We also raise farm animals such as goats, beef cattle and rabbits. Our goal is to bring the freshest products to our community. In July of 2014 my husband, Jeremy and I bought a 15 acre farm in Manchester which was built in the mid to late 1800s. The house as well as numerous outbuildings needed a lot of work and some still do. Shortly after moving, we found out I was pregnant with our first child
, Breslyn. This was a complete surprise so Jeremy quickly got to work on our home and spent long days and nights working on the farm to make it livable. In May 2015 a healthy, beautiful baby girl was born and in December 2015 we moved into our farm. Shortly after we found out we were pregnant with another beautiful, healthy baby girl who was born December 2016, Kedzie. Once we were living on the farm we quickly started with chickens, guinea hens and goats. We continued to work on the home while starting to clean up the property. We inherited a large mess on the property, cleaning up thousands upon thousands of brick pavers as well as hundreds of yards of trash scattered throughout the 15 acres. We knew from the beginning we wanted to put great use to our farm and land and produce farm-fresh products to share with our family, friends and community. I always loved mushrooms and one day as Jeremy was complaining that I left another stinky dish rag in the sink, it dawned on me. I quickly ordered multiple text books and read them every chance I got. I would take them to the girl’s dance and gymnastics practices, read when the kids went to sleep and any moment I could find time. I would tell Jeremy about them every evening until he finally got excited as I was. Even though I was busy self-studying, we still found time to get pregnant with baby number three, handsome, healthy Mr. Akerson (Akers), born July 2019. We both continued to learn everything we could about mushrooms. Eventually in March 2020 I approached Jeremy and said, “I want to grow mushrooms full-time and if you support me I promise we won’t fail.” He said, “Okay, do it!” I said, “Oh Shiitake!” With our new goal in mind, we came up with a plan and slowly started to expand our farm. We started meat rabbits, beef cattle, focused more on our goats and started working with the Washtenaw County Department of Agriculture to become MAEAP certified. In January 2021 I quit my full-time job to work full-time on the farm. We became MAEAP certified in March, 2021. Jeremy built our lab and rooms, “mush-rooms” to start growing mushrooms. We put together our microgreen growing area (our first high-tunnel is currently being built) and I created space to handcraft goat milk soap. We are continuously working to make our processes better and get our routine down so we can always provide the freshest products to our customers. Oh yeah, and right before I quit my job we found out we are due with baby #4 at the end of August 2021. Another beautiful girl who will also be named after our alma mater and where we met, Michigan State University!
