Welcome to Montesino Ranch.

On the Blanco River, Montesino Ranch lies at the head of a peaceful valley, three miles east of Wimberley, Texas. Scott and Brenda Mitchell fell in love with the land and bought the ranch in 1998 following a long quest for a family retreat in the Texas Hill Country.

Montesino means mountain destiny. On a geography that begins at the river with a lower valley of more than sixty acres, Montesino ascends to an upper plateau atop a one hundred-acre mountain with canyons on either side. Within the varying terrain is a greatly diverse Hill Country landscape. It is our belief that all natural and cultivated life can thrive here in a complimentary co-existence. Montesino Ranch is the home for livestock, organic fruits and vegetables, native plants and wildlife, and us.

The first livestock on the ranch were big cows with big appetites on sparse grass! While enhancing native grasses and improving the pasture are certainly good long term objectives, the question, in the meantime, became…Is there a cow that doesn’t eat so much? The hunt was on for the perfect Hill Country cow. The answer came unexpectedly in the middle of a three day ice storm. Stuck in his office with the outside world shut down, Scott turned to Google and so began his romance of everything miniature. After two days of surfing every form of miniature cattle, Scott passionately purchased Rocket the bull and two beautiful cow cousins, both named Miss Lantana; now the original members of Montesino’s herd of certified Miniature Hereford cattle.

The cattle herd feeds primarily on grasses in Montesino’s lower valley but are occasionally invited to a mountain holiday on the upper mountain meadow. There they share the watering hole with the mountain wildlife including deer, turkey, quail, fox, bobcats, and a great variety of songbirds.

And now, down the mountain and back to the farm…Farm? Early on, Scott, Brenda and their children were burying Jesse, their faithful fourteen year old yellow lab, in a hand painted pine box on the edge of the pasture, near the river. Much to Scott’s amazement the hole for the grave seemed to have no bottom. The walls of soil in the grave seemed to have no bottom…not exactly typical for the Texas Hill Country. The backhoe took the next step…four deep holes across the lower landscape. The whole valley had soil! “It was like finding buried treasure!” says Scott. Sometime later, an inspirational organic farmer drifted in from the Austin Waldorf School paid a visit and began talking about the potential. We got hooked! We chose the front nine acres, put up a deer-proof fence and jumped into The Farm at Montesino Ranch.

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