If you read my book Crunchy Cons, you will remember the Hutchins family of Greenville, Texas. They’re the Christian farm family whose patriarch, Robert Hutchins, quit his lucrative job in the defense industry to start Rehoboth Ranch, a family farm where the animals are grass-fed, and raised humanely and naturally. It’s like Joel Salatin’s legendary Polyface Farms. Over the years, the quality of meat produced on their farm has been so high that they’ve developed a big Dallas area customer base. These are good country people who live right by God and by the animals in their care, and who many people in Dallas — especially restaurant people — have come to depend on.

This appeared this morning on the Rehoboth Ranch Facebook page:

Some of you may already know by now, but for those who don’t, a tornado came through our farm this afternoon, causing severe damage. Praise God nobody was hurt, but the three barns look to be a near total loss and there was extensive damage to the house. Much of the roofing (shingles and tar) was ripped off and then a deluge of rain came down, causing the interior ceiling to fall collapse in at least three places (the office and a bed room ceiling, and a smaller spot in the big room). We are hoping and praying the kitchen ceiling will not be the fourth location.

Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts as we start cleaning up and repairing. We don’t know how much this will interrupt our operations, if at all, but will let you know as we know.

I know lots of my north Texas readers will want to know about this, and do whatever they can to help. As more information becomes available, I’ll keep you updated about what the rest of us can do, other than pray. We cannot let the tornado take out this farm and its family. Here’s a 14-minute documentary on Rehoboth Ranch; it’s private, but the password for viewing is ‘hutchins’. Watch it, and see what’s at stake here.

UPDATE: An update from Nancy Nichols at D Magazine’s food blog. Excerpt:

There was extensive roof damage to the family home, but all of the barns, except the dairy barn, are gone. The cows, pigs, and goats are fine, but the laying hens were killed.

The original home is made with cinder block and that is where the whole family and 3 friends hunkered down during the tornado. “There was so much wind and rain we never really heard the train sound you are supposed to hear,” Hutchins says. “We never saw it. It was just getting dark.”