Well, summer has finally arrived and we’re at the end of June with high temps and humidity. Fortunately the heat seems to have jump started my garden, and I hope to get some tomatoes, beans, squash, several varieties of pumpkins, watermelon, onions, garlic, potatoes, and maybe some melons this summer.

My baking has been sporadic at best this year, and for that I sincerely apologize. Since the end of 2023 I have had a job that takes a lot of my time, and by the end of the week I’m usually exhausted. (amazing how once you hit a certain age your energy level completely changes!) Couple that with a few health hiccups and it’s been very, very hard to be open consistently.

I hope to finish the season at Labor Day, and possibly bake for Thanksgiving orders and Christmas. After that, there will be a lot of self reflection and decision making about going forward with continuing to bake in 2026. I’m on the fence, so time will tell.

Please know that I appreciate all of my customers and sincerely hate to disappoint any of you. Follow me on Facebook for up to date opening days and other information. Thank you for the support and understanding all these years, it’s been such a privilege to offer my goods to the wonderful locals and visitors to the area.

All my best, Andria

As I sit here in the dead of winter, I’m thinking about spring, summer and fall, and what I want the next version of Red Gate Farm to be. In the early days, when my Mom would spend the summers with me, we were mostly focused on heirloom vegetables and some flowers. I helped Mom plant the garden, but she tended it all summer. Once she missed her first summer staying here, I realized I couldn’t both maintain a large garden and bake. (by that point, baking had become the bigger part of my business)

When we did have a large garden, out of everything I did, making cut flower bouquets was my favorite. I’m OK at getting the garden in, but keeping it weeded is a challenge. My husband Bob helps set up irrigation on timers, so that part is easy, but it’s tending the garden that I struggle with for some reason. I tried to plant perennials that would come back each year, but the best cut garden flowers are mostly annuals.

When I moved last year, we left the greenhouse behind thinking I would just get a new one. Lo and behold, with rising prices my former greenhouse is now 3x what I paid for it in 2015, and it’s almost $10K to duplicate it. SO, I’m trying to figure out how to start seeds for the coming gardening season. But my intent is to have a flower garden in my Mom’s honor. I will also grow some heirloom tomatoes and other veggies that we eat.

The farm stand will mostly feature baked goods, but as the season goes on, I will have some veggies and eventually flowers. If I can find some part time help in the kitchen, I think it will be easier to do a wider variety of things this year. I will have my vintage camper parked out front with some sewn goods (bucket hats), soaps and other items, and will try to keep jam in stock this year. If I can partner with a local farmer that I know, I will also feature his organic produce from time to time. If possible, I will sell seasonal fruit as I have in past years, but for a few years, getting the strawberries has been a challenge so we’ll see what this coming season brings.

Sometimes I ask myself why I do this. It’s certainly not for the money, LOL. I think part of it is because I remember my early days of coming up north, to this area, and how special it felt and still feels to me. I want to give visitors that special feeling of something unique that they might not find wherever they’re from. For all my customers, I strive to bake consistently tasty baked goods, from quality ingredients, at a fair price. With the cost of ingredients having gone up SO MUCH, my prices will go up too, but I will never gouge my customers or price seasonally.

One of the main reasons I do this is because it’s fun or me, and I love being at home now and not in the corporate world. My life is simpler and I think I’ve relaxed and have more moments of happiness than I did in the past. I worry that my gap year of 2022 may impact my business, but I’m hoping once I’m open in the higher visibility location, business will eventually return to normal.

The last thing I feel compelled to touch on is selling eggs. Our flock is down to 21 old chickens. We get between 1-4 eggs right now. We will let the chickens pass naturally, and once we are down to a smaller flock we will get rid of the Chicken Bus and keep a very small flock in Bob’s old chicken coop. The Bus served its purpose and I like having chickens, but I don’t want to keep a large flock anymore. So, unless something changes, I won’t be selling eggs anymore.

Cheers to all who have made it this far – I look forward to 2023 and all of the opportunities it will present for me to do my thing at the farm stand, with all of you there to see it and cheer me on! (with hope) All my best, Andria

Happy New Year! If you’re reading this and follow me on Facebook, you know that my husband and I had a helluva 2022.

January 5, 2022 my husband slipped on the ice and fell and broke his leg, his femur to be exact. He spent 15 days in the hospital and another 7 days in a short term rehab wing of a local nursing home. He was out of work for 4 1/2 months, and still has hip and knee pain. So that was a major stressor.

