Member Spotlight: Tim and Joy Alexander of Avery’s Branch Farms

Tim Alexander “came home.”

When the Alexander family says that Tim came home, they are fondly referring to the time that Tim quit his 20-year career in bridge building to begin the faith adventure of farming alongside his family. Avery’s Branch Farms is the result.

Tim and Joy Alexander met in their teens, married after one semester of college, and quickly pursued their dream, complete with accumulating debt. After the closure of Joy’s maternity shop threatened their other resources, the Alexanders purposed to follow Biblical principles of finance to become and live debt free. This decision was the first step toward Tim’s coming home.

The next step for their homeschooling family occurred when their sons Elliott and Oliver reached their teens. Their daughter Meredith was thriving, and the younger children were content, but Elliott and Oliver were eager to use their time and energy on “man’s work.” Joy soon realized that, while she could direct their academics in the morning, in the afternoons she could only introduce them to a woman’s world. “The only type of training I could offer them,” Joy says, “was how to organize kitchen cabinets. The older boys needed a man to introduce them to a man’s world.” Tim agreed.

For several years, after discovering the “hidden treasure in foreclosed properties,” the Alexanders had bought and lived in homes while renovating them for resale. When their latest home sold, Tim and Joy recognized the financial door opening for Tim to come home. They hoped their real estate business would continue to provide for the boys to work alongside their father, but the bottom fell out of the housing market. The Alexanders owned several side businesses, but none of them had the potential to support their family. Nevertheless, Elliott’s fascination with sustainable agriculture led this “freakishly entrepreneurial” family to buy their own cow and begin yet another business, never dreaming that this step would be God’s provision for them all.

With knowledge gleaned only from books, friends, and YouTube, the Alexander family began their faith adventure in farming in August 2007. And farming took faith. Tim says, “The only trade I knew was building, so I thought it was the only thing I could teach my kids. Nothing I’d done prepared me for farming. Now my sons know as much as I do, because we learned together, and we’re grateful for how the Lord led.”

Their first learning experience was where to buy a cow. One day after her devotions, Joy told Tim that she knew where they would get the cows. When he asked where, she replied, “My Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills.” So Avery’s Branch Farms, named after a creek bordering their land, began with less than $5,000 to purchase one Jersey cow and one milking machine. Tim says, “The Lord made it happen. You know that stuff, you believe it, but belief in your heart is not the same thing as actually taking the step. We took a step, not having any idea what would happen, but the Lord carried us through.”

Within two years they had outgrown their original farm. Living debt free meant that renting an abandoned farm was their only way to have more space. The adventure continued as they devoted one week to praying and searching for a farm that suited their needs. The Lord provided a verse to confirm His leading, and a century-old abandoned farm not far away.

The Alexanders now have a herd of 70 Jersey cows, offering unprocessed milk through a cowboarding program. Cowboarding is a legal transaction in states where buying and selling unpasteurized milk is illegal. The premise is simple. With a one-time payment, referred to as a cowshare, a customer becomes a shareholder in a cow. An additional monthly boarding fee pays farmers to milk and care for the cow. The shareholder receives a gallon of fresh milk weekly for each cowshare owned.

In addition to their dairy products, the Alexanders produce all-natural eggs and poultry, grass-fed beef, woodland pastured pork, and seasonal produce. Avery’s Branch is promoted as a sustainable farm, marketing only all-natural products. But those aren’t buzzwords. Elliott says, “Words to describe sustainable agriculture change year to year. When ‘natural’ became popular, it was redefined. The center of our endeavor here is to produce clean food without antibiotics, hormones, or synthetic chemicals. We never use chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides on our land. We aspire to produce a product that is completely good, with nothing bad for the consumer.” He explains their philosophy of sustainable farming by saying, “Conventional thought is taking from the land all you can. We’re trying to build into the land all we can, so it will serve us well in the future, and replenish it with systems that complement what is already there.”

Sustainable farming requires effort from the entire family. Meredith, (now married) does marketing, bookkeeping, and billing for one of their ventures. Elliott is responsible for raising and processing 3,000 chickens each year. Oliver has begun an all-natural premium ice cream business, and his siblings are always volunteering to sample his latest batch. Sullivan, Harrison, and Sheridan mix homeschooling with their chores. Sullivan and Harrison take care of the calves and enjoy being around the other animals, while Sheridan likes to take down hay and give impromptu tours to visitors. But Oliver says, “It all revolves around the milking. Everything else is done between those two times.”

One reason for the Alexanders’ success is their attentive customer and shareholder service. After ordering online, customers and shareholders pick up their fresh food each week at one of eighteen current drop sites in the Richmond area. Those who prefer, come directly to the farm.

Events at Avery’s Branch Farms provide the community and customers with the opportunity “to better know their farmers” and to celebrate. Monthly farm tours from spring to fall are geared to customers and include visiting the animals, discussing sustainable farming, and watching the evening milking. Of the tours, Joy says, “We so enjoy the people. We want them to come out and to understand what organic farming practices really look like. If the consumer is educated, he is our very best customer.” Field trips are available for schools. With the growing interest in “going green,” public schools are eager for farm field trips that promote environmental awareness and concern.

Avery’s Branch Farms also offers rustic or formal settings for weddings, banquets, conferences, reunions, and retreats. Participants choose either the outdoor scenery of pastures and pond or the indoor setting of their vintage barn. The Alexanders hold a yearly barn dance, where, for additional fun, they set up an obstacle course with bales, twine, and tires.

Perhaps the most unique feature of Avery’s Branch Farms is their apprenticeship program. The Alexanders invite all willing workers to come “get your hands dirty.” A biweekly work day adventure introduces poultry processing to those 12 years old and over, sharp knives and all. For those at least 18 years old with a more serious agricultural bent, a seasonal internship is available. These apprentices work closely with the family throughout the summer in everything from milking cows to construction, from pasture management to veterinary practices. The Alexanders “absolutely love” teaching their apprentices what they have learned and find that working alongside them is mutually beneficial. The apprentices gain important skills, and the Alexanders receive help with their workload.

At Avery’s Branch Farms, every day involves work. But their work is fulfilling, because the Alexanders don’t think of work in terms of a wage, but in being satisfied with what they are producing and their quality of life. They share the work, and they pull for each other. When one of them wants to do something or go somewhere, Tim says, “We do whatever we have to do to make sure they can do that.” More importantly, the Alexanders share their spiritual adventure. Elliott says, “Because we are renters and do not know the future, we have to rely on the Lord, like the Israelites in the wilderness. Being in farming brings Scripture alive in noticeable ways. So much in the Bible is based on agriculture—like references to a calf being freed from the stall, or a mother hen gathering her chicks. We’ve seen what that’s like, and it brings understanding.”

The Alexander family has discovered that working alongside each other is a rewarding adventure, worthy of pursuit. Tim says, “No job is too big for the Lord, and we don’t try to corner Him in.” Joy adds, “He is giving us the best years of our lives, working together as a family.” The entire Alexander family is thankful that Tim came home.