We are food lovers, with ridiculously high standards.

In 2004, Jen took a job managing her first farm stand on Old Mission Peninsula. Coming to this position with experience and education in viticulture (wine grape production) she used her knowledge combined with a love of gardening to plant her first commercial scale vegetable garden. It was an instant obsession.

We start 98% of the plants we grow from seed, in our greenhouses. This allows us to select varieties with the best flavors. We are very picky about our quality standards. If we wouldn’t want to eat it ourselves, we won’t sell it.

What started out as a hobby has now become a thriving farming operation in the heart of Old Mission Peninsula. Tilling and planting on land rented from a very generous farmer friend allowed us to open our farm stand in 2008. In 2015 we were able to purchase 6.5 acres of tillable land of our own. We have worked since then to improve our soil health and our farming practices. We are committed to sustainability and remaining local. We grow our produce as organically as possible, always opting for an organic chemical to spray if needed rather than a synthetic pesticide.

The idea for Local Yokels was born 19 years ago, in 1998, while working at L. Mawby winery and vineyards. The initial idea was for a restaurant that only used locally sourced ingredients (the term “locavore” was yet to be invented at this time), including local produce, grains, eggs and dairy products. Today, the idea is still the same, only the locally sourced ingredients are grown by us exclusively. In our value added products we use as many products as we can grow ourselves, in our climate, and when the required ingredients cannot be grown or sourced locally, we use the highest quality ingredients from elsewhere, like olive oil and anchovies from Spain, and pine nuts from Europe.

I’ve held on to the Local Yokels name/idea because I think it pretty accurately describes us now. We are lucky to be able to live and work on this dynamic peninsula which has a pretty unique mix of farmers and also newer residents that are attracted to the beauty and offerings that the peninsula provides. Some of the best farmers we know live and work here with us and I am always very proud to have them stop at our stand and buy our produce, I know how picky they are. We are the “yokels” of what is quickly becoming (or maybe always was) this higher end suburb of Traverse City. We are farmers but also greatly enjoy the finer things in life like fine wine, gourmet food and travel.