By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

BYRDSTOWN, Tenn. — The Farmhouse Restaurant features yellow and green napkin holders, toy John Deere tractors rest on a shelf over the salad bar and an antique plow is displayed in the dining room.

Steve Reagan is a third generation farmer. When his family opened the restaurant and began to develop it as an agritourism attraction, it seemed fitting to display his Grandpa’s plow there.

“We grow corn, soybeans and wheat, about 100 to 125 acres of that, and five acres of vegetables,” Reagan said. “We use all that we can through the restaurant and anything over we sell to folks.”
The restaurant is a busy place and Reagan’s wife, Retta, and daughter Graceann keep things running smoothly. Green onions and tomatoes grow along the Farmhouse entryway, where customers can’t miss seeing them.

“A lot of the kids don’t know where anything comes from and we hate to see that lost,” Reagan said. “We want to make sure they understand where their food comes from.”

“We raise a lot of sweet corn,” he said. “The salad bar – I’ve got lettuce growing for it right now; green onions, the cool weather crops are going.

“The potatoes up and doing well,” he said. “We started making our own French fries last year so we grow a couple of acres of potatoes. We like the Yukon Gold – they make a nice French fry.”

They’re also trying to grow the agritourism aspect although that’s been a slow process, Reagan said. Besides all of the farm décor inside and antique farm machinery outside, there are horses and mules that kids can pet. Guests can take wagon rides. Riding lessons and trail rides are also available.

A half-acre of strawberries growing behind the restaurant will be a U-pick plot and a strawberry festival is in the planning stage. And Reagan has fixed up his grandfather’s gristmill.

“We grind meal and show folks the old time ways,” Reagan said. “Retta makes corn bread. We grow sugar cane and make molasses – we grow the cane and haul it to the Amish community to have them cook it for us.”

One thing that motivated Reagan to develop an agritourism location is that people don’t understand farming anymore.
“It used to be I could move a combine on the road and people were patient,” he said. “The last four or five years some people get really irate if you hold them up a little bit.

“What I grow is not all that much, but it goes into the food supply and that’s what feeds everybody and they don’t understand that,” Reagan said.

So the Reagans will someday add a pumpkin patch to their location and keep looking for more critters for the petting zoo.

“We want to make this an enjoyable stop for people,” Reagan said. “They can come in and have a meal and learn a little bit about agriculture.”