On Saturdays, people from all over the Lubbock area head to the Wolfforth Farmer’s Market to shop for food, produce, and handmade goods from local farmers and vendors. Alcove Farms has a permanent spot at the market in South Vendor Village where our local regenerative farm sells fresh, nutrient-packed eggs and pasture-raised poultry.
Jerry and Maggie Hornebuckle found themselves strolling through the vendor village at the market one Saturday morning back in 2020. The couple stopped by the Alcove Farms booth, despite Jerry’s long-standing allergy to eggs. They met and struck up a conversation with Shawn Peacher, an Alcove Farms team member, who happened to be working the booth that day.
“She told me Jerry’s story of not being able to consume eggs due to his allergy,” Shawn said. The couple was used to purchasing eggs from their grocery store. “I told her I’d had similar reactions to store-bought eggs and had never had an issue with our eggs.”
Shawn gifted the couple a dozen eggs to take home and try.
“I believe in our eggs enough to know they wouldn’t make him sick,” said Shawn.
His confidence is backed by his own personal experience of working on the farm, tending to the hens, gathering and processing the eggs, and choosing Alcove Farms eggs as his eggs of choice!
When Shawn offered the carton to the Hornebuckles, Maggie was eager for her husband to try. “I wanted him to be able to eat eggs again,” Maggie said.
So they took the carton home and took a chance. Jerry tried the eggs and loved the taste, but even better than that, Jerry didn’t have an allergic reaction. “These work!,” Jerry exclaimed to Maggie. “I did not break out! I don’t scratch with these eggs.” Maggie cooked the Alcove Farms eggs for Jerry every morning for a week.
The very next Saturday, the couple went back to the farmer’s market to share the good news with Shawn who joined in their excitement! Since then, the Hornebuckles have become regular customers, heading straight to the farm for their eggs and poultry. “We just live down the road from Alcove Farms,” Maggie said. “I call and say I need a couple dozen eggs! [The farmers] are always so sweet and friendly.” Maggie added that the farm itself is always very clean.
Maggie cheerfully shared, “We tell everybody, ‘If you can’t eat eggs and want to try, you NEED to get your eggs from Alcove Farms!’”
Jerry and Maggie Hornebuckle aren’t the only couple to benefit from trying Alcove Farms. Over the years, Shawn has given 10-15 dozen eggs to various people who pass by the Alcove Farms booth adamant that they cannot eat eggs. Every single person has come back to the booth in disbelief, exclaiming that they can safely eat eggs again.
Shawn says he believes in Alcove Farms eggs because of the way the chickens are raised. “We don’t give them antibiotics or any other stuff you’ll find in typical grocery store eggs. The feed we use is some of the best you can get.” It’s clear there’s a lot of love and attentiveness put into every process at Alcove Farms. Shawn has a genuine care for the farm’s customers, both first-time and long-standing. He said, “The heart behind what we do here is to serve people by producing a quality product.”
Our farmers steward, protect and diligently care for the land, hens, and eggs. It’s because of the intentionality that goes into the day-to-day life at the farm that people like Jerry and Maggie Hornebuckle can be nourished by eggs again!
