Valerie and Rick Gaskill

The Manchester Mirror is running a series of articles to introduce the many vendors at Acorn Farmers’ Market & Café to the community. Each week a different vendor will be featured, to highlight the wide variety of offerings at our local Market, both now and in the future. Watch for this regular feature to learn more about the people who make up the backdrop to this unique Manchester business!

This week we are featuring Rick and Valerie Gaskill, of Gaskill Family Farm in Milan.

“Gaskill Family Farm has been around since 2011. Before that time it was just Gaskill Farms. The name is derived from when our kids were in high school and they worked on the farm so we changed the name to include everyone,” says Rick.

The farm was introduced to Acorn by Jae at the Washtenaw Extension service, and found Acorn Market to be “just easy to work with.” If you haven’t tried Gaskill’s jams, you’re missing out. Within five years of starting to make them, the farm’s sales of jams, jellies, and preserves had surpassed the sales of produce crops raised on the farm! They are hand crafted in very small batches, using only natural ingredients.

Although currently considered a conventional farm, the Gaskills are in the process of converting some of their acres toward organic. Currently, they use both conventional and organic pesticides in their operation.

One thing they look forward to as Acorn prepares to expand to its larger, permanent quarters, is to increasing their jam selections (“We currently have 17 total different jams,” Rick explains), along with the amount of produce — both fruits and vegetables — from what they currently have at Acorn. Currently, the farm provides preserves, popcorn, honey, and vegetables, including microgreens.

You can find Gaskill Family Farm on Facebook as well as at gaskillfamilyfarm.com. Customers also can order from their website and pick it up at Acorn simply by emailing them and telling them what you want and how much. Then, simply pay Acorn when you pick it up. They’ll take care of the rest.