Living soil = Thriving plants & animals = Healthy You!

Since we started this journey in 1996 we’ve seen lives transformed as people moved away from their former SAD diet (Standard American Diet), filling their plates with Real. Good. Food.

We are frequently asked:  How did you get into this?  Here’s the real story!

When I was in college, I used to go on Habitat For Humanity projects during breaks.  One year, I invited my best friend (we’ve known and “liked” each other since our teens, see photo to the left), Ryan, to go on a HFH project in Tennessee, and then to visit it’s headquarters in Americus, Georgia.  After saying “Happy Birthday” to Millard Fuller (in person… he was so gracious), we headed to the farm community where Millard was inspired to start Habitat For Humanity.  

The farm is called Koinonia Partners, and it had an organic garden. We were invited to stay for a few days.  Maybe it was the fact that it was spring time in southern Georgia and we were in love, or it could have been the taste of the surprisingly sweet and crunchy turnip we shared in the pecan orchard, or maybe it was simply the idealism and God-centered vision at Koinonia that inspired him, but something stirred deeply in Ryan’s heart about that garden.

Inspired, Ryan planted his first garden that same spring (1996) in northern Michigan at the Bay Area Adventure School in Traverse City, where we were teaching.  Later that summer, he brought me to that same garden to ask me “to walk through life’s journey” with him! (Yes, that was a marriage proposal, even though he placed a pair of leather sandals into my palms, instead of slipping an engagement ring on my finger!)   

Soon after we were married, Ryan interned for short time with Dave and Pat VanDyke at Sky View Farm in Maple City. Then we headed back to Koinonia Partners, in Plains, GA, for an internship. After six months there, Ryan went to school for sustainable agriculture in North Carolina at Central Carolina Community College, where NC extension agents and real farmers taught the classes and tuition was affordable!  Students were also required to intern on several farms and put in over 400 hours in hands-on training.  

In 2002, Ryan landed a job as a farm manager in East Jordan at the Wagbo Peace Center.  Then in 2006, we switched to running our own business, Providence Farm, out of Wagbo, until we bought our own land in 2008, which is located on M-88, at the northern tip of Torch Lake, near Eastport, MI.

The story about how we came to live in this lovely part of the world…

is too long to tell here, but I can tell you that it involved years of praying, (We believe in God’s love and providence for us, and have let Him have charge of our lives, though imperfectly over the years,) and searching, (Ryan was more knowledgable about the land for sale in this region than most real estate agents in three counties).

We also had an observant friend and customer who also noticed Ryan’s incredible gift in growing vegetables. Our friend knew Ryan, saw his work over the years, and enjoyed the many vegetables he grew.  She also owned a fine piece of farm land on the north tip of Torch Lake and she offered to sell it to us at a price we could afford! Not a day goes by that we don’t feel blessed beyond measure to be here, in this beautiful spot, doing what we love while raising our children.  Can anyone tell why we named our farm what we did?