Conversations with Mel Matthews

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Mel Matthews.

Hi Mel, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
A couple of years ago, my husband and I bought our home, and we started growing and raising our family. We wanted to be more mindful of our food sources and be more self-sufficient, so we began starting gardens, planting trees, and adding animals. We are currently building our dream greenhouse. While this was happening, I decided to document the journey. I posted a few of those videos online, and people loved them.

I came up with the idea to put together a recipe book so that more people could learn how to make their household staples right at home and rely less on grocery stores. After three months of recipe development, writing, editing, photographing, and printing, I self-published my first recipe book with huge success. I am now working with a publishing company to launch my next recipe book early next year and have turned our homestead into a successful business.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
Not necessarily.

Not only was writing and self-publishing a recipe book a complete learning curve but figuring out how to start and operate a business was another side of things that I have spent many late nights piecing together.

As a small business and sole proprietor, you have to wear many hats and do many things behind the scenes that most people don’t recognize.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?

I started The Homestead Fam as a fun way to share our story, but it ended up turning into my dream business where I get to share my passions with the world. Alongside the recipe books, I am now launching an online Market, which I like to think of as an online version of a farm cart or farm store. I am dedicated to offering quality goods from small businesses, farmers, artisans, and crafters from here in Michigan and throughout the U.S.

I am blessed to have the opportunity to do what I love. I am also proud of myself for putting myself out there, building a business regardless of the skepticism, and doing it all scared. It is not easy or comfortable doing these things, but no growth or success comes from staying inside our comfort zones.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I think a lot of my success has come from just simply doing what I love and sharing that with people. People can see the passion I have for cooking, baking, and homesteading, which gets them excited to learn and start doing these things as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: thehomesteadfam.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/thehomesteadfam
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thehomesteadfam