Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsey Hickman.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My husband and I have always made truly local, real food a priority for our family. Following a career in online news reporting we started a farm growing what we could, and often trading for what we couldn’t from other local producers.
We grew most of our own meat and milked our own cows and goats, and we built a really great community that my husband referred to as our “contraband food club”.
Although nothing we produced was eligible for retail sales, many producers we became close with had products that were, so when a small space for lease was presented to us we knew we couldn’t be the only people who wanted access to the wonderful local options we had purveyed. On March 5, 2018 we dreamed up the idea of a market, and on April 5, 2018 we open The Heritage Pantry. That’s the great thing about real, local, seasonal food. You don’t need large lead times or a ton of planning, you just need to be able to communicate directly with the people growing and packaging it.
We quickly grew, moved to a new much larger space about two blocks away- added a specialty coffee bar with direct sourced beans, organic house made syrups and seasonal menu options that showcase our local farm goods.
Has it been a smooth road?
Strangely enough it’s as if they road was paved for us to do this. Struggles have really been minimal. We are in a 100 year old building so most challenges have come from infrastructure really. Originally home to an ice house where people used to buy their ice blocks for their ice boxes, our “Barn” is beautiful demential redwood construction and was truly a barn where the horses were bedded down for the hotel that once was across the street from us. The occasion power glitches were a challenge for a bit but have been since subdued.
The biggest challenge has probably been quick growth; the business feels as if it has a life of its own. We have grown from a small idea to what now reaches more than 100,000 people on social media per month. We worried that people wouldn’t get it, we stressed that we wouldn’t be able to hire the right people, and we had to ignore those urges to doubt in our ability.
I recently wrote a blog post that explained fear being the biggest obstacle for me. I used to be debilitatingly afraid of heights. I could barely walk on the top story of the mall without physical skin pain. Overtime of purposely putting myself into situations that made me uncomfortable I overcame it, mostly. I trained my brain to believe that falling wasn’t an option and to put it out of my mind’s space.
Owning a business takes that kind of brain training. Setting the fears aside and moving forward as if they don’t exist. Sometimes it feels like I keep my brain bubble wrapped even. If I give the fears, negative comments, the overwhelming responsibility, the expectations, or the uncertainty the space it wants I would crumble. It’s the feeling you get when you stand on the deck of the Space Needle. You can practically see the whole world out in front of you, but if you give the heights and fear power, if you look down, insecurity will consume you.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
The Barn and Pantry mission is to use the power of communal ideology and old fashioned homesteading skills to bring local farm goods into one place for consumer ease & education. We want people to cherish the local farmers, understand what it means to eat seasonally (and how to preserve things that are in season for the off season for the maximum nutritional benefits), and value the land’s sustainability by lowering our carbon footprint.
The Pantry offers local grass-fed beef, pastured pork and chicken, grass-fed and raw dairy products, fresh milled local rice and heirloom grains and grain products, seasonal produce, artisan baked goods, local honey, fresh roasted coffee beans, and a variety of other handmade foods, nearly all directly from the people growing and producing it all.
We have significantly grow from that original vision to include becoming a cultural hub in our community. We recently shared this overview on social media to give people a full vision of who we are:
👩🌾 Foremost we are farmer and local producer focused. We do this by buying directly from the people who make and grow their products and we host a weekly Sunday farmers market for you to buy directly from them!
☕️ We are a specialty coffee bar serving direct trade beans, organic house made syrups, grassfed organic milks (including raw milk). This means you’re supporting the growers in all of those industries directly as well!
🍴 We are a healthy, organic eating place. Whether you’d like breakfast pastries, brunch bagels from fermented dough, farm to table dinners by our favorite local chefs, or dessert treats- we have seasonal, health and farm focused food. Enjoy Paleo and Keto options all the time.
🎤 We are a community gathering spot. We host open mic nights on Tuesdays, Live music on Friday nights, homesteading classes that include canning, fermenting, pickling, seasonal eating, arts and more.
🍷 🍺 We are a craft beer and wine lounge where you can bring the family and enjoy farm to bottle local artisan made libations in a non-bar atmosphere with your friends and family. We even have a weekly mimosa and sangria that showcases the fruit in season and fresh for the week!
💃🏽 We have party rental space for you to host your baby and bridal showers, birthdays and meetings!
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I believe every community needs access to non-imported real whole food. There are small food producers everywhere and our business model just requires boots on the ground in every town. Getting people out of the supermarket mindset if the first step.
Contact Info:
- Address: 125 W A Street, Dixon, CA 95620
Second market location:
106 Main Street Ste. C, Winters, CA 95694 (recognized as one of America’s best small towns in multiple blogs and polls) - Website: thebarnandpantry.com
- Phone: 707-640-0036
- Email: Lindsey@thebarnandpantry.com
- Instagram: @thebarnandpantry @thepantrywinters (new, less follower)
- Facebook: @thebarnandpantry @thepantrywinters (new, less followers)
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-barn-and-pantry-dixon
Image Credit:
The Barn and Pantry, Lindsey Hickman, Fred Greaves
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