More Than A Mile: Ep. 7 - Aliceson and Barry Bales (Bales Farms)

Bales Farms is a special place for local food in Tennessee that boasts owner/operators including a cookbook author, a 15-time Grammy winner, and the most caring CEO (Chief of Egg Operations) you've ever heard of. Enjoy this episode of More Than a Mile as host Nick Carter talks with Aliceson and Barry Bales.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

My guests today are Barry and Aliceson Bales. And I am really excited to talk about farming and food. And also to fanboy out a little bit because I understand that I'm in the presence of a celebrity. Barry sounds like you've got a little bit of a background in Nashville and then Aliceson you've released a cookbook with quite a forward, right?

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Guilty on all counts. Yeah.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Let's start with you Aliceson. So Dolly Parton is hosting the 57th Academy of Country Music Awards this coming March in Vegas, but she also did something pretty cool with your cookbook. Is that right?

Aliceson Bales (Bales Farms):

She did. She's so lovely and kind. And so when we were writing this cookbook this past year we were wondering who we could get to write some blurbs for us. And so Barry has over the years recorded with Dolly and he said, let's give it a whirl and see if she would write something. So we sent something to her, he sent something to her and she so graciously said yes, but she wanted to see the book. So we printed off a copy, a real rough draft and sent it to her. And...

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Well, we didn't have the book together. Right. Of course. So we were like, okay. So had to run up to the printer with a PDF on a zip drive and was like can you print this off real quick?

Aliceson Bales (Bales Farms):

Right. So she looked through it all and wrote us this sweet letter and then said you can use whatever you want, however you want. But we don't edit Dolly. And so every syllable, comma, and period. So yeah, she was so kind and so generous and she is the busiest person that anyone knows. We say, no matter what you've done today, she has done more. And you know, she just came out with a novel and then she wrote an album to go with the novel and she's hosting the ACMs next month. And she is, I don't know if you've heard about Dollywood, but it just came out, was it yesterday, that on day one, if you are an employee of Dollywood, whether you're full-time, part-time, or just seasonal, you get college tuition paid 100%. Isn't that unbelievable? She is amazing.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

She is. She is. I remember learning about -- some of the book programs that she's done in Sevier County [Tennessee] and the graduation rates that she's driven there. It's just phenomenal what she does.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Yeah. The Imagination Library. She yeah. She sends how...

Aliceson Bales (Bales Farms):

It's every month. So your child gets a book every month from birth through kindergarten. It's amazing.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

And that's statewide in Tennessee and they've just recently expanded to Kentucky.

Aliceson Bales (Bales Farms):

Yeah. Unbelieveable, every month. And they're really good books. I mean, it's like, classics, you know, it's The Little Engine That Could, and then at Dollywood in the summer you can go have the Ping One Playhouse and she's written plays to go with each book and she's written the songs and she is on the screen, performing the songs with the little ping one players that are out there. It's so sweet. She's amazing. Amazing.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Yeah. Now you must have a pretty amazing cookbook because she read it, liked it, wrote the forward for it. So what's the inspiration that you came up with Aliceson for this cookbook, where does it come from? Are they family recipes? Are they things you've created, a mix of both?

Aliceson Bales (Bales Farms):

A mix of both probably. I wanted this cookbook to inspire other people to cook for the people that they love. I am a really strong believer that food brings us together. And like you say, in your intro, it's more than just something that we eat. I mean, it is the fabric that can bring people together. And I just feel like over the past few years we've gotten kind of disjointed and, and we're so isolated and separated from other people. And I want to remind people and encourage them and inspire them that you can make great food for the people that you love. And you can sit around a table and you can enjoy people of all walks of life. It doesn't just have to be the people that are nearest to you, either in ideology or, or what or location, but you can bring people to you and, and open your world and open your heart to people.