We finally decided to move into his house and sell mine, after my Mom gave her blessing the previous summer. She had always told me I couldn’t sell my house while she was alive, because she loved it so much, but when she saw my husband’s house, she saw more space and potential. SO, in April and May I prepped for putting my house on the market, and we listed it in early June.

We got lucky because we received an offer the first weekend it listed, and ended up selling to that couple. I was anticipating a bidding war, but it never came, and in the end I was grateful to the couple who bought my house. They want to continue to do the farming/garden side, they have chickens, and they have dogs that enjoy the fenced in yard like my dogs did. They were also incredibly patient with us, as they were moving in I was still moving out, and in retrospect I realize how lenient they were.

While the house was in the process of being sold, we began an update at my husband’s (now our home) with new floors, paint, appliances, and a bigger oven for my baking business. While this was going on, we were moving my things to the “new” house, without a lot of room to put things. So, since August there’s been a shipping container in the driveway, and we continue to organize and downsize inside so that we can empty that container.

As this was going on, my Mom and Bob’s Dad, who both had cancer, were going through their battles and starting to lose the fight. My Mom was hospitalized September 14th, and starting the next week I went back and forth between home Phoenix to spend time with her – 10 days there, 10 days at home. She moved to a rehab facility in October, and finally went home on October 20th.

Mom was so happy to be back home and in her bedroom, she said she wasn’t sure if she’d ever see her room again. At first we weren’t sure how it could be managed financially, but somehow it worked out and we were blessed with a gift from God – a neighbor who is a caregiver and could help care for Mom. Mom liked her and so it was really a gift for everyone to have her on the team.

Bob’s Dad had battled and beat bladder cancer, but it spread to his liver, and the treatment for that was just too much for him. Although he was still mobile at 92 years old, he couldn’t do the things he loved anymore. Once the doctor told him there were no other treatment options for the liver cancer, he decided he was ready to go. Bob’s Dad Jerome passed away at home with his family around him on November 13th, and my Mom Jeanne passed away on November 26th with us by her side. Needless to say, it was a very rough November.

Once Mom passed, my siblings and I had the task of going through Mom’s things, and start to get her house ready to sell. Bob helped me in Phoenix for a week, and we came home just before Christmas to celebrate with his family. On Christmas eve, my old dog Ella was urinating blood, so in the middle of the blowing snow I drove her to the emergency vet at 10 pm for a $400 visit. Fortunately she just had a UTI, but I was terrified because she has kidney disease. Another stressor that took years off my life.

There were several days of snow before and after Christmas, and Bob has a side snowplow business, so he was out plowing. Two days after Christmas, he mentioned that he was having some pain and that it had lasted for a couple of days, so in to ER we went.

My husband had a heart attack the day after Christmas while shoveling snow for some of the customers who can’t shovel their own walkways. Fortunately, his arteries were not blocked, but he does have a small tear on the artery that the doctors refer to as the widow maker. He is being treated with medicine, and it should heal in 3-6 months.

SO, for those of you wondering where I’ve been in 2022, here it is. I was under an incredible amount of stress most of the year, and still have some stress worrying about my husband Bob, and trying not to mother him too much.

A few takeaways that I’m sure you all feel when you lose people so dear;
– Family first, you just never know what can happen and how much you will miss them when they are gone
– Do the things you want to do now, don’t wait for retirement. Bob’s dad had a lengthy retirement and was blessed with doing many things in this time. My mom was retired for 10 years, and lived her life to the fullest. I’m so thankful they both had such wonderful lives
– Take care of yourself, it seems like you’re better able to bounce back if you’re relatively healthy. The last 2 months have been a wake up call for me, and I’m trying to make small, gradual changes to get healthy.

In closing this update, which has been cathartic for me, the farm stand will be open in the spring in my new location. I will focus on the old favorites; bread, brownies and cinnamon rolls, with a mix of extras like cakes, muffins, scones, jam, cookies and other things I can add to my mix to keep people happy. I will restart my garden here, but I will plant more flowers than veggies, and will keep things simple. If you’ve read this far, thank you for humoring me my update, and I look forward to seeing you in the coming months. All my best to you all in 2023! Andria

PS I’m doing OK and incredibly touched by all of the cards, texts, calls, messages, soup and so many other gestures that were so thoughtful and heartwarming. Each of you lifted my spirits!

I sold my house yesterday. I thought I would die in this house and that this would be my forever home. I love the land, the peace of mind it brought me, my location in Leelanau, and how the space developed over the last 10 years. But then I met the wonderful Mr. Bufka, and everything changed.

