Professor Michael Best and got an up-close and intense lesson in growing and selling tomatoes.

Local farmer and tomato-lover Millard Oakley donated land to the school, one small greenhouse and one four-hooped greenhouse, and Roller worked with Best growing the plants.

“I did the grunt work and he did the bigger stuff,” she says.

As part of the program, the school would sell the tomatoes at roadside stands and local markets, but soon started selling them at the Chattanooga Market. The demand, and the flow of cash, grew.

“It got to be a big thing,” Mary Roller said. “Almost too successful. We went from 1,500 plants to 40,000, and we added two or three more four-hooped greenhouses.”

Roller said she was manning the school's tomato booth at the market while her father sold Barton Creek beef.

“I was working harder than he was,” she says with a laugh. “I never knew how hard working in a greenhouse could be.”

Professor Best has since moved on to North Carolina State and the farm has shifted to more of a research program, according to Anna Fancher, Oakley Farms Greenhouse Manager.

Fancher said the farm now has about 2,000-2,500 plants and travels to the Chattanooga Market whenever it can. Fancher said the students love making the trip.

“It's one of their favorite parts of the program,” she said. “They love talking to people and the other farmers. It's hands-on marketing that I consider very beneficial.”

Roller said the shifting food scene has been an education and a lot of fun.

“The fire is lit,” she says. “People are finally realizing we can grow things and/or we can get them from our neighbor.  We barter with our neighbors at the market. It's getting back to what it used to be. Like, if we need a mechanic, we might trade some beef.

“It's pretty cool.”

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