Aliceson Bales (Bales Farms):

And I think it makes a huge difference when you are feeding people, something that you've made and you've put your heart into, and it doesn't take a lot of time. Lots of effort. It doesn't have to, but that's so much more meaningful than going through a drive-through or swinging through to pick up pizza. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you can also incorporate homemade, wholesome, whole ingredients that have been raised, you know, for the meat that's been raised with care and respect and, and love, and it's not hard to do. And so that's what I wanted to inspire people to do and just remind them of that.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

So that's really cool. You, so it's family-style cookbooks. It's things that you, your desire is that these recipes are used to bring people around a table. I do. I think you're exactly right. I think it's, it's really fascinating how every culture throughout history and across the world right now, you can identify by their food. You know, we, we can build restaurants around, we can go to Indian food, but my wife and I travel to India a couple of years of go. And we, the, one of the one things that our hosts there wanted to show us was their food. And it was all about the dishes and, and the recipes that they had. And what are Americans known for? Fast food, right? And we invented that you can sit by yourself in a car or you can eat it on the way to soccer practice. And, and we lost something there. We lost something, our family, we nearly every evening, if there's not something really special going on, we, the five of us sit down and around a table with our three kids and we eat dinner together. And I just love it. I cherish that time.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Absolutely.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Well, thank you. I can't wait to get my hands on it and to read every word and syllable from Dolly in the front, and then to use some of the recipes. Barry, you've got a career as a musician, as well as a farmer. What, what percent gimme a percentage are, are you half musician, half farmer? Do they blend together? Can you not identify the two? How much, how would you say it?

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Well, I would say right now, I'd say in the last couple of years, because of the situation we're in with COVID and whatnot 95 plus percent farmer.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Yeah. Did you tour, or are you a studio musician or both?

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Both. And that's really the only music I've been doing the last little bit is recording. Particularly. I've got a set up here at home and people send me stuff by email and record on it, send it back. You know, it's kind of been, the music has been decreasing and the farming has been increasing. The farming kind of has been sort of a long-term exit strategy from touring, or at least from, you know, to get to the point where I don't have to, I can pick, be more choosy on, on what I do. You know, I mean, I've been, I've been a professional musician for 31 years, so, and I still love it. I love the people that I get to work with I love the music. But, you know, after that long—hotels and airports and suitcases kind of get a little old, I thought, well, you know, this would be cool to—besides the thing, which we might get into about our son—but I just thought, well, you know, it'd be great to have something like this, that I can sort of transition off the road. And...

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

The white line's getting longer and the saddle's getting cold. Is that what they say? I said, the white line's getting longer and the saddle's getting cold.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Yeah. Something like that. Yeah, absolutely.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

So, yeah, it's mostly, mostly farming these days.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Good. So tell me a little history of, it's Bales Farms, right, in East Tennessee. And it's a century farm. Can you tell us some of our listeners what that means and gimme a little bit of a history.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Okay. Yes. In the state of Tennessee, there's a program called the Tennessee Century Farm Program. And it's just a kind of a little historical recognition and compilation of information of all the farms that have been in continuous agricultural production for at least a hundred years in the same family. And this, this family's been in, or this farm has been in my family since 1882. And our son Marshall is the sixth generation here. So I kind of, sort of grew up here. My mom was born and raised here when she got to be grown and got out of high school, she moved up to Kingsport and took a job and stayed up there. That's where I was born, but I spent every spare second I had down here with my grandparents, you know, they were my heroes and they would come and pick me up at school the day it let out for summer. And they'd take me back the day before it started back in the fall. So I feel like I grew up here as, at least as much, if not more than I did, you know, where I was actually born in Kingsport, which is only about an hour away.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Well, my family farm comes from originally, not too far from you. My great-grandfather, he moved to the flatlands of north central Indiana to start the farm where I would've been the fourth-generation farmer. He moved there from the Blue Ridge Mountains just south of you. And he always joked that he moved up here because he was tired of his cattle falling outta the pasture. So, and I think it's funny. So you're, you're raising beef and pork, right. Out on pasture, a hundred percent grass.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Yep. Completely grass-fed, grass-finished, beef, pastured pork. We do pastured poultry and our son Marshall, who's 14, he's the head of the egg operation. He's got he's down, down right now. But last summer, I think at the height, he had about 400 layers on pasture.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

And he's how old?

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

14.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

14 years old, he's got 400 layers and he's pasturing them. So for some of our listeners who don't know how that works, you've got a chicken tractor essentially, right. It's on wheels or mobile. And so he drags that thing around what, every two or three days he's gonna move it to a new spot. Right?

