If you know the back roads of East Tennessee, you know what to expect: barns, pastures, old houses, new houses, and the occasional stretch of road that seems to have been paved by somebody who distrusted straight lines on principle.
What you don’t necessarily expect is to make a dogleg turn up a winding hill and find, all at once, a row of sleek greenhouses that look as though they landed there from some agrarian future. But that’s exactly what waits out Raccoon Valley way at Empower Farms.
There are many things to admire about the place. What we love, of course, is the produce.
On a recent visit with our friends at the farm, Darlene Moyers and farm manager Benjamin Steltenkamp, one of the things that struck me first was the beauty of the leaves. The broccoli, the cauliflower, the cabbage — all of it so clean and pristine that it seemed almost theatrical. No flea beetle bites. No ragged edges. Some of those great green leaves were so large and so lovely they looked ready to audition for Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. Fortunately, there are no horrors here. Just careful growing.
The first greenhouses feel familiar enough — bright, orderly, traditional in structure, though remarkably intentional in operation. Water is captured, reused, and cycled back into the system. What drains from the growing beds feeds a hugelkultur garden nearby — long mounds of organic matter that slowly break down and nourish the soil. Nothing is wasted if it can help something else grow.
That philosophy runs deeper than the plumbing. Empower Farms follows principles of regenerative agriculture, a way of farming that tries not simply to grow food but to restore the land that produces it. The idea is straightforward: build healthy soil, reuse resources, reduce outside inputs, and allow natural systems to do as much of the work as possible. The result is farming that improves the ground over time rather than exhausting it.
Out here, that approach feels especially meaningful. Anyone who has watched East Tennessee over the last few decades knows how quickly farmland can become something else. As housing needs and development shape more and more of our civic conversation, places that actively care for the land — and keep it productive — matter more than ever.
Then you step into Greenhouse Four.
Before you even enter, there are clues: filtration systems, water catchment, the quiet infrastructure of a place designed to grow food thoughtfully. You dip your shoes into a small footbath to keep pests from hitching a ride, open the door, and suddenly you’re standing in a space that feels less like a greenhouse than a scene from science fiction. Towers of greens rise in neat rows. Lettuce, bok choy, cucumbers, spinach — all thriving in a hydroponic system so bright and clean it makes you pause for a moment.
Empower isn’t certified organic, but they follow organic principles closely. In fact, Benjamin told me that tiny parasitic wasps had moved into one greenhouse and were quietly taking care of the aphids for them. Nature, it turns out, often prefers to do the work itself.
If you know how we like to cook — and how we like to eat — you know we care about ingredients that are grown thoughtfully and handled with respect. Empower Farms fits that bill beautifully. The produce is fresh, carefully tended, and grown with a level of attention that shows up in every leaf.
We were especially grateful for it this winter.
And we’re just as excited for what’s coming next, because the seasons keep turning, the towers keep growing, and out on a winding road north of Knoxville there’s a greenhouse quietly producing some of the best vegetables around.
