About our farm…
Great grandpa bought this farm in 1918, and his city-slicker great-grandkids arrived one-hundred years later, in 2018, to see if we could learn to farm what was left of this tiny bit of rural land. Needless to say, it’s a learning curve, but we have been growing it slowly, each year, and plan to continue to bring much goodness to you from this little bit of Central Texas.
We are a FAMILY farm, so we aren’t aiming to get rich. We just want to live the farm lifestyle, far out here in the country, and let our boys grow up in rural America. We do want to pay the light bill and afford feed for the bovines, bees and birdies, though.
What we believe in…
We are big on permaculture, sustainable farming, and living off of the land so that we can be the best stewards of the planet as we can. We are also big on supporting local, small, and those who are trying to live an organic lifestyle and treating animals more humanely. In a world of fast food and way too busy living, we want to promote a slower, simpler, farm to table lifestyle and grow and produce more nutrient dense foods.
What we offer…
We offer shares in our farm and animals so that we can share a little bit of the country with you. We have started a small Tiny Texas Farm Co-Op and partner with other local farmers to deliver farm goodness to locals each week. We offer things like Central-Texas acclimated locally grown seeds and plant starts/seedlings, seasonal flower arrangments, rainbow farm eggs, potted plants (succulents currently), seasonal garden produce grown without pesticides, cow shares for beef and dairy cows and learning/homeschool field trips. Our farm co-op partners also have the option to buy already processed farm-fresh grass fed, humanely raised meats like: beef, lamb, goat, turkey, and chicken.
Cow share and Chicken adoption partners are welcome to set up times to come visit the farm and see their animals with at least a week’s notice. If you have questions about any of the things we offer, feel free to reach out and contact the farmer’s wife for answers!
Our goals…
In the future, we plan to offer gardening camps, mason jar goods, baked goods, fabric goods, and honey. Of course, the farmer’s wife is also a photographer… so you can come get your photo taken and ask her about her rates for events, portraits, or your other photography needs any time!
Be sure to click these links to find out how you can get involved and be a part of our farm co-op: Our email list is a great place to start… Click here to sign up for email updates. OR CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR WEEKLY AVAILABLE LIST: Tiny Texas Farm Co-Op Goodness and ask the farm wife to put you on our co-op text group so you can get reminders each week with links to this page.
COW SHARE PROGRAMS
Dairy
The herd…
We board, milk, and care for a small herd of Jersey, Jersey-Guernsey and Texas Longhorn cattle. We are in the process of testing the entire herd for A2/A2 (our previous bull was, which means it’s likely our up and coming milking cows will be). We are now accepting applications for dairy cow share partners now that we are weaning our calf.
The waitlist…
We are taking names of those interested in cow sharing. Currently we only have one cow in production. If you are interested, please use the contact form and let us know. We will email you as milk start dates are nearing if you are on the list.
Our cows and what they eat…
This is a small family farm, not a commercial dairy. You are welcome to come visit the farm and see their pasture and our milking practices first hand. Our cows are pets and well treated members of the family. We do not plan to ever get organic certification, but we feed our cows grass, coastal hay, alfalfa hay, alfalfa pellets, and only while they are milking, once a day, they get a “treat” via a scoop or two of a high protein special blend of feed which contains cottonseed meal, milled grains, plant protein and fiber, vitamin supplements, and molasses. We have found that our milk cows lose weight and are generally not as healthy if we do not supplement them while they are producing milk and feeding calves. Like humans, they need extra calories and vitamins to make sure mama and baby thrive. I know there is a grass fed only craze, but we value the health of the cattle more than a fad label claim and we have seen great improvement in our herd over commercial dairy practices (some of them were “rescued” from a dairy, and in poor health).
Ready to participate in the back-to-nature, back-to-basics, local small farm, raw milk revolution, and adopt (own a portion of) a cow in our herd?