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Every day.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Every day he moves it to a new spot. Well, then I was a lazy chicken tractor driver.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

He's, he's got an egg mobile you know, on we built it on a car haul or trailer. And so he just moves it. He'll set up a big paddock, you know, with poultry netting, but he moves the tractor itself one length every day within that paddock, just because, you know, there's so much manure, it falls that it just creates a hot spot real quick. But, but yeah, he, he gathers the eggs, washes, em, packs 'em, you know, the whole deal.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Where does he sell them?

Aliceson Bales (Bales Farms):

We do is drive. Is we deliver them? Yeah. For him.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Fourteen's not too young to drive [laughing].

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Just not on the road. Yeah. Yet.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

That, that you'll, that you'll record audio and, and have published right. There we go. Yeah. I think I was 12 the first time I was hauling wagons from one field to another, from my dad's grain operation. So does he sell his eggs on Market Wagon or anywhere else? Does he have a farm stand or does he set up at any farmer's markets?

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

We do. No, we don't do farmer's markets. We do we've got twice a month pick up locations around the area and then and then on Market Wagon, and then people can come to the farm and, and pick up if they'd like, we've got a, a store on our website.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

That's fantastic. Now we've already touched on little pieces of it. And I wanna make sure that some of our listeners who don't necessarily know the makeup, chicken manure and chicken tractor and why you would move 'em around every day. I want you to tell me a little bit in your own words about like, what, what sustainability means for you on your farm, how you're stewarding the land, how you're taking care of the soils and just walk us through some of that, because you've at beef pork and chickens.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Yeah, absolutely. And, and this is, it's kind, it's been a, has been a, a big learning curve learning experience and, and of course ongoing, but, you know, when I was growing up, we had beef cattle here and they just had run of the farm, you know, it's, it's, they just went wherever they want, as most people do, and didn't think anything about it. And the more I've gotten into it and the more I've of course gone to different conferences and listened to, of course, now we have the internet and YouTube and all that kind of stuff. We can hopefully learn things quicker. You know, I'm like a lot of people, I'm a huge disciple of Joel Salatin, Gabe Brown, Ray Archuleta, all those guys. And through that have learned a lot more about sustainable agriculture, regenerative agriculture. So just kind of in a nutshell, what that entails, at least as it relates to our farm is we rotate our cattle. Rotational grazing is the term. And we'll set up a temporary paddock with a temporary electric fence and try to just give the animals, you know, there's various formulas for figuring out how much grass they need and whatnot, but basically, we try to give 'em enough grass for one day. So in that area, they're in, and then the next day we come along and we move 'em to the next paddock, and we continue that all the way around the farm. And hopefully, they don't come back to that first paddock that they grazed on for at least 30, 45 days or more to give it a chance to regrow. And the reason that we do that is I was using this as an analogy, the other day—you know, if you tell your 10-year-old, Hey, go in the kitchen and fix yourself some supper, well, they're gonna go straight to the freezer and get out the ice cream.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

And, you know, that's kind of what cattle do, you know, they'll go straight to the really good stuff like the clovers and the orchard grass and Timothy. And they just keep—if you don't rotate them, they just keep going back to it and hitting it as it regrows and eventually kill it out. And the less desirable stuff comes along. So that all that helps your pasture. It helps your grass for that reason. And also you are more intensively distributing the manure, which is fertilizer, and you get a much more even spreading of that. We've not—golly it's been 10 or 15 years since I've bought chemical fertilizer. And you know, the hoof action too, you know, you've got your, your seed bank with the seeds in there that last for, you know, years and years and years and years. And as that is disturbed by the hooves you know, you get more regrowth of that. And then we follow along with the chickens behind that. And you get more manure from that, the chickens scratch in the cow manure, and that you know, that helps cut down on your fly problem. You know, they get in there and eat the eggs that the flies lay. We also rotate, rotate our pigs, you know, they're in the woods right now this time of year, but we also rotate them through the pasture and, you know, pigs, as you know, but some listeners may not, pigs will graze grass, just like cows will.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Yep.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

You know, you don't have to have pigs in a small little pig sty as it were, you know, pigs are not inherently nasty. They just, unfortunately, get kept in bad spots, a lot of times.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

They also tend to really like what's under the grass more so than what's on top of it sometimes. So do you let, 'em turn over a pasture every now and then, and really work it down and destroy it and reset it?

