our story
About
Wanderwood Farmstead
Wanderwood Farmstead raises heritage livestock in the woods and pastures of Northern Michigan for people who care where their food comes from and how it reaches the table.
We believe food should stay connected to the animals, land, and people that produce it. That belief shapes everything here: the breeds we choose, how we manage pasture and woodland, the timing of harvest, and the direct relationships we build with customers.
We eat everything we raise. If it’s not dinner-worthy for our table, we don’t sell it. Every cut should earn its place at yours: flavorful, carefully raised, and rooted in a farm you can see and people you can talk to.
I need to feel connected to my food — to the animals, the land, and the people raising it.
Why We Started the Farm
For much of my life, American meat felt hidden by design. It came from faraway states, from animals raised in concrete and steel barns, moved in unmarked trailers, processed in ways customers were never meant to picture, by people no label would name. Then it arrived in shiny plastic — pale and tasteless, without history or home.
When meat felt that detached, stepping away from most of it felt like the only honest response.
Years later, while living part-time in England, I saw a different relationship with livestock and land. Commuters passed sheep and fields on their morning drive. Hikers walked among livestock in national parks. The butcher hung today’s special in the window, and the pub served spring lamb for lunch.
That experience changed how I thought about food and farming.
Wanderwood Farmstead is my Northern Michigan expression of that idea: food from animals, land, and farming practices you can see, understand, and trust.
— Kate, farmer and owner
Why Wanderwood
Our farming practices are not separate from the quality of the meat. They create it.
Slower growth, forage-driven diets, and animals finished in mixed pasture and woodland produce meat with deeper, layered flavor, fat that carries place, and textures that perform in everyday meals.
We plan breeding, grazing, and harvest around breed characteristics, seasonal forage, and what our customers want to cook so every animal reaches ideal age and condition. Great meat is not an accident.
Because we raise and sell in small batches, variety is part of the value here. Our cut list goes deeper than the grocery case: everyday cuts, chef-ready roasts, fresh and smoked meats, house sausages, seasonal specialties, and special-order options when harvest timing allows. That depth gives customers more ways to cook from the whole animal — beyond the standard cuts most stores carry.
The farming must show up on the plate.