From Farm to Table

Consumer supported agriculture model helps small farmers keep growing during pandemic

By Fred Afflerbach | Photos by Skeebo and courtesy of Texas Farm Fresh

When the coronavirus pandemic crippled the Texas restaurant business last year, Sam Maggard was in a pickle. As the general manager of Tonkawa Farm in Salado, he had built a niche selling pasture raised chicken to Central Texas high-end restaurants. Stuck with a market that was shrinking fast, Maggard shifted gears and adopted a popular business strategy called Consumer Supported Agriculture. Customers could now go online and order not just his locally raised chicken, but fresh vegetables, beef, bison, fruit in season, herbs and teas, all delivered to their door once a week.

Using the CSA model, and under the business name and website Texas Farm Fresh, the delivery trucks roll deep into the heart of Texas. Starting from a shipping dock in Jarrell, drivers deliver across Bell County to Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Dallas, and many points in between. The fun begins when customers open an online account. Texas Farm Fresh offers a multitude of options — a vegetables only box, a protein box, a farm box. And if customers see something they don’t like, or want something they don’t see at first, they can customize their order. An assortment of tempting add-ons such as coffee and tea, eggs and dairy, bison, and Wagyu beef are available.

“We have numerous, family-run businesses with jams and jellies that are all done through a commercial kitchen,” Maggard said. “They all come to a centralized point that is us. That helps with a lot of the mom-and-pop places that have limited resources. They might do a farmers’ market but they’re not reaching the people like we are because we’re essentially covering most of the state.”

Maggard is quick to point out that Community Supported Agriculture is not like shopping for groceries online from a major chain.

Everything is locally grown, he says, from produce to dairy to his pasture-raised chicken. And there are about 1,400 products available.
“They’re getting organic produce. They’re getting things that they know where it’s coming from,” Maggard said. “And the prices are fairly close to chain grocery stores.

I’ve got one customer who says she can get the same amount of produce for the money as at a chain store but would rather support local. Almost everything’s from Texas except certain items in certain times of year.”

Over in College Station, Addison Cooper eagerly awaits his weekly delivery from Texas Farm Fresh. An IT engineer working from home, Cooper has lost 50 pounds in the last six months by working out and swearing off fast food. A self-professed foodie, he says Texas Farm Fresh makes cooking fun. And the dishes are delicious.

“Eating the junk from the grocery store does not even compare,” Cooper said. “You don’t realize how bland and boring it is until you have the good stuff.”

Cooper has signed on to a subscription (also called a share) and receives a weekly email depicting what’s in the next delivery. “If there’s certain things you don’t want, you can replace it with things you do want. I use that as a meal plan. Whatever’s in there, it’ll make me create some variety. That helps with my cooking skills and variety for the meals.”

Besides supporting local agriculture, Texas Farm Fresh supports a lighter carbon footprint by cutting back on waste. Leftover food is donated to a local food bank or zoo. And the delivery box is a reusable plastic bin with a long lifespan—up to 500 round trips before it’s recycled. And unlike at grocery stores where workers liberally bag produce and other items separately, creating more waste, the food is mostly placed loose in the box, using as little packaging as possible. But to prevent shipping damage, they place heavy items like potatoes on the bottom and fragile items like tomatoes on top.

Maggard says that the food Texas Farm Fresh delivers to a customer’s doorstep came out of the ground within the last week. “It’s about as fresh as you can get it, without having your own farm.”

For more on Tonkawa Farm and Texas Farm Fresh, go to txfarmfresh.com.