I quit my career as a nurse to open the farm of my dreams. The personal freedom I have now makes me appreciate life in a much deeper way.
Angela Macke
- Angela Macke, 52, is the founder of Light of Day Organics, a tea farm in Traverse City, Michigan.
- She left traditional nursing after discovering holistic medicine and decided to start a tea farm.
- Here's what she says running the tea farm is like, as told to writer Erica Hobbs.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Angela Macke, a tea farmer in Michigan, about her career path. It has been edited for length and clarity.
When I was in college, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis and suffered from mysterious fevers, rashes, hair loss, and a lack of energy. Despite a faithful regimen of prescribed steroids and pain medications, plus my growing knowledge as a nursing student, nothing seemed to work. By the time I took my RN boards, I knew I needed to find a better solution.
After sitting my boards, I decided to move to Maui to study alternative healthcare and holistic nursing. There, I learned the healing techniques of a macrobiotic diet, eating in season, meditation, and particularly drinking tea daily. I truly believe these changes healed me — I haven't taken any medication now in 30 years.
In 1992, I began my career as a nurse, first in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and later back in Maui
I worked in ER, critical care and cardiothoracic units, and the recovery room. Every day I witnessed life-or-death situations and regularly saw the effects that poor nutrition and lifestyle habits had on the human body and psyche. I knew I could do more.
In 2003, I quit nursing to start my own business, Light of Day Organics, and teach stress reduction and disease prevention using tea.
My home in Michigan sits on 13 acres of farmland. There, I built a licensed commercial kitchen, a meditative yurt to teach classes, and three large irrigated hoop houses, which are green houses with metal hoops covered in plastic to insulate growing plants.
I began experimenting with growing teas and herbs
Angela Macke
Having grown up on a blueberry farm and completed a master gardening program through Michigan State University, I had some experience growing crops, although most of my tea-growing education was through trial and error.
I also began growing berries, chamomile, lavender, mint, and more to blend in with the tea leaves. In 2005, my farm was Certified USDA Organic and Demeter Certified Biodynamic.
As interest in my teas and tea classes grew, so did the farm — we expanded to 26 acres in 2007 and nearly 75 acres by 2016.
In 2009, I opened an onsite tea shop where customers could order tea by the cup, taste a rotating flight of teas, and purchase loose tea to take home.
Just like in the emergency room, there's no such thing as a typical day on the tea farm
Spring and summer are harvest seasons, and we stay busy hand-picking tea leaves as well as fruit and herbs to blend in our mixes. Some teas require more attention, like our specialty white tea that has to be picked every 28 days.
After harvesting, the tea leaves go through a four-hour process of drying and withering on ventilation trays. Next, we oxidize the leaves either by rolling them by hand or with a tea-rolling machine. Finally, we fire the leaves either in a wok or a low-temperature oven.
I take tea breaks with staff at around 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. and end my farm work by watching the sunset and enjoying a meal made with our fresh produce. I then usually spend a few hours in the evening doing administrative work.
With the harvesting done, fall and winter are a time for less season-dependent work
Beth Price Photography
This is when I do the majority of my blending and packaging — all done by hand — as well as consulting, reorganizing, and preparing for audits.
Before the pandemic, Light of Day was growing steadily and had 11 full-time employees. We often welcomed hundreds of visitors a day during our busy season between Memorial Day and Halloween.
Unfortunately, we had to close the tea shop in March 2020 due to COVID-19, and while I was able to maintain business via online sales, I lost 90% of my revenue and my entire retail store staff.
Things picked up in 2021, and I'm slowly starting fresh with a new team
Though the tea shop remains closed, the space is now used for new product development, tea-based nutritional consulting, and acupuncture treatments.
Last summer, we began offering self-guided tours of the farm and resumed our three-hour tea class workshops, where guests taste different teas and learn about the tea-farming process and health benefits. We also opened an outdoor pop-up trailer where visitors can purchase a hot cup of tea, loose-leaf teas, and tea pots.
Thanks to loyal customers and wholesale accounts like the University of Michigan, revenue is picking up and we're in the midst of a construction project to expand our commercial kitchen.
While I love my job and working in nature, running a farm isn't easy
The days are long and time management can be challenging. Like for so many others, the last two years with the pandemic have been difficult, but the personal freedom I've enjoyed running my own business has made me truly appreciate life in a deeper way.
What I love most about my job is that it's always changing. Although I trained as a healthcare professional and worked daily to save people's lives, it's through growing and sharing tea philosophy that I feel I'm able to make the most positive impact on people. I wouldn't change it for anything.
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