Inspiring Conversations with Allison Mills and Drew Cramer of Ghost House Farm

Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Mills and Drew Cramer.

Hi Allison and Drew, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself. 
We are Allison and Drew from Ghost House Farm.

Long story short: The farm dream was nearly 20 years old before we ever broke ground. 

We met in college, started growing and working on farms, and dreamed of starting our own one day. 

That didn’t happen. Life happened. We then moved to Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula in 2014. We bought our first house in Hancock and ripped up the front lawn to plant asparagus and a berry patch. Our neighbor told us, “You seem like you could use more space.” Which we did – and in 2019, we bought a house out of town with 20 acres. 

Cue Spring 2020: The pandemic started up and we took the most reasonable next step. Panic buy 25 pounds of rice? Of course not; we had been buying in bulk for years. No, we panic-tilled an eighth acre of meadow and gleefully planted 25 pounds of seed potatoes and other storage crops. Decrepit sauna with dandelions growing out of the roof in the front yard? Sure, would make a great chicken coop. 

The farm dream had come back to us! At the same time, there was another invisible factor at play. Drew has Meniere’s disease, an inner-ear disease with no known cause and no known cure that produces unpredictable vertigo, tinnitus, and hearing loss. It had been in remission since 2014. Drew had been running a business installing solar panels since 2015, but late in 2019, his symptoms returned. If there are two things more immiscible than oil and water, it is random vertigo attacks and working on roofs. When one business closes, another business opens. 

So, the early pandemic homestead planted the seed that sprouted into Ghost House Farm in 2021. 

The full story is in our Ghost Stories: https://www.ghosthouse.farm/ghost-stories/how-we-got-into-farming 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Grad school, surgeries, injuries, illnesses, and student debt made us think that a farm wasn’t in the cards. 

Oddly enough, it’s those same reasons that made us brave enough to start. Especially with Drew’s inner ear disease, we realized that we needed to have more flexibility and purpose in our work. 

However, farming can be tough. The physical work can be a real benefit, but we have to be mindful of keeping up with our physical therapy routines to do it safely. Also, there is a lot of cultural baggage around farming being the exact opposite of “work smarter, not harder.” We all have been told that small-scale farming is too difficult and tedious to be worthwhile. And it can be. One of the challenges we embrace is re-writing that narrative and looking for ways to be smarter with harder tasks. 

We also learned the hard way why many farms do not do both veggies and meat animals! 

As you know, we’re big fans of Ghost House Farm. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
Our business is built around the idea that everyone deserves good food. We live in a beautiful but remote area, and not everyone can get easy access to healthy, fresh food. 

We are proud to offer a Donations Program alongside our flexible subscriptions, wholesale accounts, and traditional farmers market booth. 

Salad is our thing. Currently, we are the only farm in the area to offer triple-washed salad mix. And we just got a grant to build a four-season washing and packing facility, which means we can grow and wash salad all year. 

We also specialize in growing early-season tomatoes and cucumbers, plus all the fresh veg during the summer. We also grow amazing cut flowers that we sell at farmers’ markets and work with a local florist, Protea. 

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
We first caught the farming bug while attending Northland College. There was a blossoming local foods movement happening in the local area, and a few of our professors were vocal advocates. We were inspired by the words of Wendel Berry, permaculture design principles, and time spent volunteering at Great Oak Farm and Elsewhere Farm. 

Also, our families have contributed in so many ways. From supporting our wild summer internships as young people to showing up now to help run booths, chainsaws, and do the dishes because we forgot for too long. 

We are immensely lucky to be in a region that is seeing so much growth and collaboration in local foods. We are friends with local farmers and know our products are better because we all work together. Also, there are specific food advocates who get sh*t done — Rachel Pressley, Sandy Le, Shelby Turnquist, Jonathan and Meagan at Milly’s, to name just a few. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ghosthouse.farm/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghosthouse.farm
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghosthouse.farm

Image Credits
Amanda Makela
Lily Venable