LOCAL Houston | The City Guide AUGUST 2015 | Page 26

Local August 2015_FINAL.qxp_002houston 7/27/15 12:18 PM Page 26

A FARM STICKING TO ITS GUNS
THIS IS NOT A STORY ABOUT HOW PEOPLE CHOOSE TO EAT. THE REALITY IS THAT SOME PEOPLE ARE GOING TO EAT
MEAT – THE POINT IS HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO KNOW THAT THE MEAT YOU ARE EATING IS COMING FROM ETHICALLY TREATED ANIMALS. YONDER WAY FARM IN FAYETTEVILLE, TX, IS HOME TO THE KRAMER FAMILY – JASON (AKA
FARMER JASON), LYNSEY (BEHIND THE SCENES, MOTHER, WIFE, ESSENTIAL OIL AND NATURAL BEAUTY GURU) AND
THEIR FOUR CHICKS: KAYLYN, 11; LANEY RAE, 8 (WHO SHADOWS HER FATHER AND IS A MINI-FARMER IN HER OWN
RIGHT); RUTHIE, 6, AND EXIE JO, 4 – AND THEY ARE FARMING THE WAY GOD INTENDED US TO. WITH INTEGRITY, HONESTY AND RESPECT TO THE LAND AND HIS ANIMALS. THE SENSE OF PEACE I FELT THERE WAS UNDENIABLE WHICH IS
ALMOST A CONTRADICTION SINCE MANY OF THEIR ANIMALS ARE INDEED RAISED FOR PRODUCTS OR SLAUGHTER.

After six years farming in Brenham on his family’s land, in 2012 Jason and Lynsey started looking for a new home for their already growing business. “Because of our business, we needed
to have a farm store. We’ve always got an employee that’s here so they need to have a place
to live. We had to have a big working barn because so much of what we do is life in a barn.
You gotta have places to raise chicks and for the sheep to go when it’s raining, just a safe place.
And this was an amazing old late-1800’s barn – and that is what really drew me here.”
The Kramer family relies on repeat customers to support its business plan. And there is a lot of
confusion plus a lack of regulation in terms of where meat, eggs, milk, etc., come from.
The biggest obstacles the farm faces are:
CONVENIENCE – “I think it’s not real easy or convenient for people to do this,” shares Lynsey.
“I think home delivery would help us out.” Which is something they are working on. Right now
Jason loads up orders and does deliveries every other week. Wednesdays, it’s 6 or 7 in
Houston, as well as Thursdays with over 20 stops including other towns.
CUSTOMER EDUCATION – “A lot of what you are buying in the store is misleading, when
the government allows big agriculture to be able to use small farm terms. It’s been completely
adulterated because you can now have grass-fed beef raised in a feed lot. Well, that was never
the intention of the farms coming along with the term grass-fed beef. Same thing with free-range
chickens. They can still be raised in a house as long as they have access to outside which is a
dirt floor with no food or water. Why would a chicken go out there?” As we walk all over the
farm there are dogs, chickens, pigs, turkeys, even a few lone ducks, all flowing in and out of
their “designated” pens.
AND THEN THERE’S COST – “We can lay it out and show how sustainable farming looks
versus how conventional farming looks and people will inevitably go ‘gosh, I’m appalled; no
animal should live that way and I don’t want to support a system like that.” But then you lay up
a picture of $7 per dozen eggs versus $1 per dozen eggs and it’s really not so bad that those
animals are living that way anymore