Community Highlights: Meet Alyson Terrel of Morning Glory Orchard

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyson Terrel.

Hi Alyson, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I didn’t choose to be a farmHER, farming chose me. Unlike most farmers, I wasn’t raised on the land. My parents bought the orchard at auction in 2002. It was supposed to be their retirement plan. I was already climbing the corporate ladder and living my own life. I wanted nothing to do with their new profession. In the fall of 2016, I was the Vice President of Operations and Software Development for a medical company in Brentwood.

The company got bought out and I just didn’t fit in with the culture and leadership of the new owners. I had been in Washington, DC at a corporate meeting, and I was miserable. I got off the plane in Nashville and drove immediately to the Orchard to get some advice from my dad. My dad was larger than life, literally. He was 6’8″ tall and over 350 lbs. He had been recruited by Bear Bryant to play football at The University of Alabama. He was calm, steady, logical, and the smartest man I’ve ever known. He never ran away from a problem. I told him everything that had happened at the conference and my rock steady father advised me to quit.

I was recently engaged, so I discussed the situation with my fiancé too. He also suggested I quit. They were in agreement that I could finish planning the wedding, we could enjoy the holidays together, and then at the first of the year, I could look for a new job. That’s exactly what I did. My last day in the office was October 25th, 2016. My birthday was the 26th. On October 27th, we were at the hospital begging someone, anyone, to look at my dad who had become so sick he couldn’t walk. On November 11th, the day before I got married, we got the call that my hero, my father, had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Bile Duct Carcinoma.

He was taken from us 4 months later. My world was shattered. My daddy was gone. All of a sudden, I found myself sitting on the tailgate of his old farm truck, staring out at the piece of property he had worked for 14 years, and it finally struck me just how peaceful this farm was. I asked my mom if she wanted to keep the business running and she said that she did. So instead of looking for a new job, the new job found me. I know why daddy loved this farm so much.

I know why he never wanted to leave. And while sometimes I miss the clean, polished, put-together corporate girl I once was, I wouldn’t trade this dirty, sweaty, beautiful life of mine for one second.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
From the beginning, the road has been hard. While this has become a family business, it started as my dad’s dream to have a little piece of property with a business he could run. He wanted his children to be a part of it, but we had our own aspirations. They bought the orchard in 2002 and I would visit my parents but never went further than their house. I never enjoyed the beauty that was here. Honestly, I couldn’t have told you much more than they had apple and peach trees.

Daddy was the smartest man I knew, and every bit of that business was in his head, not written down. When he died in 2017, I literally hacked his computer to find ANYTHING that could help me. I knew nothing about farming. I always say, my dad was the brains of the business, and my mom was the heart of it, so while she wanted to help, she just didn’t have the information that I needed.

I talked to anyone who would listen, I emailed daddy’s contacts, I immersed myself into educational materials that could help me figure out what in the heck I was doing. When do I plant? When do I harvest? How do I know when the fruit is ready? How do I protect them from the bugs? What is this weird stain on the leaf? Do I collect sales tax? Where do I pay property taxes?

What equipment do we own? Oh, we do field trips too? Ok, sure, I can welcome 10,000 students to the farm in 4 weeks. Are we insured against that? I literally knew nothing. By God’s grace and mercy, we survived that first year and I realized I had something special. I could take this little hobby farm and I could turn it into something fabulous.

My corporate years had trained me and given me the skills I needed to run this operation. In 2019, I had just finished my 3rd season and I was finally starting to feel like I had a grasp on this farming thing. We had made a little bit of money that year and I started to build a commercial kitchen so we could expand our business. That’s when COVID hit.

We were about halfway done with the kitchen; the trees were just about to blossom (the most important part of the growing season,) and they told us to go home… two weeks to flatten the curve. But I’m a farmer, the trees don’t care one bit about this virus. They are going to produce fruit whether I have customers here to buy or not. It was a very scary time. We couldn’t get supplies. Were people going to come out in June? Should we close our doors? No matter what we do, half of the community is going to say we made the wrong decision. It sucked. There were so many tears that year.

Thankfully, we made it through. People started seeking out farms and small businesses. Thanks to some heavy prayer, we came out of that year better than we had started, 2021 brought with it supply chain challenges, inflation, high gas prices, labor shortages, and more but we made it through that too. If you decide to go into business for yourself, just expect problems. That’s my best piece of advice.

As you know, we’re big fans of Morning Glory Orchard. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Morning Glory Orchard is located at 7690 Nolensville Road, just 4 miles south of Historic Nolensville. We are a 10-acre, second-generation, woman-owned orchard. We now have 100+ peach trees that we harvest from mid-June through August and 650+ apple trees that are harvested from August through October. We have 13 varieties of apples on site! (There are over 6,000 apple varieties in the world so don’t be afraid to try something new!).

In addition to our locally grown produce, we are also a Farm Winery and we produce the state’s very first 100% Tennessee-made hard cider. (100% of the apples are grown, pressed, and fermented in Tennessee. No other producer can say that!).

At our retail farm store, you will find local raw honey (we have hives on site), fresh-pressed apple cider (in season), Peach, Blackberry, Black Cherry, and Muscadine cider, homemade jams and preserves, gift items, cider slushies, baked goods, dried apples and more. I’m most proud of the fact that everything we do, we do with intentionality.

We are a minimally sprayed orchard and while not certified organic, the majority of what we spray is OMRI certified. We handmake all of our baked goods without preservatives and with ingredients, you can pronounce. We specialize in local or regional so you will see very little that comes from overseas. Even our checkout bags are made right here in the USA. We are health conscience so we look to bring you quality products that you can feel good about feeding to your family.

My favorite thing that we do at the orchard is our upscale picnics. We host these on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, in the spring, summer, and fall by reservation only. We provide everything you need for a magical evening out, including an artisanal charcuterie box, seasonal cider slushies, herb-infused water, samples from our store, organic bug spray, and more.

We limit these picnics to 12 parties at a time, so you’ll never feel cramped. Visit our website for all of the details: www.MorningGloryOrchard.com.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Small businesses need your support now, more than ever.  I’m ok if you don’t shop with us but shop locally with someone! Comment or like and share their social media posts. Small businesses are closing at an alarming rate, especially since COVID.

Foreign investors are buying up our farmland at a rate of millions of acres a year and they are the farmers that give the rest of us a bad name (remember those pictures you’ve seen of chemicals being sprayed while wearing a hazmat suit?? Small farms don’t do that!).

Know your farmers, know your food!

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.MorningGloryOrchard.com
• Instagram: @MorningGloryOrchard
• Facebook: facebook.com/MorningGloryOrchard
• Other: tiktok.com/@MorningGloryOrchard

Image Credits
Evie Lynn Photography