STARBUCK — Although scattered feathers span the front yard from a predator catching one of the chickens, Lauren Combellick still smiles as her three young boys run around the garden’s gates.
Chickens are a big part of the grand scheme at Evergrow Homestead near Starbuck, established in 2024 by Combellick and her husband, Colter. The Combellicks grow a large garden and sell the produce and the preserves in addition to eggs from the chickens around the area.
“It’s just one of the joys of living in the country,” Combellick said. “We’ve reinforced our coop and trapped two raccoons. … At this point, we’re not sure if raccoons are the problem or we’re dealing with something else.”
On the family’s 10-acre farm straight west of town, pigs are in the back corner, which the Combellicks raise to butcher for themselves. The chicken coop is due east of the pigpen, and immense gardens lie to the west and south of the house. The gardens were planted a little later than Combellick would have liked this year, she said, but even so, they hold row after row of vegetables, herbs and fruit bushes.
Combellick said feeding her family is her first priority. Over the last six years, since the coronavirus pandemic, there have been times she has felt so thankful this was the path she chose to walk to be able to provide for her family, she said. Being a vendor at the farmers market is a plus, but not a priority. At the end of the day, caring for her family trumps any other demands.
As a self-taught canner, Combellick tries hard to make use of everything she grows. As a market vendor, she sells fresh produce and other items she has become known for, including her baked goods such as homemade English-muffin bread, flour tortillas, rhubarb cake, pies and cinnamon rolls.
Combellick attends the Thursday evening market at the Depot Museum in downtown Starbuck, and Saturday mornings, she attends the Pope County Farmers Market near the museum in Glenwood. In the past, she has participated in the Rolling Forks Vineyards Winter Market, selling baked goods around the holiday season. Combellick also offers open-orders as an option, which she advertises through her Evergrow Homestead Facebook page.
Pickles are a new item this year and have become popular with consumers. The rest of what Combellick brings to sell at the market depends on what is in season and what has ripened in the garden. Tomatoes are her biggest crop, which she uses to make her own salsa, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, taco sauce, ketchup and diced tomatoes. They are also the children’s favorites to eat by the handfuls when they are out in the garden.
“They pick tomatoes, green beans, peas, carrots … right out of the garden to eat,” Combellick said. “I am so thankful my kids enjoy vegetables. I’m not sure they would enjoy them as much if we didn’t grow them in our garden. … For them, it’s just their normal.”
Homesteading is becoming more and more of a family affair as the children grow older.
“Colter is very hands-on around the farm with projects and tending to the animals,” Combellick said. “But the gardening, the canning and the baking, … those are very much my things.”
The children help in the garden with the daily chores of weeding, watering and harvesting, and they are also attending more markets this year.
“Sometimes, it takes me a little longer (with the children helping), which can be hard when I feel like there is a lot to get done,” Combellick said. “But I remind myself that I am teaching them something valuable. Watching their little minds work and seeing how much they pick up each year has been really fun.”
Having her kids on hand takes away some of the time to socialize and relax at the market with other vendor friends. However, Combellick said she knows the importance of this season in life raising her children, and that grounds her.
“It could very easily become a summer of me working and them (my children) just in the background,” Combellick said. “I don’t want that, so I have had to learn how to take a step back, … offer what I can while still enjoying the little things like going to the beach and doing fun things with the kids.”
Canned goods are one area Combellick would like to expand on, but there are a number of rules a vendor has to follow for selling them, and Combellick called herself a rule follower, so canning is a little more demanding of her time.
“There are quite a few regulations involved,” Combellick said. “It is something I’d like to offer more of, but right now, I mostly can for our family.”
Nearly 500 jars were added to the family’s “basement grocery store” last season, and Combellick said she relies heavily on that year-round. She cans just about anything she has in abundance. She also water glasses her fresh eggs so that they are shelf-stable. Water glassing involves submerging clean, unwashed eggs in a water and pickling lime mixture, which seals the pores of the eggshell, preventing air exchange and creating an environment where bacteria cannot survive. July through October are peak canning months for her, Combellick said.
“I am very much a do-whatever-I-have-time-for type of person,” Combellick said. “I tend to drop off some with market availability and attendance as we get back into our school routines.”
Combellick said her father grew a large garden, and she remembers it not being as much fun at the time. However, when she and Colter moved to their property in 2016, they started gardening immediately. Slowly, it snowballed into what it is today.
“As a homesteader, you need that grit and can-do attitude,” Combellick said. “There is definitely a movement of homesteaders, farmstands and markets … a lot of people who all have a lot of knowledge. That’s where my (farm’s) name stems from. I am always trying to grow and learn new things from the people around me.”
Combellick said her journey has been a learning process. When she and her husband began, it was just the two of them. As their family has continued to grow, prioritizing her passions, her responsibilities and her work has not always been easy.
“I’m the type of person who really likes a challenge,” Combellick said. “It’s been fun to learn how to be resourceful and how to do things ourselves.”
That includes keeping an eye on the future.
“My husband and I share an inside joke where we always say, ‘Just one or two more years, and we’ll have everything all set up like we want it,’” Combellick said. “We have big plans to open a farm store on our property next. We are excited to see how we can continue to grow and, of course, continue to provide for the surrounding community.”
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