The dream to raise and sell grass-finished beef began long ago, in a barbershop. Jeremiah Eubank’s grandfather was a barber in a small town outside Weatherford, and he had a freezer in the back, from which he sold beef. The idea stuck.
Years later Jeremiah and Maggie Eubank began homesteading in Stockdale, and in 2019 they moved to Canyon Lake. There they began ranching on property owned by Lew and Laura Moorman. The operation, complete with an on-site store, is called Pure Pastures. “We ranch the way people’s great-grandparents did,” Maggie Eubank said.
She came to love ag through the national Future Farmers of America (FFA) organization, when she attended Madison High School’s Agriscience Magnet Program in San Antonio. She thought she might become a veterinarian, but instead found herself showing pigs, judging meat, and competing in career and leadership development events. She was on the team that won the national championship for its marketing plan. “Which is my job all the time right now,” she said.
Pure Pastures raises beef that is grass-fed and grass-finished, meaning their cattle are always out on pasture, eating forage or, when grass is scarce, hay. The Eubanks also raise heritage-breed pork, using a locally milled custom feed that does not use any corn or soy.
The Ranch Store on the property keeps Tuesday through Saturday hours, and Pure Pastures also offers a Prime Membership VIP program. Many of their customers are from San Antonio and New Braunfels, and many choose the option of home delivery. Especially customers in Canyon Lake.
“We’re in a bit of a food desert,” she said. “There’s a Brookshire Brothers on the other side of the lake. We’re 25 minutes from an H-E-B in any direction. There’s really nothing else out here where you can get really good, locally raised stuff outside of the farmers markets, which are only open a couple days a week.”
At the Ranch Store the Eubanks sell their beef and pork, along with meats from other local producers with a similar commitment to sustainable agriculture. They sell pasture-raised chicken and turkey, along with grass-finished bison—which long ago grazed this part of Texas. “This entire area used to be tallgrass prairie. Prior to fences being put up, there were huge herds of bison, basically rotationally grazing themselves,” Eubank said. “We try to mimic that with our rotational grazing.”
The Eubanks make temporary pastures using polywire electric fencing. The cattle graze, leaving behind their own natural fertilizer and putting nutrients back into the soil, and, with time and a little rain, the prairie replenishes. “This ranch had been overgrazed for 150 years. Nature can’t rewild it alone,” she said. “The Moormans, this is their land, and they are our number one champions. They are part owners in Pure Pastures, and we always keep them in the loop.”
Through this venture Eubank wants to educate people about the benefits of eating meat. “You are what you eat, but you are what you eat, eats too,” she said. “My hierarchy is: eat beef. Eat meat. Number two is buy it from someone you know, someone you can talk to.”
Just like your barber.
purepasturestx.com
Pure Pastures Ranch Store hours
T-F, 1-5 p.m., S, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.