This summer my family took a multi week road trip that wrapped a big circle from Chicago, through Nashville and Appalachian Virginia, up to NYC, Cape Cod, Toronto and back home through Michigan. Our last “rest stop” was about 90 minutes outside of Chicago at an exciting new project called Farmette.
Located in the Lake Michigan “beach town” of New Buffalo, Farmette is a marketplace, bakery and cafe—with a micro-farm on site. It’s a beautiful one-stop shop featuring all the best stuff like local produce, local flowers, coffee, kombucha, cheese, bread, wine, beer, prepared foods, home goods—and more. Farmette also features some of the Manual glassware line and they use our flower stands in the retail shop.
I first met Farmette’s founder Katie Burdett, when I shared a studio with her brother-in-law Ted Burdett—the founder of Fourneau who also lives and works in the same area. Katie has an extensive background in the food world, specifically in small working farms—both urban and rural (including the gardens of chef Rick Bayless!) Additionally she is also an accomplished digital storyteller—her gardening videos on Instagram are some of the most authentically interesting (and frankly relaxing) content I have ever seen. I’m thrilled to see her latest project manifest into a lovely community space centered around food!
If you find yourself vacationing on the Michigan coast or even driving down I-94 east of Chicago (it’s only 5 minutes off the highway)—I emphatically insist you stop by Farmette. My family happily loaded up on fresh bread, kombucha, flowers, wine and farm fresh veggies—something we definitely needed more of after multiple weeks on a road trip. Quite certainly the best rest stop of the trip. 💚
