Grassy Knolls

Hallie Graham lives on a 155-acre farm in Middle Tennessee. It’s been in the family for seven generations (Hallie is the eighth), so to say the piece of land is important to the Graham family is an understatement. For hundreds of years, the Graham farm was surrounded by other farms. All of them were similar pieces of vast acreage, but each bore their own distinct flair of the family who owned them. Though the eclectic farmhouses were separated by hundreds of acres, the network of farms formed a tight-knit farming community. But then families began selling their farms. Big developers came in and turned those pieces of land into subdivisions. And suddenly, Hallie had no farms surrounding hers anymore—just subdivisions. It wasn’t just human-altered farmland getting wiped out; it was naturally occurring deciduous forests, lush hills, and grassy knolls. When you drive around Hallie’s town now, it’s chock-full of identical McMansions. But in the middle of all of this development stands the lone, lush, and historic Graham farm. There’s a lot more roadkill now. Local wildlife that used to roam the lands of Portland, Tennessee—especially deer—are now at risk from the suburbanite SUVs that cruise around the once-rural landscape. Luckily for the deer, the Grahams refuse to let hunters onto their land, creating a sort of wilderness reserve. The only shooting that happens is clay plates on New Year’s—because Happy New Year! While farming itself is not necessarily uplifting for the environment, the Grahams do small-batch farming. They rotate crops to ensures the land retains its nutrients, and only organic pesticides are used to limit runoff. By all means, they are ethical farmers. And one can’t argue that their farm is an affront to nature when it has, in many ways, become a nature preserve itself in the Tennessee hills. In this oasis, one of Hallie’s favorite memories is when the small-batch calves are born. They tend to sneak out of their enclosures due to their size, leading a young Hallie to run around trying to catch them after school. Off went her school shoes, and out into the grassy knolls she sprinted, chasing after a baby calf. That sense of freedom is what Hallie finds increasingly missing in the environment surrounding her home—and what’s becoming increasingly rare across the deciduous forests, lush hills, and grassy knolls of the entire Southeast.

- recounted by James Swineheart, from an interview with Hallie Graham