We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Thomas Nolan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Thomas below.

Thomas , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

Greenwashing has absolutely taken over the agricultural industry. Everywhere you look you see different labels of “Non-GMO” “free range” “grass fed” “cage free”. Every year there seems to be a new label coming out. While these may seem helpful to the consumer, producers have found back door shortcuts and roundabout ways to qualify their products under such labeling without really providing a superior or eco-friendly product to the purchaser. This is not a practice my farm participates in or believes is beneficial to anyone. We do our best to provide the healthiest and freshest produce possible, but we do not try to misrepresent our products as anything other than what they truly are.

Thomas , 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?

Hi! My name is Thomas Nolan, and I am the owner, founder and farmer at Trippy Hippie Farms. The farm was borne out of my passion for growing plants. When I first moved to Michigan, I embraced the gardening culture of the area and started growing a variety of food, flowers, and houseplants. Trippy Hippie Farms was born in 2020 when I purchased my first home and started the process of building out the farm. We aim to provide local community members, restaurants, and retail food stores with a local, fresh produce option. Our community is one of the more food insecure areas of the state, so we try to make sure our pricing does not deter anyone from being able to purchase our products.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

While I founded the farm on my own, slowly over time I have had help from various people. The person helping the most, doing all the things that I let fall by the wayside, is Lisa Renye. While I never actually met Lisa before she came from Alabama to work on the farm, we had several mutual friends and knew of each other via social media. We both attended the University of South Alabama Honors College, her one year above myself. Lisa reached out via social media as I was building out the farm and asked about opportunities to help. One thing led to another and she moved across the country last summer (2022) to live on the farm. She assists with various farm tasks such as harvesting, planting, pulling weeds, or spreading compost. She heads up the majority of our marketing content, record keeping, and branding, while I myself keep busy in the field. While it has not been without it’s tough days, so far this working relationship has proved to be very positive and complementary and an overall boost to the farm.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

When you think of a farm you would not immediately think of e-commerce. Currently, our farm does not participate in e-commerce, but we are planning to explore opportunities to develop this revenue stream in the coming seasons. In Michigan we have a very short growing season, which means a short time to generate all your revenue for the year. Pivoting to embrace e-commerce opportunities would allow us to make money during the winter and spread out the income over the year. We hope to build our website and start offering seed garlic, dahlia tubers, tulip bulbs, merch and other shippable products very soon.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/trippy.hippie.farms?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trippy.hippie.farms?mibextid=LQQJ4d