KINGS VALLEY — Mike Tucker still remembers cutting his first cow alone.
“I acquired a hernia and I hated the process emotionally,” he said.
That single, difficult experience — processing a cow named T-Bone by himself, then tearing his own muscle wall doing it — would end up reshaping the direction of his life. Rather than continuing down the path of raising cattle for beef, Tucker found himself, mid-recovery from hernia surgery, sitting on a freezer full of meat and fat and no plan for either.
“I didn’t know what to do with myself at home,” he said. “I had all the beef and fat stored in my freezer, so I just started experimenting, trying to figure out how I wanted to kind of utilize the whole creature.”
That experimentation became Soul Shine Ranch, a new tallow skincare company Tucker launched roughly four months ago from a home base in Kings Valley.
Tucker, 38, lives in North Albany but spends much of his week in Kings Valley, where he land-leases property and rotates cattle through additional leased ground. He grew up in the area, attended school there and briefly in Philomath, and later was in the military before spending years building a construction business he started at age 22 — work that took him from ranches and homes to greenhouses for large grow operations, with jobs stretching from Florence to Seattle and San Francisco.
Cattle came into the picture about 11 months ago. Tucker said the plan, at first, was straightforward — raise cattle, then process them for beef himself. That plan didn’t survive contact with the reality of the work.
“It was a traumatic experience, emotionally difficult, and I learned a lot,” Tucker said. “That’s why I put his face on the logo and Soul Shine Ranch, so I can tell everybody about him forever. I really believe that he’s a great cow — like I owe him.”
Rather than keep processing cattle for meat, Tucker said he made the decision to stop — and to keep his animals instead.
“I loved the cows and wasn’t going to quit or sell out,” he said. “So I guess the tallow made itself a natural process.”
What followed his recovery was months of experimentation — Tucker estimates roughly 70 recipe attempts, working through problems like tallow separating from certain oils or scents not holding, before he landed on a formula and process that finally satisfied him.
“It created itself through trial and error,” he said. “So the tallow just kind of happened. It was a dream.”
The idea had actually crossed his mind earlier, he said, but it took the forced downtime of surgery recovery to turn it into something real.
A different kind of sourcing
The business that emerged from that experience looks different from a typical tallow operation in one key way — Tucker doesn’t source his tallow from cattle raised for slaughter. Instead, he works with a local dairy farm, taking in cows that are aging, injured or otherwise near the end of their working lives.
“When they get to age or one’s cold or gets injured, I’m able to retire their cows and compost their bodies and use the fat for the tallow company,” Tucker said. “It’s an easier circle of life — makes it a lot more ethical, I guess.”
Four cattle — Pepper, Romeo, Panda and Maybelle — are currently on the property, and Tucker said he spends time with them regularly.
“I go out there and lay in the grass with them — they like it,” he said. “They’re happy cows … they’ll just retire out here.”
According to the company’s website, that sourcing approach is meant to stand apart from large-scale industrial tallow production, which typically draws fat from bulk suppliers and processes it at high volume with heavy refinement. Soul Shine Ranch instead renders each batch slowly by hand — Tucker said seven times, compared with the three or four passes he said are typical among larger producers.
“There’s no greasy, fatty smells, and right away people can tell,” he said. “So that’s what sells, that’s what gets my repeat customers.”
Soul Shine Ranch currently sells four varieties — Lemon Lavender, Coconut Patchouli, Sweet Orange and Pure Radiance, a naturally scented base with no added fragrance. The creams include a small amount of almond oil along with organic essential oils.
“I just tried to create something that I thought everyone would enjoy — create a median, nothing too specific,” Tucker said. “I myself am kind of sensitive to smells, so keep it pretty clean.”
The operation is currently run by Tucker and business partner Cooper Petersen out of a garage and home office. Petersen, who grew up on a farm, said the work has come naturally to him.
“I’m learning a lot from Mike, he’s a great mentor, he’s a great teacher, hard worker,” Petersen said. “He started off as a guy off Facebook and then a friend and now … business partner — we work together.”
Tucker said additional products, including a beard oil, are already in development, though he’s holding off on launching new items until the current line is more established.
Building a following one sample at a time
Soul Shine Ranch sells online through Shopify, but Tucker said much of his business comes from in-person sampling at events such as farmers markets and artisan fairs — including the Sunday event in Philomath. He’s also lined up appearances at the Artisan Faire at Salishan in Gleneden Beach and the Chinook Winds Surf Rider Classic Car Show in Lincoln City. And he hopes of reaching other markets, including Seattle.
“I like the fairs and the markets because I sample, so as soon as I get somebody to sample, they’re hooked and they like mine,” he said. “I think I talked to 400 people this last weekend since Saturday and Sunday.”
Tucker’s roots in Kings Valley run deep — he still works out of property near the Kings Valley Store, where he maintains a cut room and previously raised hogs. Long term, he said he’d like to expand beyond skincare into a gathering place — a small “friend ranch” where he could host events, potentially in partnership with local artists and musicians.
“I go with this motto that Soul Shine Ranch is a place — it’s not just a product — and I really want to stick that out,” he said. “I know that’s a big dream, maybe I’m not the guy, but if I’m in control of it, I’m going to make it happen.”
Soul Shine Ranch products are available online at soulshineranch.com.
