Creamery Success in Chapel Hill
Story and photos by Alaina Boyd; University of Tennessee Extension Assistant
A Family Affair Spanning Decades
Nash Family Creamery has been a fixture in the community of Chapel Hill, Tennessee, since Cody Nash and his family relocated to the area in 2014.
Nash Family Creamery maintains a working dairy operation in Bedford County, situated along Highway 41 in Chapel Hill, TN. Nash Family Creamery offers a variety of on-farm activities, including farm tours and an on-farm café where customers can enjoy hand-dipped ice cream. The café serves made-to-order food prepared by staff and boasts a variety of value-added products available for sale from other farms in the community. Since the opening of the creamery and retail space in 2020, Nash Family Creamery has developed more than 100 different flavors.
“We feel like we’ve got the product down pretty good, although we’re always tweaking it and adding new flavors, but creating more and more of a reason for people to drive what could be 30 minutes to an hour out of their way to visit us.” – Cody Nash
While Nash Family Creamery is a beloved community staple in Chapel Hill these days, the family’s farm story began many years (and miles) away from the Volunteer State. Wallace & Ida Nash started their dairy herd in 1929 in central California, milking cows to earn a living during the hard years of the Depression era. Like many farm families during the Great Depression, perseverance has always been a part of their farm story.
The Nash family remained on the farm in California for more than eight decades, seeing it grow to a 1,200-cow operation. However, the pressure of water scarcity and dismal prices in 2014 forced the farm, its employees, and its equipment to relocate – literally across the country! The farm in Chapel Hill was purchased, where the Nash family still resides more than a decade later.
Above: A front view of the Nash Family Creamery retail space on the farm in Chapel Hill.
Investing in Success: SDBII Grant Awards and Programming
The Nash family has made significant investments in their business since arriving to Tennessee – both financially and via professional development.
Cody Nash and his wife, Kara, have been avid participants in various Southeast Dairy Business Innovation Initiative (SDBII) educational programming since the start of the grant in 2019. Cody and Kara are two-time recipients of the SDBII North American Farmers Direct Marketing Association (NAFDMA) Professional Development Scholarship. The Professional Development Scholarship allows the couple to attend the annual NAFDMA Convention & Expo in order to learn from agritourism and value-added operators from across North America. The pair most recently attended the 2024 NAFDMA Convention & Expo held in Boston, Massachusetts.
In addition to attending SDBII programming, the Nash family has also played a role in helping to host additional educational programming facilitated by the University of Tennessee Center for Profitable Agriculture on behalf of SDBII. In October 2023, a “Developing Your Value-Added Marketing Strategy” workshop session was held on site at Nash Family Creamery. As part of the program, attendees heard directly from Cody Nash as he shared about their operation’s growth and challenges related to marketing value-added products. Additional educational content was provided by Sarah Cornelisse of Penn State University Extension.
Above: Workshop participants inside the retail space at Nash Family Creamery in discussion about marketing value-added products in October 2023.
Through the utilization of Southeast Dairy Business Innovation Initiative (SDBII) grant funding, the Nash family has also expanded and diversified their value-added operation year after year. The Nash family received SDBII grant awards in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Funds were used for various operational improvements, including custom printing of new containers to begin selling ice cream to wholesale and retail markets in 2021.
When asked about how the ability to process their own products has impacted the family business, Cody had this to say:
“It’s been really great adding that extra revenue stream [the creamery] and to have that extra interaction with the public to where we’re not just a dairy that’s off the road, that’s making raw milk that people are kind of disconnected from. We’ve been able to tie everything from growing feed to making ice cream back to the customer.”
With the awarding of the 2022 SDBII Specialty Processing & Equipment Grant, Nash Family Creamery made various improvements to their chiller capacity, walk-in cooler space for the retail store, and even purchased an ice cream hardening and storage freezer.
Above: Ice cream inside the chiller at Nash Family Creamery.
In 2023, the Nash family was awarded funds from the SDBII Precision Technology and Management Grant. This allowed the Nash operation to acquire Genex wearable technology for their dairy herd, further improving animal health and reducing energy costs.
Above: A member of the Nash family’s herd showing off her Genex wearable technology.
The Nash operation was also awarded funds from the 2023 SDBII Specialty Processing and Equipment Grant. Funds allocated from this grant will be used to purchase a batch freezer, enabling the creamery to balance additional retail locations and allow for further product development. These grant funds will also allow the Nash operation to acquire a new walk-in freezer to improve energy efficiency.
Focusing on the Future
Cody shares that the family has placed a focus on making the operation more efficient by leaning into automated practices thanks to help from SDBII funding.
“We’ve certainly been expanding kind of vertical integration in terms of raising more of our own heifers on the farm, growing more of our own feed, and having those types of automated tools like what we got through the grant that helps the manpower that you have go further.” – Cody Nash
Cody goes on to share that the ability to track animal health and other logistics from the operation through the use of technology that they received from the grant allows the operation to expand and care for a larger herd size more easily.
When asked about the future of the Nash family’s operation, Cody shares hope to expand and deepen the customer experience they have already cultivated. He hopes to “give them [customers] more and more of a reason to visit…”.
Learn more about Nash Family Creamery by visiting them online at https://nashfamilycreamery.com/ or by following them on Facebook and Instagram.