![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/shelbyville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/09\/2-1024x683.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSix generations of Pottses, including Ashley, have lived on her family farm in Wartrace. Most know it as \u201cValley Home Farm\u201d because her great-grandparents lived in the grand home and sold berries to the public. Ashley and her husband, David Cook, started Cook Family Farm in 2017. Their commercial goat operation averages 50 nanny goats and 30 hives in six separate locations. Word is rapidly spreading, and her beekeeping business is growing. Most recently, she started a bee yard at Lynfield Gardens in neighboring Bell Buckle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI currently have five hives at Lynfield Gardens. I\u2019m really excited about partnering with them. The honeybees help them with pollination of their fruit trees, blackberries, and wildflowers, which gives the bees something to forage on all through the spring and summer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What started out as a hobby has now become an exciting business adventure, but it isn\u2019t without its difficulties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBeekeeping can be very challenging. Every time I think I have them figured out, they throw me a curveball. I check each hive at least once a week to make sure the queen is still laying and they have enough room. I\u2019m also looking for diseases. In the springtime, a hive will naturally split off about 1\/3 of the population. We call this a \u2018swarm.\u2019 I always try to prevent this from happening by splitting them myself and making sure they aren\u2019t running out of room. The hardest part is some days, I can\u2019t keep my smoker lit. But the weather can be a challenge, too. It affects the honey flow and how much honey each hive is able to produce each year. The easiest part is selling the honey. Seems like I never have enough.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ashley combined the antibacterial properties of honey with the nourishing milk expressed from her herd of goats to create a luxurious soap. She also sells pint jars of honey and offers a limited amount of honeycomb. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI make a lot of soap baskets for Christmas, but I can make them for any occasion,\u201d said Ashley. \u201cLast year, we made small jars of honey, and my neighbor used them as wedding favors. If you visit our farm, we have an \u2018honor system box\u2019 set up where we provide limited quantities of items we have available. Sometimes, I have honey available at Potts Processing. We don\u2019t have a website, but we update our Facebook regularly.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Cook\u2019s daughter, Kimber, is majoring in animal science with a minor in agriculture business at the University of Tennessee at Martin. With those credentials, there is no doubt the future of the Cook Family Farm will continue into a seventh generation. GN <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ASHLEY POTTS blew a warm breath across the cover of a book, arousing dust particles into the air. Overwhelmed by a mixture of anticipation and sadness, she studied the other items that belonged to her beloved aunt, Nancy Edwards, still packed neatly inside the cardboard box. Now that her aunt was gone, her notes and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":23008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/shelbyville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/09\/1-1024x683.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n