boyes family farms

Justin’s family has farmed the land in Tarkio, MT for over 100 years. His dad, Wayne, took on the stewardship of the land and his grandfather’s herd of cattle when he was a young man. He continued to care for the land and animals for his entire life with his wife, Deb, until we lost him in July of 2022. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to spend Wayne’s last months with him at the family farm. Even in his very last days, he was active in moving the cows from one pasture to another. .

We were married on the farm back in 2006, and never planned to live at Tarkio or to take on any of the farming ourselves. The plan that was made with Wayne in his final months and weeks was to send the whole herd to market in the fall. But as Wayne’s days came to a close, something came over us and Deb, Justin, and Heather decided that the Boyes family is not yet done farming.

We will be splitting our time between Burien and Tarkio for now, helping Justin’s mom with running cows and taking over stewardship of the land. We will also return to our home in Burien about once per month to process orders and have them available for all of you. There are a lot of exciting things in store for our family, and we are happy to share it with our community. Farmhouse Collective will continue on and grow, and the farm at Tarkio will also continue on and grow. We never imagined this would be the way things would go, but somehow, some of our saddest and darkest moments in life let in the bright light of a future we weren’t able to see before.