Our Story...

Our family's farm story begins years before there was even a Lake family. Our worlds couldn’t have been much different before meeting. The two sets of dreams and aspirations were combined to create one vision for our future. The following are the paths that lead us to where we are today.

Melody grew up in city spending time in Eugene and Portland. She enjoyed participating in crew (rowing) and developed a love for cooking. She followed her passion and attended culinary school. There she became fascinated with not only cooking but with planning, logistics and the path food traveled from farm to fork. This lead to a deep appreciation for high quality local ingredients. While attending school she was hired to help open Hideaway Bakery in Eugene. At Hideaway Bakery is where her and Aaron first met. (Thanks Mazzi)

Aaron was raised on a small piece of country property just South of Eugene. (Where we began farming). He spent his time exploring the out doors and developing valuable mechanic skills. In his late teenage years he was hired by a local organic farmer to help with his custom hay business and tractor maintenance. In the off farming season he helped the farmer build his new wood fired oven bakery (Hideaway Bakery).

We fell in love, got married, and moved to town. Melody pursued a career in the food industry. Aaron pursued a career in business. We both knew deep down we wanted something more from life than a 9-5. We shared the common dream of living off the land with big family and being self-employed. 

Our interest in organic food started with a medical condition that no doctor or specialist seemed to be able to figure relieve. We spent much time and money searching for an answer. After much frustration, we made a decision to start eating local and organic. After the switch the condition seemed to correct itself!

We began gardening and raising chickens in our backyard. Our backyard quickly became wall to wall urban farm. We were able to grow a majority of what we ate from that quarter acre lot. We decided to take a leap of faith and sell our in-town property and move into an apartment, while searching for farm property. We started farming Aaron’s Parents property while living in the apartment, started our CSA program, and attended farmer’s markets. 

We searched and searched for our dream farm property. We finally found the perfect 30 acre property that would suit our needs with a great location and view.

It is our goal that this will enable us to feed many local families the high quality food that has become so important in our lives for many years to come, and to pass on these skills to our children.