Avery’s Branch Farms

To provide families across Virginia with reliable access to tasty, healthy, naturally raised foods, and to steward our God-given resources to His glory by maintaining a consistent commitment to sustainable agriculture and humane farming practices. Avery’s Branch Farms is a first-generation farm created for the purpose of working alongside our children and offering them the opportunity to cultivate their interests in agriculture. Tim and Joy were high school sweethearts and have been married for more than thirty years. They have been blessed with four sons and two daughters: Meredith, Elliott, Oliver, Sullivan, Harrison, and Sheridan. May our sons be as plants grown up in their youth; May our daughters be as pillars, Supplying all kinds of produce; That our sheep may bring forth thousands And ten thousands in our fields; That our oxen may be well laden; That there be no breaking in or going out; That there be no outcry in our streets. Happy are the people who are in such a state; Happy are the people whose God is the LORD! As a couple, married in 1984 and blessed with six children, we have always been deeply committed to raising a generation of hard-working, productive young adults. In 2007, the opportunity presented itself for Tim to retire from his career of bridge-building and instead work alongside our children in a family-based business. While considering what that business might be, we decided to canvass the Richmond area to see if anyone might be interested in participating in a cow share program. In states where direct sale of raw (unpasteurized) milk is not permissible, people purchase a share in a cow and pay a farmer to board and milk their cow so that they can have access to real milk. Our older sons already had interests in sustainable, organic agriculture and we were familiar with cow share programs through family friends. We were amazed by the response of the community when we handed out flyers at local health food stores in July of 2007. With such positive feedback we started a cow share program and began selling shares and delivering milk to our new shareholders on August 15, 2007. Since we had no background in agriculture, we learned everything by reading books about natural, organic, sustainable farming. There were times that we would be driving in our van as a family and those in the front of the van would be reading one book aloud while the back of the van would be reading another book and shouting out important facts to the rest of us. With the enthusiasm and dedication of our older children, we quickly added to the farm the availability of poultry and pork. It is an understatement to say that our children worked hard (and continue to do so) in the new family venture of sustainable farming. Our oldest daughter, Meredith, and two oldest sons, Elliott and Oliver, willingly sacrificed in so many ways to ensure the success of the farm. We absolutely could not have done this without them. Now that the younger three children, Sullivan, Harrison, and Sheridan, are getting older, they’ve adopted the same spirit of teamwork observed in their older siblings and they too are now an integral part of the farm’s continued success. By the time the farm was two years old, we had outgrown the small piece of land we owned and realized we would either need to limit the number of families we serve or locate another farm on which to grow. Because of our commitment to debt-free living and inability to purchase a large farm mortgage-free, we opted to look for a rental farm. In April of 2009 we dedicated one week to searching for a farm and assigned the older family members specific tasks: Tim would search back roads for possible farm rental properties during milk deliveries. Meredith would do an exhaustive search through MLS as well as online county tax records. Joy would list the home we currently lived in to see if there was any interest as a rental. Elliott and Oliver would offer valuable insight as we discus