South of Sanity

The Atchison family doesn’t have to look far to find the source of their milk, eggs and herbs. A glance out their window reveals the goats, pigs, greenhouse and more that make up their small-scale family farm.

Steve and Susan Atchison have lived in their Pinson home for 11 years. They had no background with farm animals — Steve Atchison works in landscaping, and Susan Atchison works as a nurse at Brookwood Medical Center — before they bought a few chickens and started a garden about seven years ago. 

“We keep everything on a real small scale,” Steve Atchison said. “To me this is a biglearning experience.”

The Atchisons began adding to their backyard farm because they wanted a more self-sustaining lifestyle and to teach their children — Elizabeth, Luke and Will — about the origins of their food. Plus, raising some of their own food meant a few less trips to the grocery store.

“With three kids, grocery bills are through the roof, and we try to buy organic, but if you buy organic you know how expensive that is,” Steve Atchison said.

They keep a flock of dairy goats, one sheep, chickens, ducks, pigs and rabbits, as well as a greenhouse and an herb garden Elizabeth Atchison works on as part of a school project. They’re hoping in the future to add beehives, fruits, rain barrels and to try aquaponics, a system where fish and hydroponic plants are grown together, with the plants purifying water and the fish waste providing nutrients for the plants. The kids also arelobbying for a horse.

While the whole experience has been a learning process, Steve Atchison said it’s not as labor-intensive as a beginning farmer might think.

“Everything that we do here as far as the animals go, it can be done in about an hour a day,” he said.

Their kids are home-schooled and help out with the various chores around the farm.

“My 6-year-old Luke, to him, I guess, it’s so normal to him. He’s out there with us all the time,” Steve Atchison said. “I think he’s more a farmer than I’ll ever be.”

In return for their efforts, the Atchisons get about a gallon and a half of milk a day, which they can drink raw or make into butter, kefir, yogurt, cheese or goat milk soap and body products. They also get about a dozen eggs a day. Steve Atchison said learning to butcher and process their pigs and rabbits is one of the hardest parts of the job for him, but it also makes the family much less likely to waste any part because they know the time and care that went into that animal’s life.

“It’s just neat to go out here and to milk them, to get the eggs, and you bring it home. You cook it; you eat it, and you can kind of say, ‘I did that,’” Steve Atchison said.

While the farm is primarily about sustainability for their own kitchen table, the Atchisons also use it as a place to introduce others to the small-scale farming concept. They host summer camps for boys to learn about farming with the help of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, as well as events through the year such as a pig roast and a Nativity play for families to attend.

One of the things that surprises many people, Susan Atchison said, is how little space their farm takes up. The Atchisons own about five acres, but their livestock and gardens use much less than that.

“Most people are really interested in it. Some people think it’s kind of strange, and some people want to do it, and they just don’t know how, and they think they don’t have the time or the resources,” Susan Atchison said. “I didn’t know how to do anything, when we got married, like this. I really didn’t even learn to cook growing up.”

“We talk to people who are interested in what we do but for whatever reason aren’t going to take that leap to try it. And I’ve always been more a hands-on, learning experience guy. … For me the best education is to jump in and just start doing it, and if I tinker with it long enough eventually I’ll figure it out,” Steve Atchison said.

After adding dairy goats to their front yard, Steve Atchison began pursuing his interest in making goat milk products. They now sell soaps, shampoos, balms, lotions and more as South of Sanity Farms, both online and at events such as Pepper Place Market, Homestead Hollow and the ChristmasVillage Market.

Steve Atchison said the inspiration for the name came from a funny sign he saw outside a Trussville veterinarian’s office: “Everybody is somebody’s weirdo.” The phrase stuck in his mind, and seemed fitting for a backyard project started with almost no farming experience.

“It really stuck with me, and the more we got into this, the more — even my own family — they were questioning my sanity. ‘Why am I doing this? Because it’s so much work,’” Steve Atchison said. “In my mind I felt like I was becoming their weirdo, so I figured we’re all a little south of sanity in somebody’s eyes.”