The Farm at Windy Hill

Mentone, Alabama sits high enough on Lookout Mountain that the air moves differently than it does down in the valley, and The Farm at Windy Hill takes its name from exactly that quality. Located at 445 Road 942, the working farm traces its name back to a previous owner, Kenneth Kirby, who once said that when there was not a breeze anywhere else in Mentone, there was reliably a breeze on his property, and the name stuck.

The farm was established in the fall of 2014 when the family property became available and was reimagined as what its own materials describe as “a working, learning, and destination farm.” Rather than functioning purely as a private operation, The Farm at Windy Hill built a public facing farm market into its business from early on, giving Mentone visitors and locals a direct source for pasture raised meat, eggs, and produce grown without synthetic chemicals.

The farm market runs every Friday from 2 to 5 PM Central time, from March through November, at the farm’s own location on Road 942. Shoppers can expect 100 percent grass fed and grass finished beef, pastured pork, and pasture raised eggs, along with seasonal produce grown on site. The market also carries prepared items from what the farm calls the Windy Hill Kitchen, plus fresh cut flowers, giving the weekly market a wider range than a typical roadside produce stand.

Beyond the retail market, the farm operates as an educational space as well, with gardens and animals that visitors can tour and a stated mission built around teaching people, including campers from the nearby Camp DeSoto, what it looks like to run a small working farm day to day. The farm also supplies produce directly to Camp DeSoto, connecting its growing operation to one of the longer running institutions on this part of Lookout Mountain. That relationship gives the farm a role in the local food system that extends past its Friday market hours.

The farm also hosts occasional events, including farm to table dinners that pair the property’s own beef, pork, eggs, and produce with a sit down meal on site, which extends the farm’s reach beyond a simple weekly market into something closer to an experience. Visitors with questions about a given week’s market, upcoming events, or the farm’s growing practices can reach the operation directly at 256-674-3639 or by email through the farm’s website.

For anyone planning a Friday afternoon around Mentone, the timing lines up well with a day spent at DeSoto Falls or Little River Canyon earlier in the day and a stop at the farm market on the way back through town. Because the market only runs one afternoon a week and only during the growing season, it takes a bit more planning than a stop at a year round shop, but that seasonal rhythm is part of what makes The Farm at Windy Hill feel like an authentic piece of Mentone’s working landscape rather than a tourist attraction built for convenience.

The farm’s growing practices lean toward chemical free methods across its produce, and the animals raised for beef, pork, and eggs are kept on pasture rather than in confinement, which shapes both the quality of what ends up at the Friday market and the day to day rhythm of the property itself. Visitors who tour the gardens or animal areas get a closer look at how that approach plays out on the ground, from rotational grazing to the seasonal planting schedule that determines what shows up at the market table from one month to the next.

That combination of a working farm, a teaching site for young campers, and a weekly market open to the public gives The Farm at Windy Hill a role in Mentone that goes beyond simple retail. For a mountain town with fewer than 500 year round residents, having a nearby source of pasture raised meat and fresh produce matters in a practical sense, and the Friday market has become a small but steady fixture on the local calendar from spring through late fall.