L IKE many adjustments that occurred in the months that
“It felt like pie in the sky; this will never happen,” Jaclyn says. “It’s
followed the viral outbreak of 2020, for Reid and Jaclyn
Smith a new venture was birthed out of the pandemic.
During the shutdown, the couple and their children
spent a lot of time on their 40-acre Clayton farm, buying their first
Wagyu cows and diving into farming.
“We really leaned into it; as a family
instead of watching TV and spending
time on screens, we spent a lot of time
outside. It grew our love for agriculture
as a family,” Reid Smith says.
During this time in limbo a dream
was also rekindled.
In the summer of 2019, Reid had
seen an ad for a farm in Turkey, located
just off I-40 in neighboring Sampson
County, about a 45-minute drive south
and west of their small-scale farm in
Johnston County.
“It was beautiful, what a farm,” Reid
says. “I thought it must be in Arizona or
California, but in Turkey, N.C., what
in the world? I looked it up and it was
right off of 40 on the way to the beach.”
He messaged his friend Nick Phillips,
founder and principal broker of Land-mark
Sotheby’s, to schedule a tour.
Despite being wowed, the timing
was not right.
so amazing, but we can’t do this.”
“Then the pandemic, and everything sort of went on hold, life
kinda stopped,” says Reid.
In the spring of 2021, they again came across the 1,200-acre
KATIE BAGWELL
ALLISON POTTER
48 july 2022
WBM