Easy Doesn’t Produce Extraordinary
A family going against the grain to experience life to the fullest
Eight years ago, Wiepie Cross found leftover trim fat in her in-laws fridge and decided to experiment with making her own skincare with it. While she admits it wasn’t the best first date with tallow skincare, it showed potential that far outweighed the initial experience. Fast forward to today, Wiepie and her husband, Cody, now own and operate Texas Tallow, a "therapeutic" and “gentle” skincare brand out of Waco, Texas.
Wiepie’s mom’s family were dairy farmers in the Netherlands until 5 years before Wiepie was born when they moved to Texas to start another dairy farm. Wiepie’s childhood consisted of long hours outside, playing in the creek, helping tend to animals, and essentially no screens. When college came around, Wiepie went to school to pursue nursing in hopes of helping people, but her roots brought her back to agriculture where she felt that she could truly impact people and the land we inhabit.
“I remember vividly that there was (and still is!) a huge decline in farmers and kids wanting to take over the family farm and learning that we needed to think differently about what kind of agricultural products we could market.”
After college, Wiepie obtained a multitude of experiences from teaching English in Malaysia to becoming a Nutritional Therapist and GAPS practitioner who specializes in helping people according to the Gut and Psychology/Physiology Syndrome diet. Her work experiences evidence the care she has for people and her learned knowledge about how lifestyle and diet can impact the mind, body, and soul.
“I still enjoy helping others with their health and wellness, especially encouraging getting back into the kitchen and bringing back traditional wisdom.”
As a child of farmers, true entrepreneurs, it is no surprise that Wiepie desired to create something new to offer the world. While working at a Natural Grocers as a health coach, Wiepie became a fellow label-reader. While exploring the “most natural” skincare products offered in a storefront, she said, “[I] could never find something that felt like it was truly natural, ancestral and simple… something that could have been made in our kitchens.” Cody and Wiepie were already living off of a farm at this time, raising their own beef, chickens, eggs, dairy, and vegetables. Wiepie didn’t have to become a “crunchy” mom because she was already cognizant of contemporary toxins and actively seeking and using cleaner alternatives for her and her family before it was a trend. However, self-care was still a large gap she wished to bridge. Wiepie turned to the resources all around her farm for answers and found exactly that in the form of animal fat and herbs!
“Once I have a conviction about something it's extremely hard for me to do it any other way.”
Texas Tallow became the fulfillment of a need that Wiepie saw for herself, her family, and the people she worked with as a health coach and GAPS practitioner. So, out of her own kitchen, her and Cody began rendering, experimenting, and exploring with the resources around them.
We make products that are safe from pregnancy to postpartum, infancy to adulthood. We desired to make something that pregnant and postpartum moms would have complete peace of mind using on themselves and their babies. I used and formulated these as I was going through these stages myself!
What sets the Cross family and Texas Tallow apart is the heart behind the mission- there is no cutting corners. While raising three children, homeschooling, and maintaining a farm, the Cross family chooses to create products with only the best ingredients. They source tallow from the ranch Cody used to manage and they only use herbs and plants they can grow themselves.
“We never want to get so big that we have to compromise how we do things and what inputs we use. That means if we have to limit our growth, we will because we want control over our herbs and tallow… We also don’t use exotic ingredients that can’t be grown in our (or our neighbors’) gardens because we want to be as sustainable as possible and stay true to being TEXAS tallow.”
Cody and Wiepie are raising a family and a business grounded in faith, hardwork, and resourcefulness. Wiepie’s journey shows a true willingness to uncover truth and goodness through God-given land and animals instead of surrendering to cheaper and easier alternatives. We all talk about wanting to go back to the “good ‘ol days,” but how many of us are truly willing to leave the conveniences of modern life behind to obtain a slower and more mindful way of life? Cody and Wiepie are daily instilling in their children that luxury isn’t always found in convenience. The Cross family motto is: “You were made to do hard things!”. From the foundation of their family to the backbone of their business, it is clear that the Cross Family knows ‘nothing good ever came easy.’ What a gift it is to be on the receiving end of such a valiant decree!
