Welcome to Lone Pine Farmstead

Hello! I'd like to take a moment to introduce myself and my home, Lone Pine Farmstead. My name is Sarah Michelle, and I am growing and raising my family in the beautiful Midwest. Join along as I document our growing year, with gardening tips and tricks, family-approved recipes and other seasonal living ideas.

Our story

I grew up in the city and have absolutely no farming background anywhere. When I was pregnant with my oldest child I came across a news article about the negative health effects of some food additives. Learning about some of the dangers in so much of the food available to us, I wanted to do better. Better for the land, for myself, and especially for my children.

I started looking more closely at the foods we were eating and grew my first tomatoes in a tiny box in the backyard. I learned about seasonality and began volunteering for a local organic farm. I fell head over heels in love with farming and quickly became an employee. I loved working outside with my hands, experiencing each season to it's fullest, but mostly, I loved feeding my family superior quality food at it's absolute peak. When food is grown well, in healthy soil, and is able to make it to your table in a matter of hours, the nutrients that become available to your body are astoundingly different.

My husband and I decided to grow our first big garden together in his grandmothers backyard and rejoiced in watching our children take part in the growing season, planting onions in the spring, gobbling up fresh strawberries, and giggling to themselves while hiding in the tomato patch. We loved having our garden at Grandma's, but we wanted to really live it full-time. We wanted a place where our children could watch their food growing, where they could learn to embrace the changing seasons and all that nature provides. When we bought Lone Pine Farmstead we were finally able to fully embrace this seasonal life we had dreamed of.

Where we are now

Here at Lone Pine Farmstead we have made a lot of changes since moving. Our property

had been neglected for years and we have had quite a learning curve learning how best to support the soil while simultaneously removing the invasive plants that had claimed it. We have added deep-mulched raised beds to help enrich the soil for our perennial crops, added a small flock of laying chickens to rotationally graze and a small herd of Nigerian Dwarf goats. The goats are sometimes for milk, but mostly for hours of entertainment. More recently we have begun developing our nursery which will help bring some of my favorite plants to all of you.

Bringing it home

We want to share with you all some of what we have learned throughout the growing seasons as well as keeping you all updated on what plants we have available at the nursery. Stay tuned for all upcoming sales, gardening tips, foraging tutorials and family-approved recipes. Thank you for joining us here at Lone Pine Farmstead!