Amy Grant sows love, community on her 450-acre farm to fulfill her 'divine imprint'

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The operations manager of Nashville's free grocery store for the needy never heard of beefalo before Christian music star Amy Grant walked in with 400 pounds of it.

But that manager, Sarah Goodrich, sure appreciated the donation that came a few weeks ago. 

"This means the world to us," said Sarah Goodrich, an exec at The Store, opened last year by Brad Paisley, his wife, actor Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and Belmont University.

"We'll be able to sustain our families as supply shortages continue."

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The meat came from one of about 40 beefaloes — a hybrid of cattle and buffalo known for producing lean, healthy beef — on Grant's 450-acre Hidden Trace farm.

The donation came from a conversation between Grant and Williams-Paisley, star of "Father of the Bride" movies and the sitcom "According to Jim."

Her dream place

But you don't have to be a celebrity to be involved with Grant and her farm of connection, love and healing.

► A pastor in Cincinnati told Grant he was having a hard time finding a place for a retreat. Grant invited him to Hidden Trace. The price? One hour of manual labor cleaning the farm and cutting firewood.

► More than 10 years ago, one of Grant's children went to the Barefoot Republic camp in Kentucky, a place for kids of all races and economic backgrounds. After meeting the camp director, Grant now hosts a Middle Tennessee version, Barefoot at the Farm, each summer.

► At a 2014 fundraiser, Grant met an executive with a company that makes water out of air — and that executive has since installed the machines at her farm and shows up every summer to serve water to camp kids.

► Five years ago, Grant offered use of her farm to a baggage clerk she met at an Atlanta hotel while she was on tour. Grant exchanged contact info with the clerk after hearing that he was in seminary and he and his wife had five kids, one with autism.

When the baggage clerk texted Grant he was looking for a primitive place for a one-night getaway with his family, Grant texted back, "How about two nights, at my farm?"

The farm has been in Grant's family for decades, but since she married Vince Gill there 21 years ago, Grant slowly has been adding some cabins, electricity, a few paved roads, a restored barn, a basketball court-sized open-air pavilion and yes, beefalo.

"That place has always been her dream place," Gill said. "She goes there for security and peace. That’s her favorite place."

In the past few years, though, Grant has felt more and more compelled to share it.

'We all have a divine imprint'

Grant has shared her farm with the Nashville Symphony, retreats for the unhoused staying at Nashville Rescue Mission, an annual beekeepers gathering, and songwriting seminars for military veterans, and families who participate for 48 hours at a time in Keeping the Fire.

Keeping the Fire is a winter-long ritual of reflection and reevaluation while tending a fire that stays lit for four months at the farm.

Grant books Keeping the Fire stays one month at a time and invites participants to leave notes, thoughts and drawings in journals that stay in a cabin next to the fire.

The journals help connect strangers who might never meet each other, Grant said, with hopes of building community. 

"The biggest component of the farm is the adventure of community," she said.

"We all have a divine imprint, every one of us, no matter if we identify our journey as a spiritual journey or not. What if the reality is that all of humanity is ..., if we all expanded and took up all the space we were intended to take up that we would actually touch at every point?

"We’re told, be small. We’re told there’s not enough. But what if there’s enough, and the adventure is connecting it all?"

Grant, 60, said she feels so strongly about this mission that she continues touring — "I love working and I love music" — to support her farm.

"I'll finish a tour now and think, oh good, now I can repave that road at the farm," she said, smiling.