Hodges Family Farm
Family-owned farm for over 100 years offering a variety of produce and proteins.
Vendor Story
Liz & Connor Newman
Hodges Family Farm has been a working farm in northeast Mecklenburg County for well over 100 years, first as a subsistence farm producing crops including corn, barley, oats and cotton, and later as a dairy farm until 1999. It has earned the coveted “Century Farm” designation from the State of North Carolina.
Connor Newman—grandson of Hodges Farm matriarch, Olivia, and son of Joyce Hodges Newman—became Hodges’ manager after his Uncle Frank passed in 2015. He “moved home” after a starter stint as farm manager at Mecklenburg’s historic Latta Plantation farm.
“Connor has steered our farm towards growing food with ecology and the environment in mind,” the farm’s website proudly proclaims. “This transition has transformed the farm into a vibrant, healthy ecosystem where many forms of life may flourish and provide nutrient-dense food for your family to enjoy.
Connor tells his part in plainer terms.
“The farm community kept me from killing myself on farm equipment I’d never used before,” he recalls of harvesting hay in his first months as farm manager. Then, the family decided together to take a leap of faith into livestock farming. They bought their first seven cows in 2020.
Proof of the farm’s ongoing success arrives weekly in the freezers that Connor and company bring to Davidson: Color-coded labels on the freezers’ top glass correspond to a full range of pasture-raised meats including beef, pork and chicken.
Down on the farm on Rocky River Road, there’s something for everyone, too. The on-site and online Farm Shop sells fruits and vegetables grown on-site using regenerative agriculture practices, plus local honey, and poultry, pork, and beef. There’s a popular fall pumpkin patch with hayrides and educational field trips. And “The 1932 Barn” is now a wedding and events venue, renovated after nearly being destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
At the Davidson Farmers Market, Connor feels at home, trading goods and good-natured observations with other vendors, like his market neighbor Brad Hinckley of Coldwater Creek Farms. Connor glances over at Brad ‘s bountiful produce.
“I can’t do what Brad does with produce,” he says, then winks. “At least not yet.”
