OUR STORY
HOW WE CAME TO BE WILL'S EDEN FARM
Both my husband, Danny, and I (Sandy) lived in or very near large cities all our lives. I, however, had always dreamed of living on a farm. ALWAYS. As a little girl, I used to insist that God must have meant for me to grow up on a farm, but there was a mix-up in Heaven😁. My soul never stopped aching for a quieter life surrounded by nature, and when Danny proposed to me in 2000, I made him promise that one day we'd try to make that dream come true.❤️
Our son, Will, arrived in 2004. As he grew, we began to notice him struggling in ways most other kids don't have to. He was officially diagnosed with autism at three years old, and we slowly learned to release the son we'd expected to raise and joyfully embrace the son we were actually blessed with. His autism does present challenges and sometimes even heartbreaks, but it has also transformed us for the better and infused our lives with a joyful innocence that we wouldn't trade for the world.
Fast forward to 2014, when we began ordering produce from a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) run by a farm in Woodland, AL. (They delivered their products weekly to pick-up locations around metro Atlanta.) I struck up a friendship with the wife, and when she asked if we'd ever consider farmsitting I jumped on the opportunity. The couple began going away on trips lasting from 3-5 days every four months or so, and we got to take care of the farm each time. I wasn't the only one who loved it---going to the farm was something Will always looked forward to enthusiastically!
The real magic happened when our friends asked us to watch the farm for a full three weeks. Thanks to the extended stay, we were able to witness the undeniable proof of something I'd long been suspecting: The longer we stayed at their farm, the more Will's demeanor changed! He gradually grew calmer, more engaged, and even better able to communicate verbally! It was clear that our chaotic, noisy Metro Atlanta life was making Will's autism worse.
Up until that time, having our own farm was still just a far-off dream I'd casually mention from time to time (to which Danny would always reply, "Maybe one day...if we can ever afford to retire"). As much as he loved the great outdoors, Danny had been quite content to live in Metro Atlanta and only escape to the countryside ever so often. But when he witnessed the transformation Will went through during that longer farm-sitting stay, he, too, began imagining a permanent move.
In 2015, after a series of life-changing events turned our world upside down, we both became convinced that God was urging us to pull a "Reverse Beverly Hillbillies": The time had come to load up the truck and move away from the city and into hill country! (Well, foothill country, anyway😜). After a year of strategizing, planning, and boosting our home's value by making all the improvements we'd always wished we could do, we put our Tucker, GA home on the market and moved into a travel trailer on our friends' farm so we'd be out of the way while the realtor did his thing.
The plan was to purchase about ten acres of their land on which we'd build a real home, and then work as their employees for a few years with the plans of eventually buying into the business. It was a naive plan, in hindsight. But the thought of joining in on their existing, successful, endeavor was so much less scary than the thought of starting over from scratch! And by purchasing land from them, I'd be able to walk over and help out with the business and still be able to keep a close eye on Will! Picking up and moving was terrifying, and I don't think we ever would've found the courage if not for the "safety net" our friends were providing.
We sold our home several months later, in July of 2016, and it felt like things were really starting to fall into place. But just a few days later, our friends called us in for an "urgent meeting" that changed the course of our lives once again. They then informed us that everything they'd been saying up until that point was more of a fantasy than a reality. Their business wasn't nearly as profitable as they had assured us, because the numbers we were shown had been gross, not net. In truth, they didn't have the funds to pay us the combined salary we were supposed to have begun earning once the house sold and everything was official. On top of that, they were having second thoughts about selling us part of the land that had been in their family for 100 years.
As the weight of their words sunk in, Danny asked what we were supposed to do, since they waited until we had no home to return to before dropping that bombshell! They "generously" offered to allow us to continue living in the tiny camper on their land, and instead of a flat salary we'd could be loaned an acre on which to grow our own produce to sell to their customers. But since that "might" not bring in be enough to live on, we could also plant, tend, and harvest their crops for them in exchange for 10% of their proceeds---after all expenses had been deducted, of course. In other words, instead of being employees who might one day become full business partners, they were inviting us to step back in time and become sharecroppers.
