Ryan Gould had built a working life in film, but the personal projects he wanted to make were getting harder to fit around earning a living and raising children. He wanted work whose effect he could see more directly. That search led him toward regenerative farming and, eventually, raising chickens in South Austin.
He hadn't grown up on a farm. Ryan tells Tab how years of learning about gardening, permaculture, and small-scale farming helped him see a way in. Finding examples of other first-generation farmers made the work feel possible. He began studying the systems, preparing for the change, and building a business that he could grow at a manageable scale.
Tab wants to understand both the change in career and the idea behind the farm. Ryan explains how he thinks about working with natural cycles, raising animals, and maintaining the land that supports them. They discuss the questions a customer can ask about how food is produced and why a relationship with a nearby grower matters to him. Ryan describes his own operation and the wider practices he is interested in, rather than treating every farm as the same.
His filmmaking background still has a place in the story. Ryan and Tab compare lighting, creative decisions, and the satisfaction of using different skills together. Out in the field, Ryan is organizing, solving problems, moving chickens, and managing the practical demands of a business. At the market, he gets to meet the people taking that work home. The direct response he had been looking for is there in the exchange.
At the time of the recording, Ryan was still building the farm's capacity and supplying smaller grocers and community-supported agriculture programs. He explains how those arrangements connect a household with regular deliveries from producers. The conversation ends with Tab looking forward to trying one of Ryan's chickens. After hearing how the business began, he can put a person, a place, and a set of decisions behind the food he wants to buy.