We didn’t really talk about much prior to eloping, like where we’d live, and just assumed it would somehow work out. Fortunately it has, but it was a long road for me to be willing to sell my house, and give up what had been my dream for so long.

We are very fortunate though, we were able to buy 6 acres next to Bob’s house, now known as Bufka West, and my house sold which allowed us to make some updates to Bufka West. I’ve had a lot of time away from my baking business, and have been thinking about classic favorites and some new things I’d like to do.

With the 6 acres I hope to plant a small area for flowers. Trying to do both a big garden and baking doesn’t work for just me, so I will mostly bake and hope to have cut flowers, eggs, jam, sewn goods, and whatever else makes sense. Life is always in progress, and so is my Red Gate Farm. We will keep the name, as we DO have a red gate by the chicken bus, and hope to pick up where I left off – just in a new location.

The couple who bought my place want to garden and have a farm stand, so I’m really grateful we found each other and were able to make the sale work. I wish them all good things and hope that when they are up and running my customers will support them as they’ve supported me.

Thanks to my customers for their patience and support, it’s been a helluva year with Bob breaking his leg in early January, to me selling the house yesterday. I’m cautiously optimistic about what remains in 2022, and enthusiastic about all of the possibilities in 2023!! Cheers and hope to see you very soon at: 2054 W Burdickville Road in Maple City!! Best, Andria

I have so much going through my head right now – I’m trying to figure out how to succinctly and coherently explain a little about why I operate as I do.

The bulk of my work life was spent in the auto industry, mostly in lower or mid management positions, but I had great benefits and even better pay – so I was very lucky. I did work hard for all of that, regularly working 12+ hour days when I was younger, traveling and relocating a lot for some jobs, and essentially living to work. I worked pretty intensely for at least 20 years of my career.

In 2012 I bought a small, old farmhouse in Leelanau county, with the intent to just have it be a fun weekend getaway. The more time I spent up north, the harder it became to leave each Sunday. In my early days I would leave at about noon on Sundays so that I had time to get home and get ready for the week. That morphed to me leaving at 2 a.m. to get back early Monday morning for work. So I knew I wanted to live here, I just didn’t know how to make that happen.

Over the course of a few years, I was able to make that happen by working as an independent contractor from Fall-Spring and spending summers up north working my farm. As time went on, the farm morphed into more of a bakery because that was a sure thing in terms of being able to make money. Well, only a small amount of money and not enough to live on.

In late 2019/early 2020 I was collaborating with a local business woman about selling my goods at her business a few days a week. In preparation for this, I invested in a commercial stand mixer and double oven to increase my output. Then Covid 19 shut things down, and I took a chance by opening the farm stand earlier in the year than normal (March instead of May) and started baking higher quantities and more of a mix of things for my farm stand. It was my 7th year in business, and it took a global pandemic for local residents to come buy my baked goods, but I was grateful for the business. In 2020, I did more than 4x my best year ever, and actually made enough money to live on.

So far 2021 is trending about the same, or slightly up from 2020. But here’s the catch: I am one person doing all the baking, with a little help from my (new) husband packaging and labeling with me on weekends. I do have a small business, but it’s a farm stand in Northern Michigan, not a brick and mortar building with multiple employees. I don’t think people always realize, or sometimes forget this. So if I get sick, I won’t bake and you won’t get baked goods that day or weekend. I need to maintain some flexibility in my small business to continue to be motivated to do it. Most people do seem to understand this, but I still feel compelled to say it.

I have a lot going on in my life other than the baking business and farm stand. There’s an Airbnb above my garage that I rent out and clean between guests, and it’s fully booked most of the summer. I have a wonderful new husband that I don’t get to spend much time with because his weekends are my weekdays. My mom has cancer and lives in AZ, and I’ve only seen her once in the last 18 months. She’s doing really well, but her health is always in the back of my mind. I’ve got some health issues I never took seriously, so now I’m on medication for Type 2 diabetes and sleeping with a CPAP machine. Then there’s the joy of being almost 54 and in the throes of menopause. My energy level is nill, I sleep a lot, lack motivation, and then feel incredibly guilty all the time that I don’t do more. I worry that I’m depressed, but my doctor says a lot of people were drained because of the pandemic and the election and are regaining their motivation but that it takes time.

