Meet Sam Miller | Owner of Cedar Ridge Egg Farm LLC

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sam Miller and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?
I have worked for myself about 85% of my life, but never really gave my all in any of the companies I owned. As soon as I felt it wasn’t going to make it, I jumped ship and started something new before giving it a chance to really thrive and take off. One day I had a buddy of mine tell me, it was time I went after something and actually stuck with it to see how far I could actually take it. I took that to heart and invested every dime I had to my name, partnered with my son and went all in with a mindset of determination that this was going to prosper and succeed no matter what! After hard work, dedication, determination, and going out to tell people I have something they just can’t live without, I have seen the fruit of our hard labor here at Cedar Ridge Egg Farm.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Here at Cedar Ridge Egg Farm, we care about what our customers consume and take pride in the freshness and great quality of our eggs. We keep our hens happy and very well taken care of and as a result, the quality of our eggs does not disappoint at all. It’s not been an easy road, but hey nothing in life worth having is easy! It’s been a bumpy yet rewarding and fulfilling journey. When life threw curveballs we faced them head on and kept pushing back and refusing to let it get in the way of our success. We couldn’t have survived much less thrived after the hits life threw without our community and clients that believed in us and recognized our product stands out above the rest in our industry. What kept us going these past couple years was knowing and hearing of our customers satisfaction in the quality of our eggs. It’s been a real learning experience, one that has taught me a lot about being a business owner and what I was capable of as an entrepreneur. I want everyone to know that when you truly set your mind to something and you dig deep, you most definitely accomplish anything you set your mind to. It will take hard work, and require you to invest into yourself, but you will be so grateful that you did in the long run. The last thing I will leave you with is a small piece of advice, don’t stop, don’t quit, keep trucking, and above all else seek God first and everything else will be added unto you.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would take them to Elm & Good, The Pittman Hotel in Dallas for a fancy dinner and a relaxing stay in their hotel, and there is no way I’m letting them miss out on their amazing brunch, prepared by one the most amazing and talented chefs, Chef Ben! If you haven’t already been it’s time to add it to your bucket list of places to go. From there, we would just enjoy a day in Dallas and end it with another fancy dinner at Georgie in uptown Dallas for some wonderful conversation and a great experience that will last a lifetime.
For a more laid back and fun approach to the city I would definitely take them over to Taco Y Vino. The casual setting gives you the freedom to unwind and it’s just what the doctor ordered after a fun filled day touring around the Metroplex area. The atmosphere at all of these places is unmatched and to die for! I highly recommend to anyone looking for either a night all dolled up on the town or just a fun time to let your hair down and chill. Go check them out, I give them all a 10 out of 10 stars (that’s right 10 stars not 5!!!)

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I started parntering with Jersey Girls out of Winnsboro, TX when we first started getting our name out there. They are the first locally owned business who truly saw the pure freshness in the quality of our eggs here at Cedar Ridge Egg Farm. As they began to buy and sell from us, they recieved wonderful feedback from their customers on our eggs and continued to encourage me to keep growing my business. So, I began to get my name out there more and more, and noticed Profound Foods was going door to door looking for more business and suppliers. I reached out to Jeff Bednar, one of the founders of Profound Foods, and encouraged him to at least try our eggs, even though he was adament that he had all the egg suppliers he needed, and about 2 months later, I decided to pay him a surprise visit on his farm and left him eggs to try. Needless to say, he was so impressed, that 3 months later we bacame his one and only egg supplier.
Around the same time that we began doing business with Profound Foods, I was put in touch with, Ricky Tantlinger. Ricky takes our eggs to Waco, St. Michael’s, and DFW Farmer’s Markets and represents Cedar Ridge very well. This man has been absolutely nothing short of an amazing person to work with.
At this point we were steadily growing our clientelle and business was starting to do very well for us. We were getting calls from people that heard of us by word mouth and wanted our mouth watering farm fresh eggs for themselves as well as recommending us to larger clientelle in the Dallas Metroplex area. Our faithful clients from The Pittman Hotel, referred to us by Hyiat El-Jundi to Chef Graham Dodds (current head Chef at the time we were referred), went as far as to put us on their menu at their restaurant.
Then came our next big client, Eataly. They actually saw us on the internet and called us wanting us to supply their eggs for their new Dallas location. We have been graced with the opportunity to supply to them from the day they first opened in Dallas.
Things were rocking and rolling, and then we took a pretty bad loss when the ice storm hit. We lost birds,which in turn means, no egg production. We started a Go Fund Me account to try to get back up and going. I cannot say thank you enough to our community and anyone else that donated to the Go Fund Me for Cedar Ridge Egg Farm. If it were not for you guys and Sue Bancroft, who stepped in just in the knick of time to help out with the remainder of what we needed to get back up and running smoothly, we may not still be able to serve our existing clientelle and take on new clientelle as well.
As we were getting the houses ready for chickens to be housed, I received a call from, Guy Chandonnet, the milk and dairy buyer for H-E-B, saying he had heard about us and wanted all the eggs we could get over to him to stock the shelves of his H-E-B store. Things started looking back up for us here at Cedar Ridge Egg Farm.
Once we were back up and operating like before the ice storm hit, my son and I went up to Dallas’ Night Farmer’s Market, THE SHED. I sat up there each evening for about a year, when someone randomly came up to me and told me to go down to Graham’s Produce and speak with the owner about selling him my eggs. This business relationship took us from me going up to the market and coming home with a hit and miss to a faithful and reliable customer that consistently purchases pallets of eggs from us now.
The reason I mentioned everyone that I did in this Shoutout, is because there is absolutely no way Cedar Ridge Egg Farm would be where we are today without each and every one of you. This is by no means a one man show, and I am extremely grateful for all that each of you have done for our farm! You guys are the REAL MVPs and am very honored to be in business with and know all of you! We give God the glory for showing us His grace on our farm, because if God’s hand would not have been on us and our farm, I truly believe that I would not have had the privelege and honor of meeting each and everyone of you that plays such vital roles in our business. To God be the glory for our success at Cedar Ridge Egg Farm in Pickton, TX.

Website: https://www.cedarridgeeggs.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cedarridgeegg/

Image Credits
Feature photo, credit to Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer at the Dallas Morning News