History:

Gatlinburg Farms is a "Farm Direct" source of Tennessee Farm Fresh Products. Rick Joyce, Owner of Gatlinburg Farms is not new to farming. He and his family go back almost 300 years to their first farm in Virginia of 16,000 acres, later moving to North Carolina, and after The Civil War, to Missouri.

May 1st, 2005 Gatlinburg Farms was created by Rick Joyce, a sixth generation Farmer, whose ancestors first came to this country in the 1600's. The first Joyce born in this country, (his Fifth Great Grandfather), Alexander Joyce, was born in Virginia in 1720. Every generation since has farmed from the first farm of 16,000 acres in Virginia to the last farm Rick worked personally of 700 acres. Two of his daughters are married to farmers and his grandchildren being raised on Farms in Missouri.

The Joyce family originated in England and moved to Ireland, in the late 1600's. The Potato Famine caused them to come to America arriving in the Mayo River area of Virginia, now known as Martinsville, Virginia, in the early 1700's. His father, Edgar Vachel Joyce, was born in Aud, Missouri in 1906. Edgar's mother was Matilda Boillot, whose family had emigrated from France in the 1830's through New Orleans. They brought with them Apple Trees, The first Chardonnay Grapes into Missouri and Seedless Blackberries. The Boillot Wineries still exist today in France.

In 2005 Rick went back to the original home site in Missouri and found the Grapes were gone as well as the Apples, but the Blackberries were still there. He brought starts from the original Blackberries and planted them in Tennessee. In 2006 when they bloomed and produced their first berries, Rick and his wife anxiously awaited to taste them. Yes, they were seedless. These are not Hybrids, but heirlooms. In the spring of 2007 Rick took starts from those Blackberries to the Morning Glory Farm in Rocky Flats, Tennessee, outside of Gatlinburg, where he and the owner G. Webb planted them. He has already had interested visitors throughout the Southeast and he has sold starts in both Georgia and Mississippi.