The farm originally belonged to my mother’s family, Nancy Armstrong, and she purchased and inherited land from the Armstrong family who in their day were sheep farmers.  Okay laugh here. Yup, I come from a family of sheep farmers. It makes complete rational sense where my longing to look over the fields and see sheep grazing comes from. I know, I know sheep farmers but where did the raspberries come from?

My mother met my father, Larry Langdon, and they settled down and built a nice ranch on property bought from my mother’s parents for $1.00.  What a deal, what a steal. My parents decided to have children and as soon as my brother smiled one time she decided to leave her job as a math teach to stay at home with the rarely smiling brother and have another child to had to the household aka Me.  The next question my parents asked themselves was how they would create an income to supplement that of teaching. EUREKA….or Raspberries.  So the fields were planted first outside our windows on about 4 acres, then expanding across the road on to nearly 20 acres at our peak.

I grew up with many learning experiences from this second income probably more than my parents could have realized when they were planting fields full of raspberries.  Many of the stories come out when I am in the same room with my best friend who also had a very wide range of experiences on our farm. Ahhh…reminiscing.  The Kern Road Farm Kitchen developed when we had a surplus of raspberries. The markets in the Detroit and Lansing areas decided that they could fly raspberries in cheaper from California and left us hanging.  The berries mounded up.  What to do?  We bought a nice sized walk in freezer. We froze all the berries selling the to customers and stores.  When winter rolled around and mom had a dose of cabin fever,  the basement was turned into a commercial kitchen.   Kitchen became the experimental place where my mom mixed raspberries with every other fruit out there.

Ok, fast forward, soon after I graduated High School my parents divorced and unfortunately the farm took the largest hit.  The family was shattered into all different directions.  I was starting college and to concerned with living life and driving my 1972 VW bug around to take a serious interest in farming the farm.  My brother was busy raising and caring for his wife and son to even consider farming as a means of income.  My mom was also on her own set of life learning experiences to really take the farm over on her own. My dad was still working a full time job and caring for our home and 10 acres. So the farm took a turn for the worst the fields grew over, mulberry trees established themselves, and black raspberries ran wild in huge colonies.

Fourteen years fade and pass, I found myself back on the farm with my feet at the door with only a bag over my shoulder and the knowledge that only living life can give and a B.S. in Botany from MSU.  Disturbed and distraught from a relationship gone wrong,  the only serenity I found was in the overgrown and desolate land we once called Kern Road Farm. With my fathers retirement, we quickly decided to put up one greenhouse to grow tulips and daffodils to sell at the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market.  Shortly after one more greenhouse went up for the extra needed space because we decided to start selling perennials as well.  Where ever I go a garden follows.

I came back home to rebuild myself as well as the farm and the relationships with my family.  My parents now live happily  next door to one another.  My mother remarried to Bob Fischer, who is the most patient and awesomest step dad I could have ever imagined.  In addition my brother, Mark Langdon, recently divorced and has brought his bag with his two creative and beautiful sons and landed on the steps of the farm as well to add to rebuilding of the farm. As part of his rebuilding process, he as found solace in woodworking creating some wonderful masterpieces with wood taken off the farm. He has been selling a few items at Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market and I am encouraging him to get his own online shopping cart. We have all been in the process for the last three years of clearing the fields and last spring, 2009, we replanted nearly 4 acres of red raspberries plus some gooseberries, currants, and black raspberries. Shortly after the replanting of the fields came the new addition to the family my lovely, calm, sturdy, and gracious husband, Ty Paff. We were married on the farm on a perfect beautiful sunny day!

Renew. Rethink. Rebuild. Replant.

We are just starting to see the first raspberries of 2010!

Come share in the rebuilding of our lives and our fields.

Dawn Langdon-Paff