Nick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | life@gainesvilletimes.com
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gainesvilletimes.com
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Hall County couple with deep agricultural
roots growing own Habersham cattle farm
Photos by ABBY STANCH I For The Times
Kyle, left, and Caroline Lewallen stand in April 2019 on their Habersham County farm, teXga Farms. Below left: The Lewallen family is
buying steers from local farmers in Hall and Jackson counties to fill out the herd at the family’s direct-to-consumer beef farm in Habersham
County.
BY NICK BOWMAN
nbowman@gainesvilletimes.com
Jaemor Farms’ peach paparazzi is hang
ing up the camera for a new project with
more of a Texas angle.
Caroline Lewallen, the marketer
behind the Hall County farm’s popular
social media accounts and the #peachpa-
parazzi hashtag, is leaving the business at
the end of January to focus on a direct-to-
consumer beef business she and her hus
band, Kyle, started in 2017. The first cattle
arrived on the farm in 2019.
TeXga Farms — a mashup representing
Kyle’s home of Austin, Texas, and Caro
line’s native Georgia — operates from
40 acres of pasture in Habersham County
near Clarkesville.
The fledgling beef farm is bucking the
trend in the United States, where the num
ber of farmers and share of farmland has
been falling for years even while produc
tivity on large farms continues to increase.
Georgia had almost 7,000 fewer farms
in 2017 than it did in 2002, according to the
USDA. Meanwhile, the average farm size
has increased by about 20 acres.
“This has been happening since the
’50s,” Nathan Eason, White County exten
sion coordinator, told The Times in 2019.
“One farm used to feed 10 families, now
the average farm feeds 300-400 families.”
Lewallen said startup costs have been
the biggest challenge for teXga Farms,
even with family in the business and con
nections to practiced hands in the farming
community.
“Starting something and having to buy
the land and equipment and then buy the
feed and the animals, all of that — the
startup cost isn’t necessarily friendly,”
Lewallen said on Tuesday, Jan. 28. “But
when it’s something you want to do and
believe in, we figured out how to make
that happen.”
It’s a natural fit for the couple; the
daughter of Georgia Agriculture Com
missioner Gary Black, Caroline grew up
working her father’s cattle farm in Jack-
son County, while Kyle Lewallen owned
and operated a food truck at Texas A&M,
where they met.
At the peak of their season, the couple
manage about 30 cattle on the farm and
hope to grow to 50. Once they’ve been
weaned, the cows, all
steers, are purchased
from local farmers in
Lula and Clermont as
well as from Black’s farm
in Jefferson.
They arrive at teXga
Farms at about 500 to 600
pounds and gain about
another half-ton on the
farm before they’re sent
to slaughter.
For now, the farmers
aren’t breeding their own
cattle.
“We decided not to
purchase the mama cows
and instead buy from
growers who have an
established herd,” Lewal
len said. “Maybe one day
we can do that.”
The cows graze on
grass and have access to
grain on the farm but aren’t fed one or the
other exclusively.
It might be that you’ve had some beef
from the farm already — the Lewallens’
product has been used at 2 Dog restaurant
in Gainesville and it’s on the menu at Har
vest Habersham in Clarkesville.
Selling to restaurants has been both a
way to move their product and get their
name out, and all of it has been part of a
learning curve for the family.
“Growing up, what we would do is feed
out and sell a whole animal or a half of an
animal, so you’re looking at somewhere
between 300 and 600 pounds of meat in
one purchase,” Lewallen said. “A lot of
people don’t have freezer space for that.
In our first wave of sales, we sold 30-pound
beef boxes.”
But even the 30-pounders were an ambi
tious buy for most customers, she noted,
and they’ve offered up smaller quantities
for sale at a time.
“A challenge is something he enjoys,”
Lewallen said of her hus
band, “so we went back
to the drawing board
and said, ‘All right, how
do we service these
customers?”’
The farm broke its
box down and currently
offers packs of ground
beef in 5-pound incre
ments, burger patties,
filets, New York strips
and ribeyes.
Buying a 30-pound box
at $9.99 per pound will
land you sirloins, roasts,
tenderloins, strips, rib-
eyes, stew meat, burger
patties and ground beef.
The per-pound price bot
toms out on the website
at $6.99 per pound for a
comfortable 240 pounds
of red meat.
The offerings could
change depending on where teXga Farms
settles in the market and where it finds its
niche.
The farm is getting quality right in its
first year, according to Tate O’Rouke.
O’Rouke and her husband were cel
ebrating their ninth wedding anniversary
earlier in January, and rather than trying
to find childcare to go out to dinner on a
Wednesday night, they opted for a steak
dinner at home.
They went with a couple of New York
strips from the Lewallen farm and
were impressed.
“My husband is a very good cook, but
you can’t cover up — if the quality of the
meat isn’t there, it’s not going to be a very
good steak,” O’Rouke said.