HOW IT WORKS:
In a dairy cow share, a shareholder pays a monthly fee (SHARE) that goes towards the costs of feeding, caring for the animal (vet costs, supplies, vitamins, etc.), and a portion of the labor and boarding costs of housing, grazing, and milking the dairy cow. Each share comes out to a small percentage of ownership in the cow, which translates into owning a comparable percentage of whatever products the animal produces (minus the poop, unless you need garden fertilizer, of course). The owner of Tiny Texas Farm retains managing rights as to the animal’s welfare, even if we sell over 50% of the cow in shares, because we still own more shares than any single shareholder.
ONE share of the cow and a partner-ownership of the animal on the farm is equal to one weekly gallon worth of product from your cow.
All shares are first come, first serve, according to when your name goes on the list. If shares are full for current production, you can still add your name to the list as sometimes people move away or decide to discontinue their share and wish to transfer it to someone else.
ANNUAL CONTRACT FEE
Contract Fee and Wait List…
To enter into agreement with the farm and secure your name on our wait list, you pay a contract fee of 25$. This fee is non-refundable and helps the farmer to know you are committed to partnering with the farm so you get priority notification of available products.
Signing the Contract…
CONTRACT DOWNLOAD
Click here to download the PDF… and contact us to make arrangements for getting us your signed document.
Once we notify you that the cow is producing and available for contract, you print and sign the PDF form and bring it or mail it to us along with the dues for your first month share fee. You only have to sign one document for the year as long as you give notification at the end of each 3 month period that you wish to continue for another 3 months. Every year, you must sign a new contract form and pay a new 25$ contract fee to secure your place in the cow share wait list line.
Your cow share will be based on a three month contract, paid on a monthly basis. It is due on the first day of the month. You may not cancel for the three month period, but you may transfer your share to someone else at any time. The new person would only need to pay the 25$ contract fee and continue paying your monthly share as they picked up their milk.
MONTHLY DAIRY COW SHARES
Paying your share…
Your cow share price is based on gallons of product from the cow. Tiny Texas Farm charges the equivalent of $8.50 per gallon for one share. If you were to buy one share of the cow, it would equal roughly $34.00 per month during your three month contract period (based on a month that has 4 weeks).
Due date…
Payment is due up front on the first day of the month.
Share ownership may be sold or transferred to a new owner at your discretion. There are no refunds.
Notifying the farmer of intent to continue…
If you do not notify the farmer before your contract period is up, it is assumed you will be continuing with the next three months. The farmer will notify you via email of your contract expiration only after the year mark. If your contract expires after the year mark, you run the risk of having someone else purchase your share if you do not notify the farmer of your intent to continue.
In case of the farm’s need to cancel…
In the rare case that your cow is no longer in production and we are unable to transfer your contract to another producing animal, we will refund you the pro-rated amount that you have left on your monthly payment, assuming you have not gotten the allotted amount of milk your shares covered for the month.
IMPORTANT:
**Desiring multiple gallons per week translates to multiple cow shares.**
Your milk…
Please do not sell any milk or milk products you receive from your cow share. MILK RECEIVED FROM A COW OR GOAT SHARE CANNOT BE SOLD PER STATE OF TEXAS LAW.
We do not heat pasteurize or treat the milk in any way. What you get is 100% raw Jersey milk. We skim the thicker top portion of heavy cream off of the milk about 80% of the time. Your milk will always come with some cream on top, because we do not homogenize the milk. It will taste like full-fat milk on top, 2% milk in the middle, and skim on the bottom… unless you stir it all up before each use. That’s just the way milk settles in nature, and the way God intended it!
Note: All responsibility for the procurement of health information about the uses of raw milk and health risks associated with consumption are the sole responsibility of the shareholder/cow share partner.
Cream is extra…
If you wish to get cream with your share as a separate product, it is 4$ for a small jar (it will vary in size depending on the week). There is no contract for cream, and you can add that to any monthly share as a weekly, monthly or bi-monthly extra. Just let the farmer know when you turn in your monthly share fee so we can make sure and save you however many jars each month you want. It’s nice to have on hand to make butter or sour cream… or to use in coffee or tea…. or to make home made heavy whipping cream and other delicious things.
