On a quiet stretch of East Kohler Road in Suttons Bay, a small sign points to a farm stand stocked with sweet corn, purple potatoes, buckets of flowers in every summer color and a small guest book filled with notes of gratitude from customers over the years that keep coming back for more.
Linda and Gary Thornton opened Leelanau Fresh Farm Stand in 2024 but neither of them expected it to take off the way it has.
“Honestly, we were surprised the first time we put stuff out there,” Linda said. “At the end of the day we were surprised we had something in the (cash) box.”
The stand is the newest chapter in the Thornton’s Leelanau farming story that began back in the 90s. Gary’s job with the MSU Extension brought the couple to the county in 1991, and then in 1998 they bought the Kohler Road property where they still live today. From there they began growing cherries for the wholesale market while still working their day jobs off the farm. This year marks their 28th cherry harvest.
“I’m starting to wind down,” Gary said. “I still do the sweet cherries, still take care of everything, but I don’t harvest them anymore.” Nearly three decades of tending the same trees has taught him what a cherry crop needs from him, and what’s simply out of his hands. “I think I have it down pretty good. You do as much as you can, and the rest is mother nature.”
Linda came to the farm from a career in healthcare, first as a nurse then in management before retiring from the IT department at Munson.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I retired at first, but I knew I didn’t want to land behind a computer,” she said.
What she did know is that she loved flowers and she wanted to be useful with the land they had.
“I’m a very busy person,” Linda said. “I don’t sit down during the day. In fact, my kids criticize me for it.”
That restlessness found its outlet in the corner of the farm Gary had given up on years earlier - a vegetable garden filled with rocks that Linda saw potential to grow flowers in. Linda took over the garden planting perennials and dahlias and started selling the extras at the end of the driveway. “I like to use the resources I have,” Linda said. “I don’t like to be wasteful and it seems like we have so much property, let’s use it.”
Selling the flowers led to selling vegetables which led to formally establishing the stand. The stand has grown a bit each year adding in produce like sweet corn, plums, peaches, cucumbers, tomatoes, apricots, garlic, shallots, purple potatoes, custom bouquets and now a CSA. In peak season the stand restocks several times a day and stays open seven days a week, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. through the end of September, though they might be moving closing time to 7 p.m.
They both agree that what’s kept them at it has been the growing, sure, but also the people they meet. “I think it’s how much interaction there is, I didn’t expect that,” Linda said, adding that she’s gotten to know the regulars by their produce preferences. “We have Barbara who likes beets, Paige who likes peaches and Andy who likes it all,” she said.
There’s a group of pickleball players who have started stopping by after playing a game for cantaloupe and cucumbers and recently they had a customer who was driving all the way from Lewiston chasing a craving for peaches and left with tomatoes and green beans as well.
The same instinct for connection led Linda to host a bridal flower event this summer in her “she-shed,” a converted machine shop where she preps her flowers and bouquets. Roughly 30 women packed in to build their own bouquets for the wedding. “They were so proud of what they made. It really engaged them in the whole event,” she said.
For Gary, the work and the farm both carry a history and an obligation of stewardship. One made real by a child’s footprints pressed into the barn’s cement floor, the year 1916 etched in beside them. “We’re just stepping in for the short time while we’re here,” he said.
Looking ahead, the Thorntons aren’t in a rush to expand beyond what feels manageable for two people. They’ve talked about running electricity out to the stand for better refrigeration, and about growing the CSA slowly. Showing up to sell at a farmers market might be next or maybe more flower events with Linda. For now, they’re happy to let word of mouth do the work it has been and to keep on as they are.
More information can be found on their website: www. leelanaufresh.com.
