Local farm promotes healthy lifestyle | Business

Johanna Reinbolz-Fisher was taking a course on how to grow nutritious foods at her family’s farm, when she was diagnosed with stage-four metastatic melanoma.

She began taking immunotherapy, but her health declined. She turned to other methods, which were successful.

“I ended up going on my own and doing this holistic healing,” Reinbolz-Fisher said. “And within this last year, one of my tumors is gone…and the one on my liver is very small now.”

Yearning to share her knowledge with others, she created Where the Good Things Grow in 2022. Where the Good Things Grow operates out of Reinbolz-Fisher’s family farm, which they bought in 2020. Her five kids are all involved in the business.

Where the Good Things Grow sells homemade bread, herbs, fresh eggs and other items. On Fridays, the farm offers a porch pickup for its sourdough bread and apple fritters.

The farm hosts classes to teach people how to grow herbs, compost, bake bread and make their own medicine.

“We bought the place in 2020 and decided, with everything, we were going to start homeschooling the kids,” she said. “And it just kind of blew up from there. We started with organic farming practices. And then from growing our own harvest, we started learning to can and preserve our homegrown food. And then from there, it just kind of snowballed into learning to make our own medicine by growing our own herbs and plants and flowers. From there, we ended up learning to bake our own bread.”

Reinbolz-Fisher, who is also a hairdresser, said she wanted to share her passion. “It’s something that I’ve been passionate about, and I’ve always been kind of a teacher for different things, but it was important to me to share this with anybody that was willing to listen,” Reinbolz-Fisher said.

The farm hosts different community events and workshops, as well. The community events include a seed-swapping event aimed at building a community of garden enthusiasts that can share their knowledge with others.

The farm has done many events in collaboration with community partners. Where the Good Things Grow hosted a farm-to-table program with another local farm at the library.

She said it was fun to see her children excited about growing their own food.

“It was just seeing the kids excited,” Reinbolz-Fisher said. “Like, ‘Oh. You can really make your own stuff.’”

Where the Good Things Grow also hosts farm tours so guests can interact with animals. Kids can take a tour for a $10 donation and children ages 2 and under is free.

Reinbolz-Fisher said local children get excited to interact with the animals because they typically don’t get that experience living in the city.

“A lot of the kids love it,” Reinbolz-Fisher said. “It’s great to get the kids from the city to come in and interact with the animals and see them from the babies and milking the goats and things that they would never do on a regular basis. It’s easy to see their eyes light up.”

Reinbolz-Fisher encouraged people to come experience life on the farm.

“Wear your closed-toed shoes and expect to get a little dirty,” Reinbolz-Fisher said. “Life on the farm is all about just enjoying the peace and the quiet without all the electronics. And your senses will be enlightened because you’ll know the beauty of nature.”