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

I don't let, 'em go too intensively. I could probably stand to let 'em do more, but I just—I tend to move the pigs through pretty fast.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

We had a paddock at dad's farm. We raised very similar pasture-raised beef in north central Indiana. And he hadn't had hogs for about 20 years. The hog market crashed in 97. That's when we got outta hogs. About four years ago, he got back into it, but pasture-raised and there was a paddock that was pretty much useless to the cattle by that point—it had been overtaken by calamus, which is a very invasive species that just keeps spreading through its roots. And so he just put the hogs on there for a solid summer, and they just destroyed the whole root system. I mean, the place looked like a mud pit, but then the next year, what came back from that seed bank was actual grass and clover and what cattle would actually eat. So it was kind of a reset button for that pasture. Yeah.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Yeah. And that's the thing is, is using, you know, that's the whole idea. I think, the two main ideas behind regenerative ag are you're focusing on growing better grass through taking care of your soil—soil health—and using the animals as tools to that end.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

I think one of the quotes I've remembered from Joel Salatin is, "On our farm, the animals do the hard work." Yeah. Turning stuff over, doing the plowing. What's the future of Bales Farms. Talk to me. Where, where do you see this going? You've been you're the sixth generation to farm on it. What's that mean to you? And, and how important is it to think about what comes next?

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

That's, you know, if, if you gotta take it with a grain of salt, because for me, especially, you know, something like that, you can kinda let it get in your head and be like, wow, that's some serious pressure. But, you know, with Marshall, I'm trying to, that's kind of how we got back into this. You know, I was touring so much that I didn't have time to farm. Didn't have time to keep animals. And once he was born, I thought, you know, I'd really love for him to have at least a little taste of what I had growing up to learn where his food comes from, have chores to do, that kind of thing. And it just kind of snowballed from there. So, you know, he, he may or may not take up the reins and, you know, come back here and farm for a living. But if he's got, you know, he will definitely have the tools he needs and the life experiences to be a success, whatever he does. And, you know, if that happens as a result of what we're doing now and where he's living and the responsibilities he has, then you know, this farm will have been a success. And I would like to think, you know, if nothing else, it'll always be here to come back and bring the grandkids and fish and, you know, whatever else. But for me personally, from a, from a next step farming thing, we just want to continue to grow and, and try to do it better. And, and we're constantly thinking how to grow the business, how to grow the brand, how to leave this place better than we found it. You know, that's a, that's a big thing I'm, I'm always researching and trying to figure out, okay, well, how's a better way to do this. What am I doing wrong? You know, we're really getting into cover crops now. And, and just a lot, you know, lots of different things. I, I definitely want it to keep going and to grow, but in a lot of ways, if it doesn't do anything more than what it's done now, it's, it's still a success to me.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Yeah. I would agree. I think it's a raging success. I think the experience you're creating for Marshall is you can't get that anywhere else other than a farm.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

I told him the other day there's some friends of mine that we all grew up together and we were on a daily text thread together. And a couple of 'em are engineers. One of 'em is a chiropractor. And something was said, one of 'em was complaining today about some of the potential employees that they had coming in, you know, and I told this to them, but I also told it to Marshall. If I was in any kind of a position, non-agriculture, to hire somebody and a resume came across my desk from somebody that grew up on a farm, I think I'd probably hire 'em sight unseen. You know. Because they're probably already so far ahead.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Yeah. They've been driving for 20 years already, so well [laughing]. We're sitting here talking about your farm and helping to share your story and your passion. And I appreciate you, you letting us know about it. What is it—how important is it to you to be able to connect directly with the people that are eating the eggs off of your farm and the beef off of your farm. And to know that you're feeding your community?

Aliceson Bales (Bales Farms):

That's really important to us. You know, when you, when you think about it, we can't, we can't beat Walmart with price or with convenience. But it is very important. I tell people this a lot, I'm very passionate about knowing where your food comes from, whether you get your food from us or from somebody else, whether you are, you know, a customer of Market Wagon—you all make it so easy for people. You know, they just open their door on Thursday and there, it says it's so, or in Knoxville anyway, but you know, once a week you open the door and everything that you ordered is there. And so whether or not you, wherever you get your food, wherever you get it, you need to know where that food has come from. You need to know if you're if you're eating beef, or chicken, or pork, you need to know the life that the animal lived, that it is important. You need to know if you're eating a carrot, you need to know the soil that it was raised in. And I, I'm not saying you need to be organic, or you need to be, you know, one label or another because labels can be very confusing, but you need to know how the animal was raised, how the plant was raised because it's important. And, you know, I heard you talking with I think it was Nate [Parks], a few podcasts ago about—that it takes time and it takes money to invest in doing it the right way. And so sometimes, yeah, it's a little bit more expensive at the front end, but it's so much better for you that you're saving money throughout the process. And that's important. And you don't get that if you go to Walmart and buy your eggs, you know, but if, but Marshall's customers who buy his eggs, you know, they can see him. And they can see him on social media and he loves his chickens. And sometimes, especially when we used to go and help him a little bit, some people would get a little side-ways...

