Come Hungry, Leave Happy, and Support Local

Farmer’s Kitchen in Kalkaska aims to be the heart of the neighborhood

By Anna Faller | March 21, 2026

In the immortal words of the sitcom Cheers, we all want to go where everybody knows our name. Even better if tasty eats are involved! 

It’s this sense of shared community (served up alongside scratch-made breakfast) that Kalkaska farmer Kristina Lane and her family hope to cultivate in their diner, Farmer’s Kitchen. 

Opened in fall 2025, the café, which occupies the space previously home to Shirley’s in the Woods Café, combines homestyle cooking with farm-fresh ingredients to breathe new life into a beloved institution. 

“Everyone says that they missed this, that this diner was the heart of their community,” says Lane. “I want to bring that back.”

Baby Goats

It all began with baby goats. 

Per Lane, the story begins several years ago, when she and her husband were first introduced to the idea of raising livestock after meeting a friend’s flock. Long story short, it was love at first bleat. “I bought two [goats] on the way home from her house,” Lane says with a laugh. “I knew this was what I was meant to do.”

That became the impetus for their homestead, Mossy Creek Farm. So named for the swampy lands that comprised the venture’s original plot in Grayling, the farm now sits on a 79-acre parcel in Kalkaska, which the family has owned since 2021. In addition to the quintessential red barn, the property also houses scads of livestock—two horses, a herd of pigs and about 20 piglets, cows, dozens of chickens, and (you guessed it!) a growing number of goats—which they raise to supply their neighbors with farm fresh poultry, meat, eggs, and dairy.

There’s also a farm store on the grounds, says Lane, complete with freezers for preserved proteins, as well as her seasonal vegetable garden (they’ve even dabbled in u-pick pumpkins), and toward the back of the property, a wide field for pasture, a trout pond, and a four camping sites for summer renting. 

Per Lane, they went the livestock route after discovering that the farm’s sandy soil could spell disaster for produce. That and, “we’re just animal people!” she says. Building a customer base in rural Kalkaska, whose market is saturated with similar farms, however, felt nearly impossible. 

“We were farming so much, but there wasn’t a big market for it where people would come and buy from us,” she explains. “It got to the point where we were doing what we liked, but didn’t know what to do with [all of the product].” 

Farmer’s Kitchen

So, when the iconic Shirley’s in the Woods Café on Bear Lake Rd. came up for sale, Lane saw an opportunity. “We thought, let’s make it a farm-fresh diner and get [our product] out to the public that way, instead of just through retail meat,” she says. 

The new space, which the family dubbed Farmer’s Kitchen, takes the neighborhood café concept and kicks it up a few farm-to-table notches with brunch and breakfast fare prepared using ingredients sourced from the area’s many smaller-scale growers. 

Naturally, Mossy Creek is one of those farms, which supplies the kitchen with everything from poultry and eggs, to ham steak, bacon, and select veggies, like tomatoes and lettuce. For components her farm can’t or doesn’t produce, she makes a point of tapping the nearby network: Maple syrup comes from Olds Brothers in Kingsley, for instance; potatoes from Elmaple Farm in Kalkaska; and quarter-cows for beef from an independent farmer just steps away! Lane does note, however, that some bulk staples, like bread, are sourced from other Michigan makers. 

“It’s not just about our farm,” she adds. “I’m trying to support other small farms around us too, because I know how hard it is.”

Inside, the Farmer’s Kitchen vibe is divey diner meets homestyle dining room, complete with wood detailing and a mossy-green palette, decked out in the farm-centric touches that eventually became the café’s aesthetic. Visitors have also contributed décor, says Lane, like photos, prints, and other tchotchkes. One guest even gifted them a metalwork sign with the diner’s logo! 

Seating, though limited, is just as cozy—“We only sit 55 people, so it’s pretty small,” Lane notes—with options including a central bar-counter, a selection of booths, and two free-standing tables, one of which is sized for larger parties.

On the Menu

The true focal point of the café, though, is the food. 

In truest farm-to-table fashion, everything the kitchen cooks up, from batters and sauces to baked goods, is made from scratch. “I wanted to keep everything as fresh and homemade as possible,” Lane underscores. Staffing is also a family affair, with both of her parents, her two oldest children, and even her sister and nephew cooking and running the floor. 

Consequently, the diner’s cuisine falls squarely in the comfort-food realm (think: rustic classics that stick to your ribs) with the occasional nod to Lane’s southern roots. 

“My mom’s family is from Kentucky, so we tried to go that route [with the menu] a little bit,” she says.

On the breakfast side of things, this equates to top-selling items like the Farmer’s Breakfast Platter—that’s a plate piled high with the guest’s choice of protein (bacon, ham steak, chorizo, or breakfast sausage), two eggs, shredded hashbrowns, and biscuits or toast—and Lane’s personal favorite, the Cinna-Bomb pancakes, which are homemade right down to the buttermilk batter and heartily drizzled with maple cream cheese. 

Other must-try morning bites include the sausage gravy-smothered buttermilk biscuits (which feel like a match for the fried green tomatoes), and for the dessert-first type, a build-your-own griddle cake situation, complete with every possible topping. 

The Bunch-a-Bologna, a smoked and fried bologna sandwich, is a standout, as is the hyper-local and totally decadent Buttermilk Fried Chicken & Waffle. And old-school handhelds, like the SMASH Stacker burger, which clocks in at a whopping half-pound before the fries, also performs well with patrons. 

Summer Plans

Come hungry, leave happy, and support local—that’s the motto. And Farmer’s Kitchen is just the beginning!

Though summer 2026 will mark the diner’s first high-season experience—“I have no idea what to expect, so we’re waiting to see how it goes!” Lane says—a promising local response has prompted service extras, like the recent addition of a retail meat freezer inside the restaurant. 

Per Lane, plans for making, and eventually supplying the kitchen, with fresh goat’s cheese are also in the pipes. In fact, the family have earmarked the structure adjacent to the café for production, but remain in limbo, at least for now, while planning for reconstruction and equipment (though the hope is to be underway in a matter of months). Lane even hints at sourcing Moomer’s ice cream in time for summer traffic!

The goal, she says, is to support the community that continues to find ways to support her. 

“Bear Lake has wonderful people,” Lane adds. “I’m hoping the diner brings back a little community place.”

Find Farmer’s Kitchen at 10945 W Bear Lake Rd. SE in Kalkaska. (231) 384-6007