We recently connected with Ali Yahnke and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ali thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Since I was a college student, I knew I didn’t want to follow a traditional career path. I was an intern during my college years at a design and marketing firm – and while I was creative in my job, the 9-5 hours left me wanting more time to be with my friends and family, explore my personal creative interests, be in the garden, and explore. As my classmates started applying for jobs and starting their careers, I sought a new environment (I moved from Milwaukee to Omaha), connected with likeminded folks and suddenly found my footing in a community of others who shared my dream for living a creative and abundant life. That was in 2011 and there have been seasons of change since then, but I have never looked back towards a traditional path and wished I had taken that route instead.

Ali, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

At my core, I am a person seeking a deeper connection with my environment and community through all I do. I am also a mother and raising my children with this connectivity is deeply important to me. As we navigate an increasingly complex world, I find myself returning to simplicity, returning to our community and sharing the abundance of what we have (versus living in a mindset of scarcity). All of this has brought me back to the basics of growing food, sharing food and being creative in the kitchen!

The Perennial Homestead is our family-run business that, at it’s core, is an extension of this desire: to share abundance from mindful sources, artisans and farmers, who hold reverence for the land. We have manifested this dream by creating a line of shelf-stable products, like herb salts and seasonings, simple syrups and pantry staples that feature homegrown and farmer-sourced ingredients. We also grow fresh produce that we make available at our on-site farm stand that operates on the honor-system. This model was important to us because we felt it included our community in a way that was empowering, like, “Hey! Here’s what we grew! We want to share it with you and we trust you to honor our work by paying for it as you’re able!” It also honors our own time and personal boundaries by allowing us to present what we’ve created and grown without expecting us to be available at all hours to “sell” it – while models like farmers markets can be incredibly valuable tools for some farms, as a young family, we knew that was not how we wanted to spend our time or market our goods. Our farm stand has been hugely successful, has connected us with more neighbors than I could have expected and has supported our family to live in a way that aligns with our values. I am proud of the space we’ve created at our homestead and the way our neighbors and customers have become part of our community!

Perhaps I’m rambling – but at the core, we are working to connect the dots between food producers and our community in a creative and fun way. Taking ingredients that are otherwise considered perishable, like fresh herbs and produce, and turning them into ingredients that can become part of our kitchen palette year round. Food is personal, food is a connection to our community and to the land and through food we can facilitate a deeper connection to all of these aspects of life!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

As a mother and a creative person, the most rewarding thing about running our own creative business is that we can shape it to fit our own needs.

My husband Scott and I run our family business together, full time, with our kids at home with us. As our kids grow up, being able to intertwine them into our daily life and share in the creative process of our business is incredibly rewarding.

As I’ve grown older too, I find myself leaning into my own creativity in ways I didn’t realize were possible before – for most of my twenties, I felt a strong pressure to operate in a way that was influenced heavily by capitalism and participating in a traditional work culture, even when I was creating my own employment. After having kids and with each passing year, I have found myself placing less emphasis on financial goals and more on personal and familial goals – a rewarding day is one where I spend time with my kids, using materials we’ve grown at home to create something that brings us joy and that we can share with others!

With our business, we have shaped it in a way that we have products that are staples – mainly our small batch caramels that we make in the fall and winter and herb salts & seasoning blends made throughout the growing season. By having these consistent products, we have allowed ourselves room to play and be creative in between. We are farmers, first and foremost, and all of the products we make come out of our deep love of being creative with ingredients and materials that we can grow ourselves.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media is at times the most overwhelming and simultaneously the most rewarding part of running a small creative business. When I started, Instagram and Facebook (the two platforms we consistently use) were completely different than they are today. Our audience has grown significantly over the years and I feel deep gratitude for the people who have become a part of our community and watched our business grow and evolve over the years.

To build that community, I have worked hard to share the many layers of our business – from practical to personal. I have shown up consistently in a way that feels authentic to me: not on a schedule, but when I feel inspired to share. When we were first getting started with our business, I felt a lot of pressure to show up in a specific way: like, post every day, share a specific type of content, etc. etc. etc. But that was exhausting for me! And I felt myself burning out. Last year, I hired a friend to come take photos every few months, because I was often not in the pictures I was sharing and it felt overwhelming to create all the content all the time. Since then, I feel a weight lifted – I have high quality images to maintain our overall branding and I can show up when I feel inspired to do so, which allows me to create the best content I can and maintain my own sanity.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theperennialhomestead.com
• Instagram: @perennialhomestead
• Facebook: facebook.com/perennialhomestead

Image Credits
Photos by Meg Sperry Photography