OTHER COW SHARE REQUIREMENTS
Containers…
The Shareholder is responsible for procuring glass or steel containers for us to deposit your milk into. If you do glass jars, please make them no smaller than 1/2 gallon mason jars. The least amount of pour work we have to do, the better, because milking is hard work. All containers need well securing lids that are clean and dry. Do not leave your lids on the containers when you return them, or your containers might smell funny and grow bacteria by the time we add fresh milk, causing your milk to age quicker. Please have a bag with your name on it and your lids and containers in the bag so that we can fill your containers on the correct day and have the lids available to secure the milk before cold storage.
The Shareholder is responsible for disinfecting and cleaning the containers before returning them the next week to farm each week for re-use. This is why we suggest you have TWO containers minimum so that you can have one at home in use and one at the farm, clean and dry, ready to be filled at any given time. We can swap clean and filled containers when you pick up each week. Please place some sort of identifying sticker on your pails so that it will be clear to the farmer which pail belongs to which cow share partner, should your container at any time get separated from your storage bag.
We suggest buying 2.5 gallon/10 quart stainless milk pails from Shenandoah Homestead Supply. This is the best price I have seen and this particular can has the easiest lid to open, and no rubber gaskets which could cause extra clean up work or fishy smell to your milk if not cleaned properly. These cans make transporting a breeze and leave room for extra milk or cream should there be any to deposit in the canister. Sometimes buying a scratch and dent can or something off Craig’s List is also a good option. If you can find a good price on a 2.5 gallon pail, grab one!
You can ship your cans directly to our farm if you notify the farmer in advance to expect them, and we will place a temporary sticker on them until you can place your own. Leave us a message on our contact page and we will be glad to help you.
You can also check with the farmer because we occasionally have cans we buyback from past cow share partners (currently we have two cans available).
PROBLEMS
There are no refunds, whether or not you received milk for the week!
For example: You forgot that it was your scheduled milk pick up day and you did not call… or pick up was not possible because of your schedule or due to weather or any other variable. The farm will make every effort to allow you to re-schedule a pick up time if you call prior to your scheduled pick up, however, due to the expiration sensitivity of raw milk and limited cold storage space, the Farmer reserves the right to dispose of your share of product.
If you do not wish to have milk one week because you have some left over from the previous one, you may substitute eggs or other farm products that are listed as available at the time, or you can ask for more milk the following week instead, if it’s available. If you fail to pick up your milk as scheduled and do not inform the Farmer, you can not ask for a substitution or extra milk on your next pick up.
Beef
Beef shares… Dairy cattle are some of the best tasting in the world. Our next beef share will be scheduled for Spring 2023 if all goes as planned.
Meat processing dates are scheduled six months to a year in advance on wait list. If you purchase a share, you pay at the time of slaughter and get a set amount of 100% humanely raised beef that is raised on native Texas pasture. Our cattle get only 10% of their nutrition from beef maker feed produced by local Texas Producer’s Co-op.
If you wish to be notified of when OUR beef is coming available, please make sure to sign up for our emails. We will be mentioning that on the “What’s Available at the Farm” section.
Where’s the beef?
We have a limited amount of land and can only slaughter once or twice a year. That doesn’t mean we can’t help you get farm fresh meat, though!
We partner with other local beef farmers in our Central Texas area and make meat available to you for them in the interim timeframe while we do not have our own meat available. If you need beef, shoot us an email and we can hook you up with other farmers who can supply what you need. The beef we promote and sell is processed in a small Central Texas certified meat packing plant, not at some far away large processing plant. Meat is wrapped in either butcher paper, double wrapped butcher paper, or vacuum sealed, depending on the cut sheet.
We can also help you find humanely raised pork, chicken, turkey, rabbit, sheep and goat.
Support small farmers in Central Texas and eat meat that contains no “mystery” ingredients or chemical preservatives.
For more information about beef cow shares or local meats from small Texas farmers, contact us.
