Popular North Bay farm exits egg business amid hard times for small farms

The owners of a staple supplier of Sonoma County eggs say they are moving to a new location to focus on meat production, exiting the egg business after seven years.

Tiffany Holbrook, owner at Wise Acre Farm, announced July 1 that the farm shut down its local egg operations at 631 Arata Lane and will move to a new location in Sonoma County. She said the realities of running the farm as it has operated took a toll on her family, and she and husband Jason will focus on small-scale local meat.

“This decision didn’t happen overnight,” Holbrook said in a statement posted on Facebook.

“We have fought like hell to keep this farm going for the last two years.”

Holbrook said the time-intensive nature of running an egg farm, which she detailed for Sonoma Magazine years ago, is no longer sustainable.

“My family has sacrificed so much, the three of us have not had a day off together in eight years,” she wrote. “I don’t want to get to a point where we are resentful and look back at this experience in a negative light. I want to look back at our time on this property as the grateful farmer who was lucky enough to take selfies in the pasture with a thousand chickens and a monster truck.”

The couple purchased the business nearly a decade ago from former owner Bryan Boyd, who temporarily closed down his direct-to-consumer operation rather than get into a court battle with Windsor Oaks Vineyards & Winery, which owned the road to the farm area. Boyd garnered lots of local support, with wine industry critics citing the 2015 conflict as an example of the trials of surviving in small, slow local food production while surrounded by the region’s wine and vineyard businesses.

While the farm was up and running less than a year later, Boyd sold it to the Holbrooks, who said they were excited to take on the egg business, in 2018.

Tiffany Holbrook told The Press Democrat in a July 2 interview that while the farm has enjoyed ongoing support from loyal Windsor customers, the egg business is no longer feasible. She noted the costs of feed and other needs for chickens compared to the price of eggs, and the loss of many chickens in late 2023. Her husband was unexpectedly laid off from his position at Foley Family Wines and Spirits more than a year ago, which was another financial blow. Holbrook said she will seek employment elsewhere while they focus on meat production.

“I’m just tired,” Holbrook said. “It’s a fight every day. We’re so supported by the town of Windsor, but you can still feel so alone.”

But the farm has an exciting new chapter ahead.

Holbrook has been working with Bronte Edwards, a sheep farmer outside Sebastopol for years, selling lamb — a partnership which will continue as Wise Acre Farm moves to another property in Sonoma County.

While Holbrook did not share where that property is located, she said Wise Acre Farm will continue selling Edwards’ lamb as well as beef from four pasture-raised cattle and pork from several pigs. The farm will raise up to 800 chickens per year for meat as “broilers.”

Holbrook said of the partnership, “It helps her out and then it brings more customers to us. I am a very firm believer that any industry is stronger when we work together.”

Edwards, the founder and owner of Rainbow Family Farms Ranching Co., told The Press Democrat she raises a flock of about 100 sheep for meat and wool. She has known Holbrook and her husband for a decade, and said it works well to raise sheep and chickens together to increase land biodiversity.

”Her and Jason are amazing community farmers in general. And the way we are farming, even though we’re farming different kinds of animals, goes together — we both do pastured raised rotating grazing and direct farming,” Edwards said.

Holbrook, in her statement, thanked local customers for their support: “Your encouragement, purchases, and kindness over the years have meant more to our family than you could ever know and it’s hard not to feel as though we let you all down.”

She added that with a child graduating high school this year, having more time for her family to spend together was a priority that helped lead to this decision. “We said at five years, if we’re not getting time off we have to figure something else out.

“We will keep an open mind in case an opportunity arises to bring back the egg operation on a much smaller scale, but until then I am very much looking forward to the possibility of having mornings off with my boys, making breakfast and not leaving the house for the day if we don’t feel like it,” she added.

Holbrook said the farm’s struggles are shared by many other small-scale producers. Tara Firma Farms announced June 30 it will end its CSA box program, and Holbrook noted Green Star Farm in West Sonoma County is ending its egg production as well.

“We’re all having the same struggles,” Holbrook said.

While nervous about making the pivot to meat production, Holbrook said she will be grateful to be able to work “off-farm” and has already seen the success of holding pop-up meat markets each week to market to regular customers.

She encouraged people who are feeling the loss of local farms to try to make one local purchase each week: “It goes really, really far.”

Staff Writer Natalie Hanson reports on business and agriculture for The Press Democrat. She can be reached at [email protected] or at 619-665-5887.