We were lucky to catch up with Julie Martin recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Julie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Mother Luck Ranch started as a family-first idea. As new parents we had really dove head first into learning all we could about providing optimal nourishment for our girls, through pregnancy and beyond. That journey took me through a 200-hour herbalism certification during my first pregnancy, an introduction to nose-to-tail eating, and my husband, Neil, began spending his days listening to podcasts about regenerative agriculture. It was through that learning experience back in 2020, with a one-year-old at home and another one the way, that we made the decision to sell our Austin home for acreage in the Texas Hill Country.
If it takes seven organic oranges today (because even organic produce is being grown in nutrient-depleted soils) to get the equivalent vitamins and minerals that our grandparents got from just one standard orange, then the only way we were going to be able to provide a truly nourishing upbringing for our girls was to grow it ourselves. Everything goes back to the soil–it is the foundation to our food’s nutrient profile, whether it is produce, fruits, meats, or dairy.
Our mission is to provide sustainable agriculture to the surrounding community, to promote soil restoration, and foster educational agritourism to share best practices of symbiotic farming and ranching principles without the use of chemical inputs.
Our vision is to become a community hub for regenerative agriculture learning and inspiration, a top resource for holistic wellness, and a worldwide example of an abundantly profitable small-scale ranching operation.
Julie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Neil and I both come from corporate backgrounds with no farming or ranching experience. We didn’t grow up harvesting dinner from the backyard or learning to cook meals from scratch. This has all been a steep learning curve, but one that we felt was critical so that those lost ancestral skills can be passed onto our next generation, and shared with everyone else setting out with similar goals to rekindle their heritages.
What we lack in agricultural experience, we make up for in business-know-how, logistics development, and efficiency creation. These skills and life wisdoms weren’t just lost through our lineage, but the majority of our society has become very separated from the land that sustains us. So we’ve spent the last four years going through a new education. In that we’re developing replicable systems, educational tools, and truly nourishing foods, products, and experiences for our community.
We’re just solving problems that presented in our own lives and bringing solutions to share. When we needed a feed for our chickens, it took months to track down a mill that was actually aware that farmers were spraying Glyphosate on non-GMO grains as a desiccant just weeks before harvest. We knew the label carried no weight anymore yet so many manufacturers are still touting it as a selling point. Then we built that relationship and now we retail their feed for other community members with the same priorities. We’ve had ranchers drive an hour to source the best quality with us.
We also recently launched an all organic apparel line as we’re transitioning our own wardrobes from synthetics. Polyester, nylon, rayon, and acrylic are all highly chemically processed plastic and those fabrics shed microplastics that get into our waterways and our bloodstreams. My education is actually in retail marketing and management, and fashion design, so this was a fun one for me!
As we continue to make shifts in our own lives, learn new skills to share with our daughters, find paths to better nourishing our bodies and souls, and create processes to make these transitions easier we will continue to share those through blogs, books, and on-ranch experiences, along with conversations like this and just real down-home chats with our neighbors and friends.
In the next year we are launching our commercial kitchen and herb shop which will allow us to ship so many goodies to y’all. We are also launching a new concept: Ranch Shares. Through the Ranch Share program we will be opening up our diverse ranch offerings from meats, produce, fruits, fresh cut flowers, ready-made meals, and herb shop items to a limited number of local families with weekly or bi-weekly pickups.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Honestly, we love sharing knowledge. We’re not gatekeepers–we’re open books. Not only that, but I’m going to send you ten links to podcasts, books, articles, and products, after we’ve talked because I want you to succeed, or feel better, or ditch some toxins, or whatever it may be. Sometimes I leave a conversation and wonder if my word-vomit was too much, but for the most part the things that we focus on are so contrary to our upbringings that people are eager to learn how to feel better, how to eat better, how to detox, and how to enter into their own homesteading, or small-scale farming or ranching operations. We’re just friendly and like to chit-chat. That goes a long way.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
Both Neil and I were working full-time when we bought the ranch, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to afford it. From day one out in the country it was our dream to make the land our full-time living. Like any new enterprise there’s a lot of ups and downs and learning curves, plus some miscalculations. Meat chicken profitability wasn’t quite what we thought it would be when we sourced heritage birds instead of genetically-modified frankenbirds, and when we fed quality feed instead of feed store fluff. We had a restaurant express interest in high weekly quantities so we dove in the deep end but the orders never materialized and their doors ended up closing shortly thereafter. After that, our business plan transformed a few times, but having that transition period gave us the grace to pivot and refine our plan to where we are today. We also purchased all the big equipment and raw materials early on while we were both employed so that today, as we are in the process of making the switch to full-time Mother Luck Ranchers, our overhead would be much more manageable.
We are on the precipice of scaling, and confident that this year is going to manifest abundance (in all regards) as we’ve been devoted to setting a solid foundation to launch from.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://motherluckranch.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/motherluckranch
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/motherluckranch
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliemartintx/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAoB1SftswViaMIbzg24IJw
Image Credits
Richard Ballard (family photo on tractor)