EGGS
We are currently selling rainbow eggs for 5$ a dozen. We make a stop in Cedar Park, Texas (servicing the North-Northeast Austin area suburbs each week). If you live in Central Texas and are interested in fresh farm eggs from bug-eating, free-roaming, soy-free chickens, please let us know. Some of the places we travel to or through every other week: Temple, Bryan, Austin, Round Rock, Taylor, Hutto, Pflugerville, Leander, Cedar Park, Georgetown, College Station, Caldwell, Cameron, Rockdale, and many smaller surrounding towns.
Egg contracts are for four weeks, so you pay for however many eggs you think you will use in a month up front. Even if you don’t end up using them all, our eggs are delivered with bloom in-tact (the bloom from the chicken keeps the eggs fresh for up to three months without refrigeration). We do not wash our eggs, but immediately place them in cartons for sale. We sell all our eggs or use them each week, so you will always get fresh eggs that have been laid the same week you receive them. We can provide you with a bunch of egg recipes if you need them, too!
Questions? More information about egg bloom can be found at the link in this sentence.
If you sign a monthly EGG CONTRACT you get additional bonuses besides delicious eggs:
- You may adopt a hen/chicken. This gives you the ability to get weekly emails and photos from the farm letting you know what your chicken is up to.
- You take priority over other customers because your eggs are scheduled and spoken for.
- You can visit the farm without paying field trip fees, and you have a more personal experience with the animals on the farm.
- You can name a chicken! Twice a year we add new chicks to our flock because everything is against chickens surviving… even themselves. Ha!
Can’t commit to a contract? No problem. You can text the farmer about your needs for that week and we will add you to our stops and get you however many eggs you need – no contract required. Just check in on our weekly availability page and see what is not spoken for yet. First come first serve.
SEASONAL GARDEN ITEMS
We have plant starts for your garden available at the beginning of the spring and fall garden seasons. Right now we do not have any plants available, but check back with us in about a month. Hopefully we will have some during the end of August through beginning of September 2022. We also sell seeds from plants raised on our farm. Check the Goodness Page to see what is available each week.
Currently it is high summer here in Central Texas and we are struggling to keep things watered in the drought, but have been blessed with a sea of tomato plants which are being harvested daily. In a few weeks we will be starting the fall garden season seeds and working on growing strong seedlings for cool weather crops that can transition into fall and withstand some light frosts.
We always have compost available (chicken hay, and cow manure) if you want to add that to your gardens, let us know and we will sell you a bucket of stinky soil superpower for your veggie garden.
All of our produce is pesticide free!!! Prices will be included on the weekly Tiny Texas Farm Co-Op Goodness Page. Feel free to ask us in the contact form if you are interested in something listed here and we will get back to you as promptly as possible. All produce is seasonal and there are only small quantities available.
HOMESCHOOL / FARM DAY FIELD TRIPS
We have cows, chickens, ducks, cats, bugs, plants, flowers, trees, grass, and space to have a picnic lunch outside. We are a homeschool family (been homeschooling since 2001 – that translates to over 20 years, y’all). We understand that sometimes city and suburban folk need a breath of fresh air and a sunny day-trip to keep mama sane. We would love to host your small homeschool group of 10 or less for a learning experience and enjoyable day-trip. Please feel free to contact the farmer’s wife for scheduling and information about what all the trip would entail. We offer super inexpensive rates and free samples of dairy products for field trip visitors.
We also welcome farm helpers if you want to come and work along side the farmers and pick our brains, while learning how to garden and farm, feel free to schedule a day. You might even take home some free goodies for your labor.
Thanks for your support of small farming, local farmers, and the State of Texas. Thanks for making life better for our animals and our family. YOU are part of the sustainable future of this planet with every dollar you spend on small farm products and every dollar you invest in caring for small farm raised flora and fauna.
(This little farmer plans to plant the whole wilderness here with yummy edible, medicinal, and beautiful plant things.)
We will update this page frequently with new farm products that are available, so check back with us every few months as the garden, herd and flock grow and change.