The steaks came thick-cut, vacuum-
packed and frozen. Thawed overnight in
the fridge, the steaks went into a hot cast-
iron with not much seasoning and were
served with creamed spinach, balsamic-
cooked mushrooms and a bottle of red
wine.
“They were delicious,” O’Rouke said.
“We want to support a friend and a local,
but we wouldn’t continue to purchase it if
it wasn’t a good product.”
In the year ahead, the farm will focus on
getting its beef into more local restaurants
— always pitching the “local beef tastes
better” angle.
Meanwhile, some social media research
suggests there are at least 100,000 people
within a half-hour of the farm who are
interested in locally sourced food.
“We’re small right now but really
believe in using those tools, and quite
frankly believe a lot of farmers ought to be
doing that, they just may not know how,”
Lewallen said. “We feel like we have a
little bit of a leg up in that area.”
In the future, the couple could lean on
Kyle’s cooking experience — maybe some
smoked brisket or a branded barbecue
rub — but definitely in the works is a cam
paign of videos focusing on best methods
of cooking beef.
The first year in business for the Lewal
lens has been a “learning year” for the
family, Caroline said.
With a lot on the line and as she leaves
Jaemor behind, it’s also been a year of
faith.
“We’ve slowly been really gearing up
for this for about three years. We just feel
like the door was opened to do it now, and
when the Lord tells you do something, you
do it,” she said. “You just have to step on
faith and trust that this is the path he wants
us to walk on, and if anything the food will
be good on the way. ”
‘We’ve slowly been
really gearing up
for this for about
three years. We just
feel like the door
was opened to do
it now, and when
the Lord tells you
do something, you
do it.’
Caroline Lewallen
co-owner, teXga Farms
South Hall to see 2 new, 1 renovated restaurants
LAYNE SALIBA I The Times
Stephen McGruder hopes to open his new burger joint, On The Go
Burgers and Shakes, in the next couple of weeks.
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
On the Go Burgers
& Shakes
Stephen McGruder hopes to
open his new burger joint, On The
Go Burgers and Shakes, in the next
couple of weeks.
The spot he’s rented was pur
pose-built for a quick-hit burger
shop — because it was the old
Checkers off of Wallis Road in
Flowery Branch. He’s kept the
original restaurant’s look with the
small kitchen, double drive-thru
and even left the checkered tables
outside for those who want to “dine
in.” The Checkers sign easily spot
ted from Interstate 985 still towers
overhead, too.
Don’t expect anything you’d see
on Food Network at On the Go,
though.
“It’s fresh ground beef, but they
are by no stretch gourmet burg
ers,” McGruder said. “It’s going to
be affordable and something you
can get for lunch.”
After going out to lunch in the
area a while back, he was dis
appointed when he picked up a
burger from one of the fast-food
chains, so he set out to change it.
“It’s not a gourmet burger,”
he said of what his restau
rant will serve. “It’s just a real,
good burger.”
He’ll have single-, double- and
triple-patty burgers along with
hot dogs, chicken fingers and
chicken sandwiches.
There’s one item on the menu
you might not expect when you
hear the name of the restaurant. As
a 22-year veteran of the Air Force,
McGruder said he used to get the
sandwich all the time when he was
stationed near Philadelphia.
“Me and my family, we used
to go up to Philadelphia to get a
cheesesteak,” McGruder said. “So
although we are On the Go Burgers
& Shakes, we’re also going to have
cheesesteaks.”
And to satisfy your sweet tooth,
he’ll be serving Mayfield ice
cream.
While he plans on opening the
restaurant in the next two weeks,
he’s planning a grand opening for
late March.
Taco’s Tacos
This new taco shop’s address
is technically in Buford, but it’s
located in that weird Flow-bra-
selt-uford stretch of Hall County.
On Hancock Drive, next to the
new JAX Fine Wine & Spirits and
tucked behind the Kroger shop
ping center, Taco’s Tacos is serving
the real deal street tacos — hitting
a different market than the Taco
Bell across the street.
The menu includes tacos, tortas,
gorditas, quesadillas and nachos.
On Saturdays and Sundays, they
offer menudo — a traditional
Mexican soup — and tamales. And
according to an owner’s response
on a Google review, Taco’s Tacos
will soon have chips and salsa on
the menu.
Nichols Diner
The diner in Flowery Branch
is somewhat of an institution.
It’s been around for more than a
decade, but has gone through some
changes in recent weeks. It’s under
new ownership, but has stayed in
the Nichols family with Alan Nich
ols taking over from his brother
Craig.
They’ve also renovated the
whole place. The old chairs, tables
and booths have been replaced
with new ones, the walls have got
ten some fresh paint and the car
pet has been replaced. They even
made some changes to the items
on their menu and upgraded how
the menu is displayed. They’re
fully electronic and displayed on
TVs now. The diner was closed
for a bit while renovations were
going on, but it’s back up and
running.
