Who We Are

Uncle and nephew duo, Gordon and Thomas Locke are the creators and co-owners of Bois d’Arc Meat Company in Allens Chapel, TX. However, their paths toward this shared venture were anything but direct.

For the entirety of both Gordon and Thomas’ lives, the farm represented a gathering place for family to convene on holidays and special occasions, with many great memories shared there. Bonfires were burned at Christmas and many meals shared in the farmhouse, built around the original log cabin, on the property since 1850. Gordon’s parents and Thomas’ grandparents moved to the farm full-time in 2000 and Gordon joined them in ’03 to help manage the property and offer care.

Having lived in Austin, TX since the early ’70’s, moving to the farm was a bit of a change for Gordon, but farming wasn’t. He and his partner, Suzie Henderson raised Angora goats for several years and Gordon also did some work on a bio-dynamic farm outside of Austin. In addition, he attended holistic management workshops and was an active learner about sustainable farming practices throughout his time in Austin.

Thomas graduated from Austin College in Sherman, TX, in 2004 and was off to save the world, or so he thought anyways. After several years in Massachusetts and New York, Thomas moved back to Texas to begin a rather short lived fundraising career with Southwestern University and a United Methodist Foundation in North Carolina. It was living in North Carolina, with his wife Gillian who was working on her masters degree at Duke University that Thomas became increasingly interested in sustainable agriculture. The seed sprouted partially out of his interest in cooking, with many trips to the grocery store resulting in lots of money spent for an extravagant meal whenever inspiration struck, which was often. Around 2012, Thomas left fundraising to begin working on a farm as an intern, which ultimately led to many conversations with Gordon about working together on the farm in Texas.

Two years after that, in August of 2014, Thomas packed his bags and left for Texas to find a home for he and his wife and begin working on the farm with Gordon. Today, Gillian and Thomas live in McKinney he commutes to the farm, while Gordon and Suzie live on the farm in the renovated farm house.