Bryants carry on a family tradition
Story by Paul South
Contributed photos
For Vaughan and Christa Bryant of Red Hill Farms, Spring is the season of miracles.
Bare branches blossom. Winter-browned grass goes green. The weather warms and the sun shines and new life bursts into being.
Sometimes, calves new to the world, graze and romp near the Bryants’ driveway.
“Vaughan laughs at me. But sometimes, I love to stop, roll my windows down and just talk to the calves,” Christa Bryant says.
That’s life on a family farm, with time kept by the Creator’s clock – seasonal and steady.
Those sorts of miracles mean Red Hill Farms customers can buy grass-fed beef and free-range pork. The Vaughn family has built and kept a tasty business across three generations.
In the Red Hill story, it seems something more of the Divine has been part of life here beyond the change of seasons. Consider how James Martin Bryant, Vaughan’s grandfather found this now 150-acre spread on the eve of America’s entry into World War II. Originally, 80 acres made up the Bryant homeplace.
As the nation quietly expanded the military in the run up to the war, the Bryant farm in Ohatchee was part of the land taken by eminent domain for the construction of Fort McClellan and Pelham Range.
The James Bryant family – along with their neighbors – had to move. And Providence seemed to take a hand, thanks to a family friend, then the pastor at Mount Pisgah Baptist Church.
“They asked him if he knew of any farms in the area over here, and he did,” Vaughan Bryant says. “That was the beginning of the farm here in Cropwell.”
As for the Good Lord’s role, Vaughan adds, “I don’t have any absolute proof of that. But I think that the Lord is always leading us in the way we should go. And there was a lot of church involvement in our being here.”
For Red Hill Farms, that was the “In the beginning” moment.
James Bryant grew cotton, corn and vegetables, made sweet honey and raised cows, chickens and pigs for food and for finances, hauling his wares to sell in town.
That’s the way it continued for the Bryants until 2011. Then, the farm took a turn fitting for the 21st century.
“You know, raising cattle on our scale is kind of a very low profit ordeal, Vaughan Bryant says. “We were looking for something that would bring in a little more income, to try something new. I was to a point in my work career where I wanted to have something going on the farm that would bring in more income, so we tried raising chickens for meat for three or four years. That’s what brought us into the direct-to-consumer marketing that we’re doing now.”
A 2016 story by the United States Department of Agriculture found that 61 percent of farms engaged in direct-to consumer sales had the same owners five years later, compared to 55 percent of farms that did not market directly to consumers, suggesting that DTC farms are more stable.
Now, that direct-to-consumer approach applies to grass-fed beef and free-range pork. Vaughan and Christa are able to run the farm on their own with pork and beef being less labor intensive than the poultry business.
“We thought that we could move into our beef and maybe add pork, and she and I both could take care of that and handle the marketing of it a little easier than we could raising the chickens like we were doing.”
In part, the move was driven by customer demand.
“When we were doing the chicken, people would ask, ‘What about beef?’,” Vaughan says. “People’s comments while we were doing the chickens kind of prompted us to sell the beef and pork that way.”
There is a deep commitment to the land and to raising their livestock in a natural, humane way, thus the free-range pork and grass-fed beef.
“We try to raise our animals as near to the natural way as we can,” he explains. “Now, there’s certain elements – we have to take care of our health and the health of the animals – so we try to stay away from as much of the industrial management style as we can. But we know we have to do a certain amount of medical care from time to time – worming and certain vaccines – but we try to not go overboard in that.”
What’s the difference to the consumer between grocery store meat counter and the Bryant method of raising livestock? Grass and natural grain and sunlight and the animal’s ability to exercise make a delicious difference for hungry customers. He draws from the example of free-range Cornish Rock hens.
“You can give them the ability to eat grain and bugs and (have) sunlight and that chicken will taste completely different from the one that was raised indoors. Same with the pigs.”
Industrial farm-raised pigs live on indoor concrete slabs, with 24/7 food. Free range porkers do what they do naturally, roam and run, eat natural food and wallow in the mud.
As for the taste, a Bryant-produced pork chop is juicier and with a richer flavor, a byproduct of the free-range method and the use of heirloom breeds not used in mass production.
“Don’t cook it twice. Cook it like you would a ribeye steak,” Bryant says of the couple’s favorite Red Hill product, the pork chop. “That thing is so delicious. It’s crazy good. All of our cuts are that way.”
Christa also endorses the thick Red Hill chops as her favorite.
“Our steaks are wonderful. But you can’t get a pork chop anywhere like ours.”
Vaughan has spent pretty much his entire life on the family land, loving time in the pasture among the animals watching them come into the world and grow.
“Even from a young age, it was in my head that I would someday farm,” he says. “There’s a certain satisfaction from knowing you’re able to foster that animal along to a point where they can be someone else’s enjoyment other than mine.”
More important than raising livestock, farm life played a positive role in the rearing of the Bryant children and grandchildren, Christa Bryant says. Hard work, love and sacrifice are staples of farm life. Vacations are not.
“I do believe we were able to raise our children and grandchildren in a way that provided some character in them in a way that many children are not able to have,” she says. “Of course, they didn’t always see it that way.”
As hard as farming can be, there’s something comforting about a family that toils and produces a product and holds fast to their values in a cryptocurrency, nanosecond world.
Vaughan shares the family farming philosophy. It harkens back to 1941 and a word from an Ohatchee Baptist preacher and Divine Providence. “Raised with the Creator’s design in mind.”
“We enjoy what we do,” Christa says. “And what you would purchase here on the farm came from right here on the farm. Unlike a grocery store we can show you where they grew up.”
Editor’s Note: For more information about Red Hill Farms and a list of their products, visit redhillfarms.com, or call 205-812-9953.
