Red Hill Farms

Phillips Family Returns To Its Roots

Story by Paul South

Photos

by Richard Rybka

As part of the construction business, Tiffeny Phillips Robertson has put her sweat, hand and mind to some of Alabama’s marquee projects – like the Honda plant in Lincoln and Birmingham’s Protective Stadium.

But her heart has always been in Pell City at Red Hill Farms, the place her parents, Lonnie and Teresa Phillips bought some 50 years ago. In that half century, the Phillips family spread has been transformed from a commercial poultry producer for companies like Gold Kist and Tyson, to a spot where folks can find farm-raised beef and chicken, eggs of all sorts, honey from their 45 hives, fresh vegetables and good old-fashioned hoop cheese, giving a nod to the old-fashioned country store.

But perhaps its most noted evolution is that of a venue for birthday parties, corporate retreats, weddings and as home to a petting zoo – Red Hill Farms-Phillips Family is a place for growing merriment and memories on its 40 acres.

Ducks, chickens and turkeys roam the place, along with little lambs, miniature and full-size horses, llamas and alpacas, goats and pigs. A petting zoo opened this year.

James Herriot, the late English veterinarian and author of All Creatures Great and Small, could run a full-time practice here.

Tiffeny returned home to Pell City eight years ago after her Mom’s death, and the farm expanded. Now a farm market operates in a red barn that shimmers against green grass. Produce – much of it grown in St. Clair County and in the state – is sold here.

“For the most part, we try to keep at least 75 percent of out produce grown in Alabama if not in St. Clair County,” Robertson says. “We have a lot of amateur and novice farmers. They grow a bunch of crops, and we buy them from them. They get to see their bounty, and we get to sell it to the public through our market.”