Evart Farms

From Raging Waters to Rooted Hope

My Family's Story

My name is Matt Mazer, and this is the story of how a devastating flood tried to break us… but instead gave our family a brand-new beginning.

It was October of 2024. The rain had been falling for days, but nothing prepared us for the nightmare that unfolded. My phone rang with an automated evacuation notice. Heart pounding, I woke the children and we scrambled to grab what we could. We loaded the most important things into our little minivan as fast as humanly possible. Water was already rising at the end of the street. We piled in and drove away with a mixture of relief and disbelief.

Looking back in the rear-view mirror, I knew I was seeing our home for the last time. Within minutes, brown, violent water crashed through the windows, smashing furniture, sweeping away family photos, children's toys, and every memory we had built together. Our house—the one I had poured my heart into for my kids—disappeared under a churning sea of debris. Trees ripped from the earth slammed into the walls like battering rams. Twisted metal, broken fences, and pieces of our neighbors' lives swirled violently in the current. We were blessed to escape with our lives. Many families never even received the phone call.

When the floodwaters finally retreated, they left behind a heartbreaking wasteland. Mud thick as concrete covered everything. Our home was completely gutted and uninhabitable. We stood on our soaked land with nothing but the clothes on our backs, a few salvaged tools, and each other—six of us: me and my children Allison, Julian, Manny, Brantley, and Leo—facing a future that looked utterly washed away.

We were homeless for eight long months, sleeping on the floor of a nearby office building. With 20,000 other families displaced, every hotel and rental for hundreds of miles was full. There was no power for weeks. Businesses closed forever. Our once-thriving community became a ghost town. With almost no government support beyond cases of water, many families simply packed up and left. In the end, we made the painful decision to leave everything behind.

That's when a modest opportunity arose: five acres of land far away in Evart, Michigan (population just over 1,200). It was a huge risk, but our options were nearly nonexistent. I decided to go all in. In 2025 we purchased the property and spent the next year planning, clearing, building, and learning the land with limited tools and no big machinery. We had no idea what the soil could grow or what resources it held, but that unknown felt strangely exciting—like the pioneers who once faced the same uncertainty.

What began as pure survival slowly became something far more beautiful. We started listening closely to the land. We foraged wild edibles along the edges of the woods, turned fallen logs into garden beds, and coaxed life from the soil with our own hands. Allison discovered her gift for herbs. Julian and Manny built compost systems from whatever materials we could find. Brantley and Leo chased butterflies and learned the rhythms of the seasons. Day by day, our little five-acre homestead began to bloom—and so did we.

Today, the six of us work side by side on our family farm in Evart. Every product we sell is grown, foraged, or handmade right here on our land. In these challenging economic times, we've chosen self-reliance, hard work, and the deep joy of staying close as a family.

The flood took our home and our community, but it could never take our love, our grit, or our determination to build something meaningful. Out of loss, we found a new passion and a simpler, more rooted way of life.

Thank you for standing with the Mazer family. When you choose one of our products, you're supporting more than a farm—you're helping a dream that grew from disaster into hope.

Welcome to our table. Welcome to our home.

Matt Mazer
Evart Farms