Nature Hills Farm

On festival days the way to Nature Hills Farm leaves Highway 91 and passes through a tunnel under the freeway to the Summit Frontage Road on the east side. From there it runs about two miles on dirt road, with signs and balloons marking the way. The farm’s directions warn against turning on 4350 North. The parking lot lies past it, and a hay ride carries visitors the last stretch.

On ordinary days visitors park in front of the house by the Farm Store. A self-guided tour costs $4 a head, and each visitor takes a map, which the farm asks to have back. The farm covers five acres in the foothills above Enoch, a few miles out of Cedar City.

Dixie, the farm dog, will likely greet arrivals. The farm asks that toddlers be watched around her, since she does not like having her hair pulled and may snap. She should be petted only when she comes to a visitor, and once the greeting is done she wanders off. The rules on the map are few: a shut gate or door stays shut, things are left as found, and treats for the animals come from the Farm Store or from a candy machine.

The farm lists its animals as cows, goats, pigs, chickens and other fowl, a rabbit, alpacas, emus, dogs, and cats. Outhouses serve as restrooms. The farm gives fair notice that it is a working farm: “We may be around, but we might not have time to stop and chat. You are welcome to observe us while we work.” For a guided walk, Gemma Carter leads a personal tour of 30 to 40 minutes by appointment, and the farm suggests bringing a picnic lunch to eat on the grounds afterward.

The ground is worked without chemical pesticides or fertilizers, from non-GMO and many heirloom seeds. The beds show the methods the farm has taken up over the years: drip irrigation, wood-chip beds, low and high hoop houses, and no-till plots. It describes hugelkultur as still being added. Milk cows supply raw milk for cheese, butter, and yogurt. The pigs drink the whey left from the cheesemaking and eat the garden’s leftovers, and the farm credits that diet for the flavor of its pork.

The self-serve store by the house

The Farm Store is self-serve and open year-round. In winter the farm asks visitors to call ahead to be sure what they want is stocked. The store’s list includes:

• raw milk cheeses at $6 to $8
• eggs at $6 a dozen
• jams and jellies at $7 a jar
• raw honey in jars from 8 to 32 ounces
• sweet breads and sourdough loaves
• hummus, salsa, and bread dipping sauces
• cheesemaking supplies and heirloom seeds
• T-shirts, calendars, and Gemma’s Lady bugs

In August 2026 the store’s account listed ground beef, steak, roasts, pork, and peaches. By September 21 the fall stock was apple cider, pumpkins, squash, apples, pears, and soup. The posted hours were 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., “basically we are open during daylight hours!”

Pumpkins, a sunflower maze, and a one-day Harvest Fest

Through all of October 2026 the pumpkin patch is open until sold out, along with self-guided tours, photo displays, and the sunflower maze. On September 27, 2026, the farm posted a single line: “The mountain is golden!! Don’t miss it.”

The fall season opened with Harvest Fest on Saturday, October 3, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., by ticket only. The farm stressed that it would run one day: “We will not be hosting Harvest Fest again later in October.” Parking sat off-site about 200 yards away, and the hay ride shuttled people in and out.

The program listed:

• pumpkin hot cocoa
• goats to cuddle and feed, and a mini donkey to walk
• a corn pit, a tree house, and fairy houses hidden about the grounds
• a Scarecrow & Birdhouse Lane
• s’mores at a campfire
• an apple cider demonstration with tastings of fresh-pressed cider
• archery, face painting, a bounce house, and pumpkin painting
• a train ride around the farm
• soup, bread, and treats from a vintage food cart

Standard tickets were $8 for adults and $7 for children ages one to five. Leashed dogs came in on a dog ticket. In 2022 the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s news page had listed Harvest Fest on five October dates, with hay rides, a sunflower maze, and apple cider.

The calendar runs on past the pumpkins. The farm’s 2026 calendar opens a Christmas Tree Forest on November 15, with trees, wreaths, and garland. Christmas on the Farm follows on November 27 and 28, and the Farm Store sells trees and holiday goods from December 1 through 24. A 2022 profile also mentions a live nativity at Christmas and winter classes in cheese and sourdough taught by Heather Carter. The farm lists its 2027 cheesemaking courses as coming soon.

Raw Jersey milk and a market stall

Heather Carter owns the farm. The accounts of how she came to it differ slightly:

• Her 2023 Utah Tourism Conference biography says she began gardening as a young teen in Nevada and earned a master’s degree in education at Southern Utah University. It says she cultivated Nature Hills Farm after returning to Southern Utah from time in England and Hawaii.
• The Utah Shakespeare Festival’s 2022 profile says she moved from Nevada to attend Southern Utah University at 18 and has lived in Cedar City ever since.

She met her husband, Travis, at school. In 2022 the couple had four children, aged 12 to 20.

The farm dates its start to 2009, when it began milking cows to sell raw milk and make cheese. A LocalHarvest listing says the milk is from Jersey cows and that the farm became a certified raw milk dairy. In the farm’s own telling, it began as a hobby farm, and the family took the children to the local farmers market to sell eggs, homemade cheese, and extra produce. “We have learned so much along the way and become more self-sufficient we just had to share with others,” the farm writes. Classes in cheesemaking, gardening, and food followed. The farm says its CSA began in summer 2012, while LocalHarvest lists it as running since 2011.

The market became Carter’s other business. She owns the Festival City Farmers Market in Cedar City. In 2022 she told a reporter that the market started in 2011 and was the first year-round market of its kind in Utah. It stays open 50 weeks a year in rain, wind and snow. “Come and visit – buy something,” she said. “We have live music every week and it’s a great place to hang out.”

Actors from the Utah Shakespeare Festival, housed across the street from the market’s former location, came to shop there in summer. “We get to know them there, and then we get to watch them in the plays,” Carter said.

Brunch, a sourdough class, and the 2020 harvest

The farm’s blog records a full 2019:

• July 10: Kim Simmerman taught a master class on sourdough sweets in the farm classroom.
• Fridays that summer: Amanda, owner of Recycled on Center Street in Cedar City, invited the farm to serve there. It sold meat pies, tarts, salads, kombucha, and lemonade.
• September 7: The farm held a Farm Dinner & Conversation with Utah State University, paid for by a three-year Farmers Market Promotion Program grant from the USDA awarded in the fall of 2018. Invited community leaders toured the farm and talked over dinner about the barriers to and benefits of buying locally grown food around Cedar City.
• September 29: The season’s last Sunday brunch came with a farm tour and live music by Tom Bennett.

In 2020 the farm began a video series on starting seeds, called Seed to Start, just before COVID-19 shut things down. More videos did not follow that year. “We got extremely busy with providing food for our community and a year later, feel like we are just coming up for air,” the farm wrote in March 2021. It sold everything it could grow at its market and through its CSA. It drew one lesson from a local food shortage: “we do NOT have enough farmers to support our community.”

By 2023 Carter’s conference biography placed her in her fifteenth year of farming. On September 23, 2026, the farm posted for the equinox: “It gets darker from here, time for a rest.”