I am so excited that I get to make special trips to connect with the farmers of our markets this year! Over the next month I will be visiting all the fruit, vegetable and meat farms we host at our markets and I couldn’t be more pleased with the opportunity to CONNECT. We all have different lenses that carry our physical and emotional selves through time and space. By engaging with this community of hard working, inspiring entrepreneurs in this intimate way I feel opens space for dialogue and understanding. It is through empathy that we can develop real conversations about relation. These families show their passion and drive me to have an understanding of their lives through their actions!

I had the pleasure of visiting Two Tracks Acres on a very warm, late June day. Taik greeted me in the wash and pack area as he was spinning out greens and preparing tasty sunflower sprouts for the market. The sun was shining and the cattle seemed very pleased in the pasture. He and Stephanie (former Chelsea Farmers Market manager and current Ann Arbor Farmers Market manager) work together to farm about an acre and two high tunnels worth of vegetables, raise cattle, hogs, turkeys, and chickens and are getting ready to welcome a baby in August!

Their CSA model is that of meat only – starting in June folks get to take home amazing cuts of pasture raised, clean meat to stock their fridges and freezers. They sell their veggies at many farmers markets throughout the week, including Grass Lake and Chelsea.

Taik and Stephanie both worked as interns at Tantre Farm back in 2012 and gained not only knowledge about organic and sustainable systems, but a real passion for growing food and raising animals. In the fall of 2012 they purchased the current farm they are on in Grass Lake and have continued to devote time to nesting and creating their sustainable subsistence living model their reality!

For more information on Taik and Stephanie and their continued journey check out their website.