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

I'd be trying to get him, you know, I'd be out there humping it and trying to get the paddock set up and all this. And I'm like, where is Marshall? What is he doing? And I'd look over and he'd be, have a chicken up hugging and kissing, all that stuff. [Laughter]

Aliceson Bales (Bales Farms):

But, you know, that's, that's important. And you, it should be that way. It should be that way that the farmer is taking steps to ensure that that animal is raised the way that God intended that animal to be raised. And that we're just really passionate about it. It's very important to us.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Well, as you alluded to with the fast-food comment early on, you know, it's gotten somehow or another, it's gotten so backward. I mean, there's very few things, more important to life than food, but we've gotten to where it's become just a disposable for lack of a better term. You know, nobody thinks anything about it. You know, you go through and I, you know, I get it from a financial standpoint, but that's a whole nother conversation about how it got to be that way. But, you know, I know a lot of people are like, well, why wouldn't I just go through the drive-through and get a value meal for $3?

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

But there's so many, it's just, it's so frustrating for me because we do put such care and such love in raising our animals and taking care of this farm. And it's very personal to us, you know? So we, it is very important for us to, to deal with the customers one on one and let them see. And that's, you know, you know, this, this part of the business, it's all about relationships. You know, when we kind of started getting back into it more and more, I got hung up there for a while on, okay, well, people want this adjective and this descriptor and this, and, you know, they don't really care. At least our customers don't, they know us, we've, we've been at it long enough and have developed relationships so that they know us. They know how we do things and that's all they need to know. So that's gigantically important to us.

Aliceson Bales (Bales Farms):

And they know us and they have had a relationship with us, which was the original question, sorry. But this relationship that we have built within, they know that we are transparent and authentic and trustworthy. And so when you have that relationship with people and they know, you know, they've been here, they've been on this farm. And so they've seen, oh, they've seen Marshall move that chicken tractor, or they've seen us feed the pigs. They've gotten in with us while we feed the pigs and the pigs eat from our hand and eat from their hands, or, you know, they've gone with us when we move the steers. So when you have that kind of a relationship with people, they know that they can trust you and they value that, and we value them. And so it's all about a relationship.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Wow. I couldn't have said it better. I think that your customers, you're doing your community, a service and your customers appreciate it, and they see what you're doing for 'em. How can aside from finding you on MarketWagon.com and following you there and learning about your farm and buying your products, how else can our listeners learn a little bit more about you? Follow you, find you on social media or online?

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

We have a website, BalesFarmsTN.com.

Aliceson Bales (Bales Farms):

And we're on Instagram.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

We're on Instagram @BalesFarms. We're on Facebook—Bales Farms TN, and we're on YouTube. We've got a lot of recipe videos on YouTube and different things, fun things around the farm.

Aliceson Bales (Bales Farms):

Yeah. Barry just did smash burgers for the Super Bowl.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

On your YouTube or Instagram channel. Could we hear any of Barry plucking at an upright bass by chance?

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

I've got some, yeah. I mean, I do some of the background music for our little videos. Yeah.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

I thought you might. Cool. Well, it's been a pleasure being able to talk with you and connect face-to-face here and on this recording and people want to hear your story about Bales Farms and thank you so much for the care that you put into the land that you've been given to steward from six generations back. I think that's just amazing.

Barry Bales (Bales Farms):

Thanks. Thanks for having us. This has been a lot. It's been a pleasure.

Nick Carter (Market Wagon):

Yeah, it's been my pleasure. All right. Well, my guests today have been Barry and Aliceson with Bales Farms and you can learn about Bales Farms on MarketWagon.com—get those eggs and you'll keep a 14-year-old employed and happy and hens happy.