VERMILION, Ohio — Home is where the farm is for one Northeast Ohio couple.
They have successfully turned a hobby of farming and gardening into a full-scale side-business.
The pandemic opened their eyes to a new world.
They started watching YouTube videos and looking up how to properly farm and grow crops on the internet.
The couple shifted careers to open a business and found a new purpose in life, and they haven't looked back since.
Rachel Gonzales and Tyler Shoemaker's garden is their personal oasis.
It's an escape from the day-to-day chaos of life, and where the married couple finds peace.
"We're working together on this. We're building this together," Shoemaker, Fifth Acre Farms Owner said.
They grow everything, like fresh vegetables.
"I have eggplant. Ton of peppers in right now. Zucchini too."
Snap dragons and seasonal flowers have their place as well.
Gonzalez says gardening began as a hobby after she was laid off from her graphic design job during the pandemic.
"I started sharing what I was doing on Instagram and ended up working for the Orchard in Catawba as their horticulturist," Gonzales said.
As her garden began to grow, so did the positive feedback online.
She says she knew she was destined for something bigger.
"Fifth Acre Farms comes from the fact that my home garden started on 1/5th of an acre which is where we live in Elyria. Our yard is 1/5th of an acre," Gonzales said.
The couple started Fifth Acre Farms, dubbed a regenerative farm.
She says everything is done there purposefully.
Their soil is never sprayed with chemicals or tilled.
Monocropping is entirely out of the question.
"We're growing flowers within our vegetables to encourage beneficial pollinators and things like that into our space. We're growing with the environment," Gonzales said.
Gonzales says growing your own produce, shopping locally, and eating locally makes a difference for the long term and creates an ecosystem of sorts that will benefit everyone.
That means earth-friendly food and flowers.
"It benefits on a grander scale. The environment, the earth we're growing in to. For us, it really comes back to doing what we can with what we have," Gonzales said.
Gonzales and Shoemaker say they are 100% self-taught and aim to make an impact in the long term.
"A really good idea when you're growing is to stay curious and stay kind of wondering what works," Gonzales said.
Fifth Acre Farms is delivering produce boxes as well as flowers.
It's direct to the consumer.
For more information, click here.
