Today I'm talking with Kathryn at Fairview Farms: Second Harvest.

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00:00
listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. I'm your host, Mary Lewis. This episode is sponsored by Greenbush Twins & Company, where creativity and community grow hand in hand. Just like a thriving garden or a well-loved homestead, the best things are built with care, purpose, and heart. Through thoughtful design, storytelling, and handcrafted goods, they're helping people celebrate a simpler or meaningful way of living. Learn more at Greenbush Twins & Company.

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Today I'm talking with Kathryn at Fairview Farms, second harvest in Michigan, which is only two states away from me. Good afternoon, Kathryn, how are you? I am doing well, how are you? I'm good. Is it hot in Michigan? Because it's a little better here in Minnesota now. Very hot, very humid. I'm hoping that it goes away soon. um I looked at the long-term forecast for where I am in southwestern Minnesota.

00:55
And it looks like it's gonna be in the 80s for the next at least seven days. Yes, that's gonna be us too. Which is better than 95 with a tropical dew point. I'm okay with it. But yeah, I don't know what it was like for you on Monday morning this week. But I got up at five, stepped out on my porch with my coffee and there's a window into the porch. It's a closed in porch. And it was like stepping into a steam bath. And that was 5 a.m.

01:24
I was like, oh, today is going to suck lemons. And it did. It was really useful. And then it got better over the course of the week. And as I'm talking, I can tell that my voice is not what it usually is. So listener, I'm sorry if I sound like I'm dying. I'm not dying. have wicked allergies today. So Kathryn, I would love it if you would tell me a little bit about yourself and your place, because I looked at your

01:53
pinned post on Facebook and there is some real history there. Yes. um So I live in Rochester Hills, Michigan, and we purchased a historic home in Rochester Hills District. It is 179 years old and we purchased it from a family that has lived here since 1975. And during his time living here, he obtained and researched

02:22
a lot of history on the home in the area and was able to pass that to us when we purchased the home. So we have a lot of personal letters and personal stories that we can share and a lot of hidden treasures inside of the home. The home is wonderful. It's a four square and we have a lot of original architecture in the home. it really neat.

02:52
Our piece of property in Rochester is almost two acres currently, but it was a farm of almost 780 acres uh back in the late 1800s. And this farm itself did raise cattle for uh beef and dairy, and then also it had chickens and did produce.

03:16
And I decided living here, really what brought me in was the history of the home, the old home. I really wanted to love the old bones and be the next loving family here. And then I decided, I think I need, I think I need to love the land too. You know, I have two acres here in the middle of the city and that's something very rare around here. And I wanted to,

03:43
put something back into it. love to grow my own food. I love to can. I'm a do it yourself-er, so I like to um demo things and refurbish things. I myself have a degree in education and I have homeschooled my kids and just kind of really enjoy doing the homesteading portion of life and um going in all natural.

04:13
option and doing things a little bit differently than how society, some of society is going forward with how busy life is today. So I'm trying to pull, pull back a little bit and relax a little more in life. So I thought this would be a great project. am so impressed, so excited for you because history is so freaking cool. I hated it when I was in school because history in school is about dates and places. There's no stories. Right.

04:43
I love the stories in history. that's, and that you're trying to help your community is just so amazing. Right, right. I definitely want to give back. I know that there's a lot of people in our area locally that are from here or have lived here for a good portion of their life. And, you know, running this new page that I have, I've realized like how many people truly are still here and still value.

05:10
the idea of what I plan to do and I feel like a lot of local support is huge. um And I have also decided to try to join the Historical Society so that I can figure out how to be supportive in other historical areas of Rochester Hills. So I'm very excited and hopeful that the community has my back in some of the small projects and ideas that I have.

05:40
Very nice. Michigan is a fairly hefty size state. Where are you in Michigan? So I am about an hour north of Detroit, so I'm barely sitting up in the thumb. OK, cool, because Michigan is shaped like a mitten for people who don't know. um I was listening to somebody talk about Michigan the other day, and they said that if someone says, where are you in Michigan, they hold up their hand and they point on their hand.

06:10
where they are because it gives a good representation because Michigan is shaped like a mitten. Yep. That's exactly how we all do it. Yep. I didn't know that. I don't think I've ever actually been into Michigan or up into Michigan. um Anyone who's listened to podcast long enough knows that I grew up in Maine and I live in Minnesota now and I do not like airplanes. So anytime I'm traveling from Minnesota to Maine, we road trip.

06:41
And I have gone the northern route, as we call it, and we go through, we get very close to Michigan because we go way up into Pennsylvania to get to New York. And so I haven't actually been into Michigan, but I hear that it is absolutely beautiful. And I think I should probably add it to my bucket list for before I die. I agree.

07:10
If it's anything like Minnesota and Wisconsin, I'm sure it's worth the trip. Yes, I'm not too familiar with Minnesota, but I am Wisconsin and it's just beautiful land. em There's a lot of opportunity here as far as different things to do, whether it be mountains or water, or you know, there's just, there's a lot and the weather's really great during the summer. Some of the best summers em are up here in Michigan, I feel like out of everywhere I've lived in this country. So.

07:38
And really good cherries and a pretty decent football team. I will say that a pretty decent football team and great cherries. See, I can say a pretty decent football team because I don't have any allegiance to the Vikings because I didn't grow up in Minnesota. That would be very true. Yes. If I grew up in Minnesota, I probably wouldn't be allowed to say that because they would be like, you're a traitor. Yes. And honestly, Maine doesn't have a football team. So.

08:07
So the biggest football team is Boston and right this second, ah Patriots. Oh, okay. Patriots is the team that we would half-ass root for in my household because my family wasn't really a sports family. Thanksgiving, Christmas, in the afternoon, after dinner, there'd be football on the TV, but it was more background noise. Nobody was glued to the TV set.

08:36
But yeah, the Patriots have done pretty well and the Packers have done better than the Vikings for quite a while, which is very sad. And that's about as close as I get to sports, religion or politics. So there you go. uh So do you have critters on your land? um I do have critters. So right now, I mean, I have the household pets, but we have

09:05
chickens. We have seven chickens currently. um And that's all that our Sydney ordinance will allow us to have. But in the past, em living outside of the city, I've had goats and pheasants and ducks and different things like that. So I'm very familiar with farming animals. But right now we just have the chickens and that's what the city allows. That is craziness. You have two acres and you can only have chickens.

09:30
right. And I think it's because the farmland that originally was attached to this house is all now, you know, it's neighborhoods, it's developments. And, you know, if I was to bring a donkey in in the middle of my two acres, I'm sure some of my neighbors wouldn't love that so much. So I'm sure that's why I don't get to have more than chickens. That is so sad. Our neighbors who are about a quarter mile away from us have a donkey and they have a cow.

09:59
in the mornings as the sun comes up, the donkey and the cow are kind of talking to each other. So you hear the donkey bray and you hear the cow low and it's so cool. I guess I get it if you're a city person and you hear that, it would probably be irritating, but I kind of really love it. So what are your house pets? Do you have cats and dogs?

10:24
I do. have two dogs. have an English Springer Spaniel and then a miniature Schnauzer. have two cats and then we have a miniature lop-eared bunny. So that's about it. Does the bunny have the run of the house by any chance? No, it has the run of upstairs. Very sassy bunny, very small ...