The American Dream is alive and well at Homestead Farms, where Agritourism has Helped Turn a Family Farm into a Thriving Business
There may be nothing more American than a farm, owned and operated by 5 generations of one family. Michael Farris is a fifth generation dairy farmer. His family raised dairy cows, but eventually the farm, unable to survive, shut down.
After college Michael decided to restart the dairy farm, but with one major difference. This time he would raise goats. Homestead Farms is a gem, and has managed to keep alie their historic American heritage while also updating their business model in a truly modern manner.
One of the biggest challenges a farmer faces is the high capital needed up front to start a new form of farm business. To combat this, Michael decided to raise Nubian goats. They are cheaper to buy than cows, need smaller living facilities and less acreage to graze on. Overall, raising goats cost less.
Set on making cheese to sell to local stores, the couple became discouraged with all the red tape and legalities surrounding the sale of cheese. Michael said it was daunting.
“After we ran into some hiccups we had so many people asking to buy the milk from us we just started selling the fluid milk and we have yet to keep up with the demand,” he noted.
But in 2007, Michael and his wife, Sarah, decided to chase their dream, and officially started Homestead Farms, located just outside of Ft. Worth, Texas. Surrounded by businesses and suburbs, they farm the same land his family once did.
As the farm has grown and expanded, they have been able to hire family members, once again making this a true family farm. Sarah said she is thrilled with the simple act of having a family business. “We work long, hard hours, but at least were always together. Getting to work with our family, that’s really neat,” she enthused.
While goat milk is their number one product, they also raise chickens for eggs, hogs and cows for meat and grow vegetables. They sell their own products along with other local items such as salsa, honey and beef jerky at their market located on the farm.
In the future, they plan to raise cattle on land further outside the city and are putting the finishing touches on their aquaponic greenhouse. Aquaponics is a symbiotic system of raising fish and cultivating plants. This will allow them to sell fish in their market and provide greens year-round.
But, like most small farms, this isn’t all that they offer.
Small farms like Homestead Farms struggle to make it. They cannot compete with the output of large farms and often have to get off-farm jobs to survive. To combat this, many small farms have started to offer agritourism. Some examples include, bed and breakfast stays, farm-to-table dinners and workshops. This has been so successful that income per farm from agritourism has doubled nationwide since 2002 and many are able to work solely on their farms.
Homestead offers birthday parties, tours for all ages and school field trips. But their biggest draw is their summer camps for kids. During camp, kids get to be a farmer for a day: milk the goats, feed the animals, pull weeds and pick vegetables.
Sarah explained, “The kids love it, as do the parents.” In fact, demand is so high that they sell out every farm camp they offer.
“I like to really teach the kinds old school farming and how things really work together,” said this energetic farmer, and wife. “I really like to drive home that our pigs eat all of our old produce, same thing with our chickens. They all work together and then they create compost. Everything works together.”
Homestead’s main goal is to get the community out on the farm. Sarah, who has a background in nutrition, is passionate about getting people of all ages to know where their food is coming from.
As Sarah said, “I think that’s a huge part of growing up that’s lacking in childhood all over America today. That is the driving force behind the business.”
