Q&A with Ag-Vocate and Country Music Artist,
STEPHANIE
NASH
California grown, Stephanie Nash, talks about her family moving from the Golden State of California to Tennessee to pursue a life in agriculture and what her life looks like now. Q: TO GET US STARTED, CAN YOU GIVE OUR AUDIENCE A LITTLE BIT OF BACKGROUND ON YOURSELF AND YOUR STORY? A: My family and I are originally from Central California and I was born and raised in the valley my whole life. We had a dairy farm in Selma, California and my dad was on pretty much every farm and dairy board you can imagine. In 2010, we started to look for an exit strategy for getting out of California. We talked about selling the cows and doing almonds or walnuts, but I was not very interested in the crop side, I really wanted to stay on the livestock side of things. We started looking at places in Texas, but they started having problems with drought so we didn’t think it would be a good idea to go from a state that already has problems with water to another one. In 2013, we found an old walking horse farm in Shelbyville, Tennessee, which is the walking horse capital of the world and we’ve been milking there for about nine years now. In 2019 we started to build the creamery and by 2020 we opened the creamery to the public. We make and sell our own ice cream, grilled cheeses,
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and then add our own cheese from our cheese plant in 2021. We also created an agritourism spot for people to come out from the city and learn about agriculture and have access to locally grown products. Q: YOU’VE BEEN IN AGRICULTURE YOUR WHOLE LIFE, BUT HOW DOES MUSIC PLAY A ROLE IN THAT? A: I always knew that I wanted to have a career in agriculture as it’s something I’ve always been connected to. I found, when you’re in agriculture, a lot of people listen to country music and a lot of artists I listened to growing up like, Dolly Parton, Reba, Ronnie Dunn, and George Strait grew up on cattle ranches or had cattle at some point in their life. So I really connected with 90’s music because of the stories and lifestyle portrayed in the songs. My goal for my own music was to capture that lifestyle of growing up on a farm, write my own music, and share it with the world. Q: DID GROWING UP IN AGRICULTURE HELP SHAPE YOUR CAREER IN MUSIC? A: Growing up in agriculture makes you a hard worker and that has definitely carried over into my music career. I’ve always been a fighter for what I believe in and so when I have conversations with publishers or recording producers, I really want to know if they are going to try to change me down the road or encourage my artistic values and what I believe in. Q: WHAT DID THE BEGINNING OF YOUR JOURNEY IN AGRICULTURE ADVOCACY LOOK LIKE? A: I went to Fresno State and had some amazing professors that