HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The Village of Providence is a vibrant community, full of many shops and restaurants for the community to enjoy, but on Saturdays, it becomes a place where Danielle Caudle, owner of Fleur de Lis Farm in Taft, TN brings authentic farming goods to the community. "We bought our first farm after my husband came back from his first deployment, and it just really kind of fell into our lifestyle we love farming," Caudle shared. "We went from serving our country in the military to being able to serve our country by providing food. So, it's really just fit into our family and our kids absolutely love both the animals and the growing."
Caudle, along with her family runs Fleur de Lis Farm and produce a wide range of goods. "Here at the farm, we have three selling points; we do plants from our little nursery, then we have produce from our gardens, and then we turn anything we don't sell into value added products like jellies, pepper jellies. we have hot sauces."
Fleur de Lis is a family farm, and she enjoys watching how her children have taken true interest in everything that goes along with farming. "Our toddler even plants in the garden, none of our rows are straight, but it just really follows into our family life," Caudle said. "My kids do our farm tours and the fact that they can tell other people exactly what we do on this farm and how it's done, and other children hear from a child or a teenager that can relate to what they know is insanely beneficial.
Caudle enjoys the education aspect of farming, which is why on Sunday's she opens her farm to educate the community. " So, every Sunday we open the farm from 3 to 5 and this is like a really important aspect for me is education," Caudle said. " I mean, the fact that we have children come here and spend hours and beg not to leave, I know that we're doing what we're supposed to do."
Inflation hasn’t made buying or selling food easier for many, luckily, she has a community of support. "So definitely our costs have increased, fertilizer, soil, compost, even our bags went up," Caudle said. "I mean, there's not one thing that we purchased this year that has it almost doubled in cost. We have managed to since we grow a lot from seed and we save our seeds, we have really been able to keep our prices what they were last year. Last year we did go up a little bit on our jellies and stuff just because the jars had gotten so expensive but really, we have been able to maintain, and our other farmers have been able to do the same."
The Providence Farmers Market began their season on April 1 and Caudle is focused on bringing the true farmers market experience to the community. "We have lots of artisans but I am really changing that focus this year to being a true farmer's market with farmers," Caudle said. "Every Friday we harvest everything. It's processed, cleaned and bagged. The market is 9 to 2 every Saturday. we have a variety of vendors. We have anything you can think of as far as artisan jewelry, but everything at the market is handmade here in the middle, Tennessee or in Alabama.
Market Season is from April 1- Nov. 11 and runs from 9:00A- 2:00P Every Saturday. For more information on visiting the Fleur de Lis Farm, check out their Facebook.