It All Started in the Garden

What drives a couple in their mid fifties to sell their home of 20 years, purchase a 13-acre rural farm in northern Michigan, transform it into a certified organic farm and start a new value-added cultured veggies business? According to Nancy and Pat Curley, who have been organic gardeners for 35 years: “Our main motivation was to come from a place of service – to serve human beings and to help Mother Earth at the same time.” In fact, Nancy and Pat met in the garden - the very first organic garden that Pat started back in 1972. They've been growing organic veggies and flowers every year since.

"Anyone who knows Nancy Curley knows she has a special relationship with cabbages."

Their business, Leelanau Cultured Veggies, focuses on producing and marketing lacto-fermented vegetable products. All of the vegetables they use are grown on their certified organic farm and are processed at their own facility. “We like to call what we are doing ‘farmentation’," states Pat. “We take our product from seed to plant to harvest to finished product right here on our own farm. Every vegetable that goes into our cultured foods is cultivated with care. Our products are made where the soil is rich in nutrients, the water is pristine, the plants are hardy and the workers are happy.”

Anyone who knows Nancy Curley knows she has a special relationship with cabbages. This is evident both in the quality and size of cabbage the Curleys grow for their sauerkraut and Kim Chee as well as in the taste of their products. But you say, “I like sauerkraut but it doesn’t like me.” Try introducing into it your diet gradually, over time. Soon you'll notice its benefits, particularly to your digestive and intestinal health.

The Curleys are no strangers to the food fermentation business. In fact, they were the ones who began making the Oryana tempeh out of their home way back in 1981. This time though they are embarking into the food fermentation business on a much grander scale. According to Nancy, “We are so thankful for all of the support we’ve received from our friends and the community. We couldn’t have gotten this far without you!”

Abriged and edited from the September/October 2006 edition of Oryana News: www.oryana.coop

Thanks for stopping by! Nancy and Pat Leelanau Cultured Veggies have been developing a system to produce and market lacto-fermented vegetables. We started with the ancient method of food preservation and have brought it carefully into the 21st century.

All of our products start with vegetables grown at our USDA Organic certified Leelanau County Farm and are processed at our own facility at the same location. FARMentation.

April 10, 2007 - first delivery to Oryana!

Nancy Curley surrounded by the garden's bounty

Happy harvest in the garden!

Pat Curley really loves his work.