![]() ![]() The guest book in my hut is full of entries from people who visited Forest Gully Farms from all around the world. The expansive gardens near the huts are, just as the Giffins intended, a dense ecosystem full of useful plants and fruits (edible, medicinal, or both). When I’m not relaxing in the huts or sitting by the fire, I explore the grounds and take short trails into the woods surrounded by beautiful foliage, waterfalls, and hammocks. I mostly graze on food made onsite, but I’m also able to make chili on a hotplate and roast vegan hot dogs over the fire. Over the next few days, I spend my time doing things the hobbit way-catching up on my reading, playing board games and cards with friends, and eating whenever my stomach demands it. ![]() ![]() Outside is a gas grill and a campfire perfect for making s’mores. The common area hut includes a kitchen stocked with a full-size refrigerator, basic cooking ingredients, utensils, and a coffee maker. Inside each of the two sleeping huts is an AC and heating unit, three beds, and linens. Two of the huts include sleeping quarters and the third is intended for cooking and hanging out. Much like hobbits themselves, the interiors at Forest Gully Farms are tidy, unassuming, and simple with a focus on the extraordinary architecture. | Photo: Ashley Hubbardīefore I settle in by the crackling campfire, I look into my own hut. All of this is easily achievable in this rural Tennessee oasis. Hobbits are known for their love of food and ale, being homebodies and keeping to themselves, and enjoying the simple pleasures in life. Hobbit homes, or hobbit holes, are traditionally places where friends and family gather to talk, laugh, sing, and-most importantly-eat. “Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.” “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit,” wrote Tolkien. The huts at Forest Gully Farms are constructed of white cedar they’re rot-resistant, with bamboo flooring and surrounded by a retaining wall, naturally insulated by the earth and protected from outside temperature changes. All reservations include access to all three huts, a bathhouse, and the farm, including gardens, a chicken coop, and hiking trails. Surrounded by nature, I think I could visit the farm multiple times and have a unique experience each time-and that’s intentional. | Photo: Ashley Hubbard “Please excuse the mess.” | Photo: Ashley Hubbard | Photo: Ashley Hubbard In the spring and summer the garden is full of edible food. | Photo: Ashley Hubbard A waterfall on the property. They strive for balance and diversity in their plantings and work to produce a holistic edible ecosystem. Initially started as an experiment in sustainable living, the Giffins built Forest Gully Farms around the goal of living off the land. It’s the passion project of Jon and Mandy Giffin. Sitting on 15 acres, Forest Gully Farms consists of three huts, which can accommodate a total of eight people. I’m ready for my test run at hobbit life. And then, my destination appears like magic: Half-buried huts glow in golden yellow hues, framed by the pitch-black darkness solar-lit stepping stones lead me to my home away from home for the weekend. I seem to be traveling backward in time-but I keep on, like any good hobbit on a walkabout would. By the time I arrive in Santa Fe, it’s already dark. The drive takes me on winding rural back roads and through rolling countryside generously dotted with horses and cows. I depart from Nashville on a Friday afternoon and it only takes a little more than an hour to get from my city apartment to this entirely different world. | Photo: Ashley Hubbard Surrounded by nature Tolkien’s lands may be fictional, but Forest Gully Farms feels just as magical-and I don’t even have to leave Tennessee. Middle Earth is full of magical wizards, bow-wielding elves, and loyal-to-the-end hobbits. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit captured the hearts of generations with their tales of classic struggles between good and evil paired with endless adventure. But now that I’ve stayed at Forest Gully Farms in Santa Fe, Tennessee, I feel as if I’m one step closer to living the hobbit life. No one has trusted me with a task as serious and grueling as Frodo’s, so perhaps the similarities end there. And, every once and a while, I like to go on a good adventure. I connect with nature better than I do with people. You’ll often find me walking barefoot in the grass with no concern about how dirty my feet are getting. Do you ever think you might be a hobbit? I know that I have more than a few things in common with J.R.R. ![]()
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