Mikey Henderberg spent most of his early years between New Orleans and upstate New York. His summers in NY were spent on his grandparents farm where they grow lots of vegetables, namely garlic, horseradish and rhubarb, and he would get up at 3am in the morning to help his grandpa at farmers markets. His time in New Orleans gave him his love for food and passion for hot sauce. He moved to Chicago where he graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BFA. Chicago is where he really began cooking and experimenting with preserving and fermentation. He spent 20 years as a chef, then Head Chef, at the revered Ox-Bow School of Art in Saugatuck, MI, which is as well known for its food as it is for instruction.

Shanna Shearer grew up in MI on 24 acres of pasture and woods. For as long as she can remember her family had horses, dogs, and cats and she spent as much time as possible with them. Out back of her childhood home were a couple rows of old, gnarly plum, peach and apple trees, and her folks always had a small vegetable garden each summer. She graduated from Grand Valley State University with a BFA, and began what would be a 15 year-long employment with Ox-Bow School of Art, 10 of those years as Campus Director. Shanna is currently on the board of directors for the South Haven Center for the Arts and served on the Allegan Conservation District board for two years.

In 2011 Mikey and Shanna bought a retired hog farm in Pullman, MI and immediately began planting garlic and fruit trees. Their jobs kept them away from the farm for most of the summers, but they continued planting and caring for the land as much as they could, when they could. In 2019 they decided to tend to the farm full-time and make their life about farming and their other numerous passions. Mikey and Shanna care for a small flock of chickens and two dogs: a Jack Russell named Oscar, and an ‘Allegan Special’ named Mitzi. Both Shanna and Mikey are also working artists with studios at Hinterland; Mikey makes collages and assemblages and Shanna makes paintings.