Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Genavieve Moyer. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Genavieve, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My husband DJ & I are on a mission to redefine the family farm. My husband’s grandfather’s almost 100 acre dairy farm is now in the hands of the next generation. Like many small family farms that had their hay-day in the mid-70s & 80s, their children grew up to not be farmers. This leaves many small family farms vulnerable to being sold off into lots to the highest bidder. If one of the descendents does want to farm it can also be extremely difficult to compete with corporate farming having 1000s of acres vs a small farm. In 2018, my husband and I decided to use a portion of the farm to provide glamping sites through the company Tentrr. It’s like the Airbnb of camping and glamping. Our one site, The Algonquin Gitigaan is located on a Lenape Settlement per the deed. We connected with an organization called All Tribes DC so we could educate and share with our campers the history of the land and acknowledge the first peoples who made this land their home. As an indigenous descendent of the Iroquois nation, it was important to me to honor this land’s history. When 2020 hit, we were greeting one camper after another and decided to build our second site, A PA Dutch Dromijn, paying homage to both our PA Dutch roots. Through more genealogy we discovered that the first settler of our farm was actually my six-time great grandfather. Showing us we were even more connected to this land than what we thought. Since then we have expanded into herbal loose-leaf teas and we will be launching this summer our own hand-dyed fabrics. All we do is to support the mission that the small family farm doesn’t need to look like what it has traditionally in the past. We hope to eventually expand into other areas of environmental impact such as carbon collection and beekeeping. By making sure we tell the stories of the past, we can hopefully make sure we don’t repeat those mistakes.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We are most proud of building this business together as a family. The fact that both of our campsites are listed as 5 start sites with dozens of positive reviews. We have been able to offer our customers a variety of ways to reconnect, rejuvenate, and relax through our campsites, teas, and now with our hand-dyed fabrics. We are proud that we have been able to discover more about our heritage so that we are able to share it with future generations in our family.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The first time we had to pivot was after we set up our first site, The Algonquin Gitigaan. We were expecting it to take off faster and I had left my prior position in fashion marketing. For a while, I also took on private consulting clients offering coaching in social media and start up development since that was my background prior to going out on our own.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think as an entrepreneur you are always unsure. You have to get comfortable with that feeling of not knowing if the next step is going to be two steps forward or a step backward. Resilience, I believe is the definition of a true entrepreneur because you are always pushing yourself towards the next goal or level of what you are hoping to achieve. You get super comfortable with failure, with nos, with redefining what it means to follow your passion. I don’t feel there is just one story to illustrate that for us because resilience has defined this entire journey for us. We continue to work hard each day, even when it feels like everything is moving super slow or too many things are happening at once.       

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.thethunderbirdfarm.com
• Instagram: @thunderbirdfarmpa
• Facebook: @thunderbirdfarmpa
• Youtube: @thunderbirdfarmpa
• Pinterest: @thunderbirdfarmpa

Image Credits
@thunderbirdfarmpa