- 859.654.8015
- info@faroutfarmky.com
- 3597 Crooked Creek Rd, Berry, KY
Long before the land became the site of Far Out Farm, the Vaughn property along Crooked Creek was a vibrant, beating heart for an entire community. It was a place where doors were always open to those in need and where a modest farmhouse held an astonishing amount of life, love, and history.
For Anna Mae Godman Vaughn, the farm was her entire story. Built by her grandfather in the 1870s and inherited by her father, she was born in the original two-room house on April 26, 1912. She grew up and raised her own eight children within those tight walls, ultimately passing away there on March 1, 2003.
We specialize in horseback riding lessons, event hosting, and community classes. From special events like Unicorn Fest and Have a Far Out Christmas to learning about farm life, come and be part of our friendly community.
The Patriarch and Matriarch: Bart and Anna Mae
Bart and Anna Mae Vaughn were a highly effective team, balancing each other’s strengths to turn a deeply modest farm into a highly successful operation.
Bart only attended school through the third or fourth grade, but what he lacked in formal education, he made up for with relentless hustle and brilliant foresight. He was constantly looking for ways to earn and save.
In the mid-1970s, after a few too many drinks, Bart bought every baby calf at the stockyard. He had to call his brother Gale in to haul calves for two straight days, placing them in the “cliff lot,” the hillside pasture across the road from the house. When they arrived, some of them were sick or injured. Bart and Gale spent the next 5 months working round the clock to treat, feed and grow the calves. When they hauled them back to market, Bart’s tipsy and impulsive investment of $12,000 paid a return of over $60,000!
According to his grand-daughter Amy, this sort of thing wasn’t all that out of character. He was incredibly clever and forward-thinking. The Vaughns were the first in the area to have a refrigerator and a television, and Bart even installed a private underground gas pump on the property, with a switch to turn it on and off right inside the kitchen door to prevent gas theft.
Perhaps the greatest example of their progressive mindset was in the 1940s, when Anna Mae routinely drove their daughter on two-lane roads all the way to Cincinnati every month to have her braces adjusted—a luxury and a medical novelty that almost no one in the area had ever seen.
While Bart brought the vision, Anna Mae kept the engine running. Having attended a school on a neighboring property, she learned reading, writing, and math, which she used to teach Bart and meticulously manage all the farm’s bookkeeping.
While raising 8 children, she also managed a large garden that fed them year-round, prepared all their meals from livestock and vegetables grown and harvested on the land, and traded eggs from their 100 chickens for staples like sugar and lard.
Despite their relatively modest homestead, the Vaughns were very successful, and they could afford to be generous.
Their home and farm became a vital part of the community with family and neighbors frequenting the house daily, and huge lunches served every single day (and an extra-large one on Sundays).
That early TV transformed their living room into a neighborhood theater. Neighbors would crowd into the small house to watch wrestling, much to the chagrin of a grumpy, pregnant Anna Mae, who would sit in her designated chair waiting for everyone to finally go home.
Out on a flat portion in the center of the property where the arena and event shelter now sit, there was a croquet circle where people would travel regularly just to play and socialize.
But the Vaughns’ true legacy was their generosity and all of the ways they supported their community.
Every morning after breakfast, Anna Mae set to work making lunches for the farmhands, then packing extra meals to hand-deliver to relatives and community members living in the local nursing home.
If a family suffered a loss like a death or a fire, Bart would say “Mae, better send them a check and part of that cow we just butchered.”
They regularly purchased extras of everything from the store, to drop them off for neighbors who were struggling, and every single week, they hosted a picnic under the great catalpa tree for the entire road.
As long time neighbors of the Vaughn family and residents of Crooked Creek, we take the responsibility of the stewardship of this land seriously. We want to honor Anna Mae and Bart’s legacy and the history of this land by ensuring that Far Out Farm continues to be a place of openness, generosity, and community for as long as we hold it.