Why do I talk so openly about all of this? Because I’ve built a nice little business that I still enjoy, and I want to keep enjoying it. I’ve kicked around putting in a commercial kitchen to try to expand my business more, but honestly I don’t want to do that. I like my simple life, and want to keep it as is. I’ve had a few restaurants approach me about supplying my baked goods for them to sell or baking for their restaurant, but I really don’t want to take on any more than what I’m already doing. I don’t aspire to working 12+ hour days anymore, nor do I think I could even if I wanted to.

So when I say I can’t bake a cake for your dog’s birthday on a weekend, or come to an event to sell more goods on a Saturday in peak season, it’s because I don’t have the capacity to do more than I already am. I want to keep supplying quality goods at a fair price to my regular and seasonal customers at my farm stand – my home based business. If I start baking and freezing everything so that I can open more days or do events, the quality will suffer, and I have other things I’m doing besides baking.

I’m also trying to dial back my social media use, so on days that I’m open, I post what I will have and then that’s it. I open up the farm stand, take a nap, hang out with Bob, but I’m not on social media checking messages and texts. If you want something, it’s best to see what I’ve posted will be available on Facebook and come and get it. I can’t add monitoring messages and texts while I’m trying to open the farm stand or just after. I’m trying to operate on a first come, first served basis to keep life manageable.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for your patience as I explain what’s going on in my head about my farm stand/baking business. I’m juggling a lot and doing the best I can, and I really appreciate your business and ongoing support! Andria

When I first opened my farm stand in 2014, I started baking because another stand I frequented occasionally had cookies, and in early June I didn’t have any produce ready. I fine tuned recipes and tried to figure out what would sell, and over time the baking side of the business took over the farm side. (and my dear Mother wasn’t able to visit in summers for the last 3 years, so the garden suffered terribly)

Fast forward to 2020. I had spoken with a local business about helping with a side business and bringing my goods to Glen Arbor on the weekend. In anticipation of that, I invested in a double oven and a 20 quart stand mixer to be able to produce more. That endeavor in Glen Arbor didn’t add much to my bottom line, but having the equipment installed and ready allowed me to quadruple my business in 2020, mostly, I think, because of the lockdown. Finally, locals were customers and I could sustain my business more than just for 6-8 key weeks from June-August.

This year is a crossroads for me – will the business do what it did last year, or will it go back to 2019 sales levels?? I’m in an odd position after years of being financially independent while working in the auto industry, for the first time in a long time I worry about money. My bills are minimal, a small mortgage and utilities, but I went from having so much discretionary income that I didn’t know how to spend it all, to worrying about money again at 53 years old.

I’ve been incredibly lucky in my life, ever since I left a solid job at Chrysler on a voluntary buyout in 2008, I’ve landed on my feet every time I’ve left a job. I must admit to being terrified every time I quit a job without having another one lined up, but it made me realize I am able to do a lot of different things and something usually turns up.

So today I will have an initial interview for a job with a nearby microbrewery to see whether their job is a fit for me, and I for them. It seems to be a pretty young company, so I may not be right for their corporate culture, but I am intrigued. Frankly, I just tossed my hat in the ring and didn’t expect to hear from them, but am looking forward to seeing if there might be a way to work steadily AND still do the farm stand on weekends. If this job doesn’t work out, I’ll just try to hold on until summer, hope things are busy again this year, and keep looking for local jobs.

When people tell me I’m living their dream, I laugh a little inside. People don’t realize the instability that goes along with just chucking conventional employment to make a go of it. Of course it’s wonderful to be able to live your dream or in your dream location, but you make sacrifices just like you do when you live in the city. I’ve lived in Germany, California, Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, Florida and, as a child, in Wisconsin. Moving around has taught me that there are good and bad aspects to everywhere we live, but eventually each place becomes home. One just has to decide what is most important to them about where they want to make a home, and go from there.

My place in Maple City officially became mine on June 5, 2012. What made me decide to move up here (twice) was that every time I visited it became harder and harder to leave, and that was before I was involved with the wonderful Mr Bufka. I just felt so at peace here and grounded, though I admit in winter I do get a little nutty. (*must talk to doc about new meds for winter) Being here is a blessing, and I’ve met so many wonderful people and made some new friends. I still miss Rochester and my dear friends there, but I am thrilled to have this shot at making a life for myself in Northern Michigan.

This has become a brain dump of written mumbo jumbo, so I will stop here. Fingers crossed that I am able to make a financial go of it here this year too – stay tuned. Have a great week and thanks for reading my nonsense!! Andria