Grow Oak Ridge is throwing a Friends in the Garden Appreciation Party on Sunday, October 19, 2025, from 4-6:30 p.m. To find out where (and get an invitation) donate $100 or arrange a $10 or more monthly donation by October 12. Info here.

Organizers promise food, games, craft beer, smoothie bike, axe throwing and more. The group works to strengthen the local food economy in Oak Ridge and Anderson County by sponsoring year-round programs such as:

  • Arts at the Market is a Nourish Kids club activity where children ages 2-12 can create a traditional Appalachian craft under the instruction of a local artist. Sponsored by the Tennessee Arts Commission.
  • Winter Farmers Market, celebrating 10 years, Saturdays, 9 a.m. until noon starting December 6, 2025, and running through March 28, 2026, at Roane State Community College.
  • Three community gardens plus a Grow Your Own program and a mushroom growing project.

Good people doing good work. Grow Oak Ridge.

A view of Hollybrook Farm (from Foothills Land Conservancy)

Hollybrook Farm restores historic home, preserves 60 acres

Foothills Land Conservancy (FLC) is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year with a series of 40 stories, posted on its website.

KnoxTNToday will share a few of these stories to amplify Foothills’ offerings and to spread awareness of local places to “get out and play.”

Today, we’ll explore a 60-acre wooded area in Blount County. …

In 1983, David and Marty Black watched as the bulldozers pulled into their side yard in Maryville. As U.S. 321 was constructed as a four-lane road, “the price of progress” was about to run straight through town – and their home. By sheer coincidence, Marty was on the phone with a friend who told her that the Blount County Historic Trust had identified a historic, old log house in Rockford that was for sale.

The Blacks had no interest in enduring the major construction, nor in living anywhere near this soon-to-be heavily traveled road. They scheduled an appointment to see the house, walked the property, explored the uninhabitable old home, and signed a contract on it the next day. They started restoration right away, and in about nine months the project exceeded their expectations. The Blacks’ discoveries since then have favorably reinforced their decision to essentially impulse buy the house and property.

Their home is one of the earliest houses built that still stands in Blount County today. Originally constructed before 1819, and possibly as early as the 1790s, the house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The property has only been occupied by five families since 1819, a fact which clearly evidences the occupants’ love of place. The Blacks’ predecessors stated that a log building across from the main house served as a Union army hospital during the Civil War. There is allegedly a cannonball lodged in the upper gable of the house. In landscaping the property, a Civil war era pistol was uncovered.

During the Blacks’ 40 years of ownership, they have acquired an additional 35 acres from adjacent property owners. The total acreage of Hollybrook Farm is about 103 acres, of which 60 acres are in old-growth timber. It is this 60-acre woodland that is now permanently protected under an FLC easement. The woodlands present an ever-changing kaleidoscope of beauty and peaceful enjoyment throughout the seasons, from a snow-covered forest floor, which is accented in the spring by an abundance of wildflowers and supplemented by magnificent autumn leaf colors.

A six-foot-wide meandering walking trail has been developed in the woodland, complete with culverts or bridges over intermittent stream courses. The combination of mature woodland, pastures and the edges between, and ample water from a creek creates good habitat, cover, nesting, and food for the wildlife and bird species expected in the region.

Marty noted, “Our consciences would not rest comfortably if we allowed the destruction of the woodlands and permitted subdivision clutter to extinguish the beauty and environment this property provides. There is no tranquility and peace like the silence of an unobstructed view on a snowy evening walk in the woods.” (Story and art from Foothills Land Conservancy)

Marty and David Black continue to live in Blount County. David formed the law firm Kizer & Black with Ben Kizer in 1968. Marty was a tenured professor at the University of Tennessee.

Notes and Quotes
  • Oakes Farm in the Gibbs community is celebrating its 25th year of a fall corn maze and each year’s offering is better than the year before. This year’s maze will be open every day during fall break plus every Thursday-Sunday from September 20 through November 2, 2025. Tickets are available now here. Tickets are restricted by time and date, so it’s best to purchase tickets early to secure the date and time of your choosing.
  • The 2025 Legacy Luncheon for the Parks will be Friday, September 26, 2025, 11:30 a.m. at Strong Stock Farm. The speaker is Diana Nyad, who, at age 64, became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage. Nyad is a retired sports journalist and author of Find a Way. She was featured in the 2023 Netflix film Nyad.
  • Walk, run or bike the 11.1-mile Cades Cove loop on Wednesdays as the park service restricts motorized vehicles on that day. This feature runs through September 24, 2025.
  • Grants from $500 to $20,000 are available from the state to help communities increase the tree canopy. Applications must be submitted online by 5 p.m. CT on September 30, 2025, here. General info here. 
  • Outdoor Knoxville: Legacy Parks Foundation and Elle Colquitt’s Outdoor Knoxville events calendar – has fall wildflower walks, cave exploration at Ijams and more for this week and next. Check it out here.
  • Best Bet: Sunday, September 14, Holston River Group Paddle: 10 a.m., Holston River Park. Info: Beaver Creek Kayak Club. Meet at the boat ramp to paddle 5.5 miles to Calhoun’s on the River where we will stop for lunch (bring a leash for your boat). Afterwards, paddle by Neyland Stadium and the Vol Navy to the Neyland Drive boat ramp. Details online.
  • Diana Nyad: “That down feeling, quitting, was far worse than suffering it out to the end, because that decision to quit haunts you and bleeds over into your outlook on everything else, just as not quitting buoys you for all else.”  – From her book, Find a Way