Truthfully, we'd already witnessed a negative change in their behavior since moving there, and we'd frequently lain awake at night discussing our misgivings about purchasing land from them. So their decision not to sell land to us almost came as a relief. But we were utterly blindsided by the rest! It would've been one thing to back out of the deal when we still had the option of going back home. But for them to wait until we were utterly dependent on them was deeply unethical from a business perspective and shockingly awful on a personal level. The "good friends" upon whom we'd built our future dreams turned out to be anything but good people. And just like that, the safety net we'd been clinging to vanished, and our lives went into a freefall.
I know it's cliche to say "everything happens for a reason", but we're living proof that it's really true. If those people hadn't deceived us, we wouldn't have been brave enough to chase our dream. Yes, it felt like all the air was sucked out of our lungs for a while, there, but in under two months we were standing on a magical 28+ acres of land that seemed to have been designed just for us! It has the feel of mountains for me, a 2-acre pond that's both big enough for a rowboat and full of fish for Danny, distance from the noise of neighbors and traffic for Will, and trees and open spaces for all of us.
We chose the name Will's Eden because it honors the reason we came here in the first place and reflects exactly how all three of us feel about this special piece of land.
For the first 6-7 years we operated our own little version of a CSA, using this website to create an "online market" and then driving into Metro Atlanta to deliver orders directly to customers. But the profit margins were very thin, and we were hit HARD by the one-two punch of increased gas prices and inflation starting back around 2022. (The news might keep saying inflation caused "as much as" a 25% rise in the cost of living, but out here you can't find anything that only went up by that much. The vast majority of our expenses went up by 40-50%.) SO, we took a hard look at our budget and found that "gas for deliveries" was the only cost that we could feasibly cut out in order to keep our heads above water. We tried a few different farmers markets before landing on one that felt like home: Dunwoody's DHA Farmers Market, which meets in Brook Run Park every Saturday. Once we had our feet under us there, we "closed the doors" on our online market.
Even though we're approaching our 9th year here (in 2025), we're still doing a lot of learning and growing. One thing we're certain of is that anything we do should be as close to nature's way as possible; so we plant using organic, sustainable, nature-friendly practices. We've also applied those same principles to how we raise our poultry. We want the food we sell to be healthier--and come from animals that were happier--than anything you can find in a store, because what can be found in stores these days is frankly shameful!
Raising and growing food is only part of our long-term vision for Will's Eden. After years of wishing I knew the identity and historical uses of the wild plants all around us, in 2021 I officially because studying Folk Herbalism and wild foraging under Master Herbalist Darryl Patton, at The Deep South Center For Herbal Studies. While my original plan was to become a Master Herbalist, myself, God recently steered me toward another adventure which I'll share about at some time in the future. In the meantime, whenever I'm able to I'll do my best to keep offering some of the herbal products that have proved truly beneficial to others!
But perhaps our biggest dream for this land is to one day open it up to the public as a place of nature-immersion and spiritual/physical respite, likely in the form of campground. It’d be especially amazing if we could also give families affected by autism and other developmental differences a chance to come here, far away from the overstimulating city environment, and just be completely free to be themselves——a place where parents don't have to spend hours pre-planning in an attempt to avoid socially awkward situations. Because....hey, we get it. We've been there. A LOT. We also know that there is nothing more amazing than seeing our children be welcomed and embraced for who they are inside, rather than being judged for how their bodies happen to behave. It's hard for families affected by autism (and other developmental differences) to find a "safe place" to relax outside of the home. We'd just really love to be that place for others someday.
We welcome anyone who wants to visit and see for themselves that the feathered ladies who produce our eggs and meat are truly happy and healthy, and that our gardens are growing without the use of any chemicals. (Just give us a little notice, okay? Farm life is BUSY, and housework often falls to the bottom of the to-do list. 😬 Just keeping it real. 😂)
(Will presented this sign to us about six months after we moved here. Because autism creates communication barriers for him, the fact that he chose to send us this little message means everything!)