MARSHALL TWP — Strolling around their farm on a hot Monday-Friday morning, Trent Thompson and Bridgett Blough are the first to admit they have more.
The married couple have 3 young children, to mention an equivalent number of small businesses born out of their shared love of new food, the net, and the outdoors.
Taking full credit for their 20 acres on H Drive North, the couple has consolidated their respective agricultural, dining and event businesses into one place, one brand: Of The Land.
“It’s about being in nature,” Blough said Friday as he took a field trip to the property. “A big component of us, having this farm, is feeding the members of the network and opening it up to other people so that they also delight in it, sharing nature with other people. “
In partnership with about 40 local manufacturers in Western Michigan, the couple offers more than two hundred new products ranging from new products, meat and dairy to meal kits and prepared foods through their online marketplace The Green Box.
The online marketplace offers a variety of farmed produce, meats, eggs, dairy, kitchen staples, and full meals, and consumers have the option to customize the pieces they receive.
Customers can buy “as little or as much as they want,” in order to purchase a single Green Box or sign up for a weekly “Farmer’s Pick” subscription service.
“We grow a lot of that food, buy some of the farmers in the area, and then pack it and pack it in a meeting line (located on the farm site) and then distribute it,” Thompson explained.
The couple doesn’t buy the products until they’ve been ordered online, which promises a fresher product and restricts food waste.
Guests also have the option to purchase special meal kits that come with a recipe and all the ingredients to prepare a seasonal dinner at home, as well as a variety of dishes prepared through Blough that can be eaten on arrival. .
“One of the things I love is that we teach other people how to cook with local food,” Blough said. “There’s an educational component and we combine elements that make sense, and it’s easy!”
Blough’s fondness for food evolved very soon.
As a child, she remembers going to a local farm with her father to buy sweet corn, pick up the cobs before returning home to eat it with dinner.
She then on this farm when she was a teenager.
“I fell in love with this concept of other people making a living developing food,” Blough said of the experience. “I’ve enjoyed it ever since. “
Thompson’s love of farming came later in life.
Shortly after graduating from Michigan State University with a degree in forestry engineering, he agreed to paint on a coffee farm in Hawaii. Later ranch stays in Oregon and Arizona solidified his fondness for the profession, prompting him to return to Battle Creek to see for himself.
By renting land and a farm near Pennfield, Thompson began developing a variety of vegetables in 2008, promoting the produce at the Battle Creek farmers market under the industry name Green Gardens.
She bought her own 20-acre assets along H Drive North in 2012, assembling Blough later that year when she began buying her products for her catering business The Organic Gypsy.
Since then, the two have worked together in various capacities (despite everything, they married in 2021), and Thompson’s Green Gardens company eventually became the online marketplace The Green Box with Blough’s support.
Thompson began diving into the occasions in 2017, turning an agricultural greenhouse into a 5,000-square-foot wedding corridor that seats 150 people. The couple booked 35 weddings at the site this year.
The venue also hosts weekly yoga sessions and sound baths, a meditative delight in which participants “bathe” in sound waves.
A 4,800-square-foot lawn yard with edible flowers and plants, adding cherry tomatoes, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries, was added to the assets in 2021. The area includes a cell café/bar and has hosted concerts, picnics and a circle of kinsmen game night, among other occasions so far.
A giant kitchen on the estate dedicated to catering is also almost finished.
The couple holds a public event once a month on the estate, opening all assets to visitors.
Thompson said what he appreciates most are connections with local manufacturers and community consumers.
“I love being outside,” he said. I love that the network knows the other people we sell food to, I love the sustainability of promoting food to other people here on the network and the quality we can offer to other people. “
For more information, oftheland. co.
Contact journalist Greyson Steele at gsteele@battlecreekenquirer. com or 269-501-5661. Follow him on Twitter: G_SteeleBC