Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Levine and Erica Kempter. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Nature and Nurture, LLC is a locally owned organic gardening service and organic heirloom seed company owned by Erica Kempter and Mike Levine.
As a University of Michigan student in 1991, at a time when environmentalism, social justice, and healthy food were viewed as mutually exclusive categories, Erica “discovered” sustainable agriculture and became passionate about its ability to create tangible, enduring, positive change. In Michigan in the early ’90s, Erica found few outlets for her passion, so in 1994 she moved to California. And in 1996, she transferred to the University of California, Santa Cruz, which at the time was the only large university in the U.S. with an organic farm on campus. She graduated from UCSC with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies/Sustainable Agriculture and then completed UCSC’s Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture, an internationally recognized organic farmer training program which has been a leader in the sustainable agriculture movement. Since then, Erica has filled many roles related to organic agriculture and food, including as an Americorps member working with school gardens and the Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz. In 1998, she was Youth Coordinator for the Detroit Agriculture Network.
In 2001 Erica, along with Mike Levine, founded Nature and Nurture LLC. They have been providing organic garden consultation, design, installation, and maintenance full-time ever since. In 2006, she developed and taught the Organic Gardener Certificate Program at Washtenaw Community College. In 2008, Erica founded the Homegrown Festival, an Ann Arbor community-based event which educates about and celebrates local and sustainable food. She participated in the development of the Local Food Summit and has been an active member of the Leadership Team of Slow Food Huron Valley. Her involvement with Slow Food exposed Erica to RAFT’s (Renewing America’s Food Traditions) “Place-Based Foods at Risk in the Great Lakes,” after which she became obsessed with researching, preserving, and breeding new Great Lakes regionally adapted foods. With Slow Food, Erica has been involved in the Heirloom Seed Project and Slow Food’s Ark of Taste.
Mike Levine has been obsessed with edible plants for his entire adult life. He has worked in the gardening, farming, and ecological restoration fields since 1995. His first job, after graduating from the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, was to work for the Natural Area Preservation Division of Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation doing ecological restoration in city parks. The next season, he co-directed Project Grow Community Gardens and worked at several Ann Arbor area organic farms. Interested in sustainability, he studied the Fundamentals of Permaculture, a course in sustainable living at The Farm in Summertown, TN, where he first glimpsed shiitake mushrooms being grown at Mushroompeople by Frank Michael. In 1999, Mike worked at and managed Saguaro Plant Nursery (a rare and unusual plant nursery in the Ann Arbor area).
After extensive travels and a return to Michigan, Mike met Erica. In 2001, he and Erica founded Nature and Nurture, LLC, and have co-owned and managed it ever since. Nature and Nurture, LLC provides organic landscape maintenance, installation, consulting, design, and other related tasks. He currently runs a fruit nursery and orchard with many interesting and edible plants and taught Easy Organic Fruit Growing, a part of the Organic Gardener Certificate Program at Washtenaw Community College. Additionally, Mike has been studying taxonomy and field identification of mushrooms since 1996 in the Ann Arbor area and is an Approved Mushroom Identification Expert in the State of Michigan. In 2011, he studied Gourmet and Medicinal Mushroom Cultivation with Paul Stamets at Fungi Perfecti in Olympia, Washington, and he has been growing and selling shiitake mushrooms since 2001. He hopes to build his own mycology lab on the Nature and Nurture Farm in the near future.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Obtaining the farm in 2013 was a very challenging and long process. It took 2.5 years of back-and-forth with the Township trying to sign a deal to protect the farm by selling it’s development rights in perpetuity. Then, growing the seed company itself took long hours and a lot of sacrifices.
A big challenge was scaling up from gardening to farming. It was a much bigger task than they had imagined. Going from growing plants for aesthetics, habitat, or food gardening at residential customers houses to growing plants for seed production at farm scale required a change in perspective. Pre-COVID, Nature & Nurture’s seed business was a small one. In March 2020, sales increased overnight by over 400%. In anticipation of another season of record-breaking seed sales, N&N expanded its partnerships and increased seed production. However, the following years haven’t even come close to the growth seen in 2020.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Erica & Mike have been doing organic gardening & landscaping in the Ann Arbor area for over 25 years. They are passionate about protecting people, pets, and the planet from toxic chemicals.
Nature and Nurture LLC is a locally owned organic gardening business by Erica Kempter and Mike Levine. Nature and Nurture is licensed and insured.
In addition, they have an organic seed business!
Nature & Nurture Seeds provides high-quality, heirloom, organic & non-GMO seeds for diverse farms and gardens. They offer a wide variety of vegetable, herb, flower, and native plant seeds. Rooted in the Great Lakes region, they specialize in seeds for short seasons that are adapted to growing in the Great Lakes Bioregion, the Midwest, and other northern areas.
They are nurturing a vibrant community that tends the Earth, enriches lives, and believes in healthy food for all. Nature and Nurture honors the seeds passed down from our ancestors, seeds that nourish, connect, and inspire us.
Mike and Erica are very proud of the business they have built, especially their Seed Business because of how much hard honest work that has been put into it. N&N is proud to be an organic gardening resource of knowledge for the community. They take a lot of pride in their seed quality. Customers often compliment them on the impressively high germination rate.
There are many different branches of the business: Organic Heirloom Seed Business, Organic Landscape Gardening, Organic Lawn Care Service, Organic Produce (Vegetables, Fruits, and Mushrooms), Edible Nursery, Orchard, and parnerships such as HipCamp (opportunities to camp on the farm), Farmland rental (hay, garlic, etc.), and Environmental Education projects such as hosting University of Michigan Masters Projects, class field trips, seed field days, and renting land to the Nature Learning Community for youth to learn about and enjoy nature.
What matters most to you?
Being a part of and helping to build community is something that is extremely important to Nature & Nurture. Additionally, promoting and sustainably growing good food and nurturing both our foodshed and our native ecosystems is what matters. Another thing of great importance would definitely be their beloved farm dog and mascot, Kiwi.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://natureandnurtureseeds.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nnseeds/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/natureandnurtureseeds
