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A Different Kind of Dairy
Bonnie Blue Farm offers gourmet
goat cheese and overnight stays on the farm
Gayle Tanner
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Photo by Antony Boshier
Bonnie Blue Farm lies on 300 peaceful acres
in rural Wayne County, where a ribbon of pastureland winds around rugged hills in Waynesboro. A handsome barn boasts the sweet smell of alfalfa hay, and a friendly herd of 55 registered Saanen and Nubian goats welcomes the arrival of visitors.
It looks idyllic, but days on the farm are anything but leisurely for Jim and Gayle Tanner, owners of Tennessee’s only licensed Grade A goat dairy and farmstead goat cheese operation.
“On a typical day, we get up around 5 or 5:30
and get to bed about 9:30,” Gayle says.
If it’s birthing season, or if Jim is going to market, they often log 20-hour days.
“I calculated that last year, between the two of
us, we did between 8,000 and 9,000 hours of work,” Jim says.
That hard work has paid off with some statewide and national recognition. Bonnie Blue Farm was named Small Farmer of the Year in 2008 by the Tennessee State University Cooperative Extension Program in all three categories – best management practices, alternative enterprise and value-added product. This was the farm’s second year in a row
to take the overall title.
Bonnie Blue Farm’s aged Gouda-style cheese – called “Parker” – also won Best in Show at the American Dairy Goat Association’s national conference in October 2008.
Former residents of northern California, the Tanners bought their first parcel of property in 1995 and began making regular cross-country sojourns to Waynesboro in an RV to build a barn and a home.
A building contractor by trade, Jim designed the structures, and the couple completed most of the construction themselves. In September 1999, they loaded up their herd and made their last eastward trek.
In 2003 they began working in earnest to develop
a commercial dairy and cheese business, and their herd now boasts 50 does and five bucks. After navigating
a mountain of paperwork and passing multiple inspections, they began offering Grade A farmstead goat cheese for sale in April 2006.
Workforce of Two
The goats pass twice daily through a well-scrubbed milking room. The adjoining room contains a 100-gallon bulk tank where milk is held at precise temperatures until moved to the cheese studio a short walk up the hill. There the milk is pasteurized, and Gayle begins the gentle process of making cheese.
“I made lots of really bad cheese way back when,” says Gayle, who received her first goat as a present
for her 21st birthday.
Through years of trial and error, she has perfected prize-winning cheeses acclaimed for exceptional mildness and smoothness, which she attributes to
the care given in handling the goats and the milk.
“There’s a move in culinary circles toward goat cheese,” she says, “and if people want goat cheese
from Tennessee, we’re the only ones.”
People do indeed want their products. The Tanners’ feta and chèvre are heralded by discriminating chefs at restaurants in Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga, and residents buy their products at farmers markets, some Nashville stores, through the mail – and fresh from the farm.
While Gayle rides herd at home, Jim serves as a one-man sales force and public relations representative. He personally delivers orders to restaurants and produce markets, and he sells Bonnie Blue cheeses seasonally
at farmers markets in Franklin and Memphis.
While they don’t have much free time, the Tanners gladly welcome visitors with advance notice. They’ve even built an apartment for themselves above the dairy and barn so they can offer their cozy log cabin for rent. Some visitors soak up the serenity on their own while others volunteer to work as farmhands and help with the goats – getting a temporary taste of the kind of life the Tanners have embraced.
Story by Michael Nolan
