NOTTOWAY COUNTY, Va. -- Richland's Dairy Farm and Richland's Creamery has been in the same family for more than two centuries.
Like many destinations and restaurants, the pandemic put a large financial strain on the family business.
But one family member found an unlikely ally -- TikTok.
"TR is very very good at, I think he's good at TikTok," Brittany Jones, with Richland's Dairy Farm & Creamery, said.
Good might just be an understatement.
"Now I sit with 781,000 followers and growing," TR Jones said. "Why people follow me on any platform? I have no idea."
The key may just be his honesty and his humor.
TR is letting the world know what his family faces.
"The two options to us were either get out of the dairy business or do something, make a drastic change to try and stay in," Jones said.
That change was to build a creamery to use the milk the farm was already producing.
No sooner did they open their doors, then COVID forced them to close.
Their story gripped people on TikTok.
"You've got the aspect of let's gamble the entire family heritage on a new business. You've got the next day after we open, our main housing barn blew down, so you immediately have obstacles, and then a few months later, when things could be turning around, you get COVID."
Months after the pandemic shut the doors, Richland's Creamery reopened Friday.
"Things are nerve-racking, and we have a big ball of worry but we also have this tiny light of hope and hopefully that hope will just continue to grow," Brittany Jones, said.
Time will tell if TikTok and TR's 781,000 followers will make a difference. Just last week a follower from Florida, who was traveling to Ohio, took an eight-hour detour to come to the creamery to buy ice cream and milk.
The Jones family said every little bit helps.
