Alex and Nurisa

Alex Bice started Cooper Creek Farm in 2022 in the backyard of the house he was renting in Inglewood, along Cooper Creek. Before long his neighbors, Pam and Deanie, offered to let him farm their backyard and the farm expanded. Around this same time Alex and Nurisa Phillips met and fell in love. Nurisa was working as the farm manager at Sugar Camp Farm in Ashland City so the two had plenty to talk about!

In 2024 Alex began leasing a 2 acre plot at The Bend, a small farm complex near Opryland in Donelson, and the bulk of production shifted to that site since it was much more amenable to farming than the steeply sloped backyards.

In 2025 Cooper Creek Farm and Sugar Camp Farm began a collaboration in which Sugar Camp offered some Cooper Creek produce to their restaurant clients, and Cooper Creek took some Sugar Camp produce to market. This worked out well for both farms and laid the groundwork for more coordinated production. In the Fall of 2025, Alex and Nurisa decided to join forces, forming an LLC together and outlining an operating agreement that would establish Cooper Creek Farm as a worker-owned cooperative. At the same time, the owners of Sugar Camp, Lizzie Wright and Jesse Higanbotham, decided to take a break from farming and offered to lease a portion of their farm to Cooper Creek.

As of 2026 Cooper Creek Farm’s land base consists of the 2 acres at The Bend, two tunnels and two field blocks at Sugar Camp Farm, and about an acre at the former Sounding Stone Farm in Joelton, where Nurisa lives.

You can find their produce at the East Nashville Farmers Market on Tuesdays, the Richland Park Farmers Market on Saturdays, and on restaurant menus around town, including Audrey, Folk, Rolf and Daughters, Henrietta Red, Maíz de La Vida, Junior, Tailor, Catbird Seat, and Sho Pizza.