Raised in Texas

Farmers and suppliers make the most of what the land has to offer

By Andrea Agardy 

Not long after Yellow Cottage Farm owner Suzy Kerr and her family adopted an organic diet, they had a craving.

“We wanted some organic pickles,” she recalls. “There was no such thing. Trying to find pickling cucumbers was a really big challenge at the big stores, so we started buying from farmers markets.”

Kerr took knowledge local growers shared with her, added what she learned thanks to YouTube and began growing her own food.

“We were producing a lot of our own organic stuff because we just couldn’t get it at the store,” she says.

A Business Takes Root

Kerr’s garden was soon producing more than her family could consume, and Yellow Cottage Farm was born.

“I had figured things out and was starting to do pretty good, so I had extra,” she says.

Thanks to a pair of 50-foot-long greenhouses, fresh produce grows year-round. The Livingston farm is well known for its lettuce and salad greens, which often sell as salad bowls.

“We do a really nice salad mix, and we added our baby carrots and baby beets. We have radishes, edible flowers and microgreens,” Kerr says. “It’s like an ounce of microgreens on 6 ounces of lettuce, and we put it in a really pretty bowl. That’s our specialty, along with stir-fry greens, leafy greens, collard greens and kale.”

The farm also offers its customers fresh eggs from Kerr’s free-range chickens as well as baked goods made by Kerr’s daughters, Jordan D’Augelli and Stephanie Kerr.

Growing a Community

Kerr has been working to coordinate her efforts with those of other local growers and ranchers. She offers Farm Fresh Box, a package that includes eggs, bread, and produce from her farm, along with meat from a local cattle ranch.

“You get pretty much what you would need for two or three days — all farm eating,” she says. “We’re putting these meals together with what we grew, and it’s really cool.”

Kerr has stepped up her efforts to work with other local producers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A lot of people are rallying around the local farmers right now, it seems. It’s pretty awesome here,” she says. “I’m really impressed with how people are pulling together and supporting each other.”

Kerr encourages other area producers interested in working together to reach out to her.

“We are partnering with other farms that have other things. We’re aiming for one-stop shopping, setting up like a little storefront that people could come and get fresh beef here, as well as our stuff and local raw honey and fresh blueberries,” she says. “There’s a lot of agriculture out here.”

Coldspring Farm & Ranch

Just a few miles away is Coldspring Farm and Ranch, a supply store owned by Vicki and Gary LeMere.

“We’ve fed everything from emus to guinea pigs,” says Vicki LeMere. “You name it, we can get it if you need the feed.”

Over its 25-year history, the store has attracted customers from as far away as the Houston metropolitan area.

“We have got quite a few who keep cattle yearround,” LeMere says. “We’ve got customers who are just your little backyard hobby farms with chickens and pigs and goats and anywhere in between.”

The store carries feed from Wendland’s Farm Products, Purina and Boyce Feeds and Grains. In addition to selling feed for just about any animal under the sun, the store also offers a variety of medications.

“We do have your typical wormers, and we have some general antibiotics, a lot of the topicals for wound care,” she says. “The vet is right here next to us, so if they’re over there visiting with her, then they’re going to come visit with us.”

Coldspring Farm & Ranch also stocks a wide range of gardening supplies, from fertilizers and insecticides to seeds and potted plants. The staff is happy to answer customers’ gardening questions and to share their expertise.

“We do our best to try to help,” LeMere says. “We’re not experts, but we know a little bit.”

LeMere prides herself on providing a level of customer service that’s second to none.

“We just try to give everybody good service, treat them right, treat them honestly, and, hopefully, they like us and keep coming back,” she says. “We try to give them a fair price and try to understand what they’re wanting and what they need. Above all, just try to have what they want in the store when they come in after it.”

The Benefits of Broadband

Both Kerr and LeMere say a strong and reliable broadband connection, like the service they receive from Eastex Telephone Cooperative, is vital.

At least once a week, Kerr emails a list of available items to customers. They can review the list and place their orders for pickup or delivery.

“Most of my business comes from the fresh sheet right now,” she says. “We wouldn’t have anything without the internet. It’s really critical infrastructure for us. My smartphone — that’s where I do most of the Facebook stuff, and the internet is where we do the fresh sheet. Without those two things, only people that drove by would know about us.”

LeMere uses her broadband connection to order the products that stock her shelves and to invoice customers.

“The internet is a big thing now,” she says. “One of the best things Eastex ever did for us was put the DSL in and give us the high-speed internet. That was one of the best things in the world that they could have done, and that really helped a lot.”

Yellow Cottage Farm

7964 State Highway 146, Livingston
(281) 229-5838 | Search for Yellow Cottage Farm on Facebook
To be added to the mailing list for the Fresh Sheet, email Yellow Cottage Farm.

Coldspring Farm & Ranch

13485 State Highway 150 W., Coldspring
(936) 653-2766 | Search for Coldspring Farm & Ranch on Facebook.