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“My work is the only ground I’ve ever had to stand on.”

– Marilyn Monroe

A Fresh Approach to Provident Living

50 | Metamorphosis 55 | A Portfolio with Legs and Running with the Bulls 57

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A Fresh Approach to Provident Living WRITTEN BY Rachelle Hughes | PHOTOS BY Tammi Swanson

She is kind of like a force of nature. Just standing next to Heather Carter there’s a strong chance you will walk away being motivated to do more, to try new things, and to become more involved with your personal approach towards life. An odd introduction perhaps, for a woman who describes herself as farmer, artisan cheese maker, educator and mother.

But Heather Carter is a woman changing perceptions towards provident living and she is excellent at rallying her community towards doing the same.

I had the opportunity to tour Nature Hills Farm and her family’s small dairy, which sits on five acres on the northern outskirts of Cedar City. It is a quaint location for a dairy and a farm, quite opposite to the historically large, traditional farms. This farm, like Heather, reflects the changing face of farming in Southern Utah.

A born leader, Heather serves on the board of directors of Gateway Preparatory Academy, a charter school in the Cedar City area. She has been the president of Lion’s Club. She and her husband run her son’s archery club, Iron Archers. She is just as likely to be found in a formal ball gown on the arm of her husband at the annual police officer’s ball, as she is to be found assisting one of her cows in birthing a new calf or helping her son manage his 45 chickens. Heather is not your typical farmer and she is actively educating others on the beauty and benefits of creating a self-sufficient lifestyle. woman

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Heather represents a phenomenon that seems to be growing in the southwest. Throughout Southern Utah, women are heading up small farm and homestead operations that provide food for their families and communities via CSAs and farmer’s markets. As part of this movement Heather understands the cause for this shift firsthand.

While she and her husband Travis and their four children have always believed in growing their own food, it is only within the past five years that they have expanded and developed their business Nature Hills Farm which now sells artisan cheese, eggs, raw milk, produce and some pork and beef.

“I believe that the face of the farmer has changed. More people want to be involved in producing the food they eat and what they feed their children. So, more woman and younger families have decided to become involved in farming,” Heather says.

Anyone who knows Heather finds her passion for locally grown food contagious. She has become a sought after expert and instructor in provident living. Besides managing her cheese making business, CSA and dairy, she provides workshops like her homemade cheese making courses and her annual provident living retreat held each September.

Educating others in farming and provident living is an integral part of her business and her personal mission. She recently hired two women interns to help with the everyday tasks of running a CSA. These students from Southern Utah University wanted to understand more fully what it takes to grow your own food, feed your family healthy and run a small business. Heather has put them to work.

“Farmer’s markets and CSA’s are now more available for people to get local produce and other real food products; but with the growing demand of people wanting to purchase this real food, there HAS to be more farmers to produce the food. This is where the new farmer/homesteader comes into the picture, while producing food for their own families, they can produce a little extra, bring it to the market to sell, or trade for other food products. This not only provides more variety for consumers, but offsets the cost of the family farmer producing the product. It really is a great system that is catching on!”

A love of farming comes naturally to Heather; she has been digging in the dirt forever. She started gardening on her own when she was 13 and she has been nurturing her green thumb ever since.

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Make no mistake - this is a family business. Heather may be manning the front lines but everyone pulls their weight on the farm, especially the children. Teaching her children to become self-sufficient is as vital to Heather as teaching her interns. Her son Gavin even runs his own business called Farm Kid Creations where he makes and sells homemade natural bath products. Gavin is also in charge of caring for the chickens and selling eggs at the Farmer’s Market. Heather never stops teaching.

When it comes to pursuing and perfecting her passion of provident living, Heather is ambitious. Acquiring their licenses to sell raw milk and homemade cheese was a lengthy endeavor she says “We decided to become a licensed dairy when the laws for raw milk changed as well as the rules for farmer’s markets. When the rules changed and they actually started regulating the markets, we would no longer be able to sell any of the products we produced (except for the produce) and so we thought it wise to get our licenses. We started with the cheese making license. We had so many people asking for raw milk that we decided to get that license as well.

THE SUMMER ISSUE 2012

We had to become a Grade A dairy for the cheese license, so it only required additional testing for the bottles and of the milk for the raw milk license. It was a lengthy process that required we meet several standards, but we were able to achieve it on a small scale and are glad we went through this process.”

Nature Hills Farm now has hundreds of customers coming and going from the farm and through the farmer’s markets and their CSA each month. Heather and Travis have intentions to grow their operation, but slowly. They want to provide the best service and product to their customers.

So how does Heather manage her time as a mother, farmer, instructor, and woman who renders service to various organizations?

“I just keep working,” she said. “I love life and all the opportunities we have. I am always busy because there is so much to do! I don’t want to waste a minute. We do have down time too, but I find that if I have goals and just keep at them we can accomplish so much.

I get bored sitting around for too long, there are just too many things to do and places to see!”

Heather manages to keep herself centered by working out four times a week with Crossfit. Occasionally, you will find Heather and her family on a trip to the beach to soak up some rays or on a jaunt up the mountain to go camping. She knows it can’t be all work and no play. But one could safely guess she is spending some of that time planning and scheming about her next big project, class or how she will continue to motivate women to become more involved in their choices. As she says, “It is becoming vital that we all stand up and have a voice now about our food.”