Our Makers

Fresh Roots Farm was established in 2011, by us, Michelle Schram and Troy Stozek, on a piece of land that was owned and farmed by Michelle’s grandparents and parents, near Cartwright in southwest Manitoba. Although Michelle grew up on her family’s nearby cattle ranch (Troy originally a town boy from Dauphin, MB) we both put down “fresh roots” with equally fresh ideas and optimism for growing good food from the land.

We are a young couple, just starting a family with our son, Sydney, born August 2017. We strive to create a viable livelihood from agriculture and animal stewardship, in ways that do not harm but, rather, improve and regenerate the environments we reside and work in. We have studied and worked in areas of environmental science, community development, local food movements, and holistic management, which helped inspire us to work towards the following goals:

Feed Manitoba families healthy, nutrient dense, delicious food, and especially to those who wish to have a connection to the people who produce that food;
Honour, respect and treat with dignity all the diversity of life inhabiting our land, including the livestock and bees in our care and also the wildlife;
Have a meaningful, stable, viable career and livelihood;
Be positive, contributing members of our community, and;
Develop a home and farm where we are proud to raise a family, and leave to future generations – ultimately with more tools, resources and better environmental conditions for adapting to future challenges such as climate change.
Though we started out raising and marketing livestock in a conventional manner, our farm business model has transitioned towards a system where nearly all of our livestock are exclusively grassfed and marketed direct-to-consumer. The same is true of our apiaryin that we produce, package and market most of our honey direct-to-consumer or through local retailers throughout rural and urban Manitoba. This has only been possible by building up a network of local supporters and providing a consistent, high qualiy product. There is always much more to learn and we are fortunate to have many mentors in the Manitoba grassfed and beekeeping communities to help fine tune our farm management and marketing. We look forward to further building a network of happy customers, whose support will ensure the sustainability of our livelihood and farm business long into the future. Thanks for embarking on this path with us!