Krista is one of our beloved staff members who started working for us in April 2023. Her and Trent are teammates in caring for the plants– from veggies to flowers. She and her husband live in Battle Creek and she homesteads while not working on the farm. I interviewed her as she was caring for the vines in the venue, one of her main weekly tasks.
A – Krista Hancotte, Vegetable, Fruit, and Flower Devotee @ OTL Q – Bridgett Blough, Co-Owner @ OTL
What is your favorite animal?
If I had to pick one, I would choose a dog. My chickens are on my sh*t list because they won’t stay in their fence and they go in my garden and dig up all my plants.
What are you most proud of with your work at Of The Land?
I’ve learned so much since I started working here I can’t even tell you. I’ve learned so much about vines– they require so much maintenance. I bet most people come to the venue and think they just grow and don’t need anything. I give them (the vines) constant reassurance and every single week I take care of the vines in the venue.
How did you end up in Battle Creek and at Of the Land?
I am from Battle Creek and never left. I came to a wedding at the farm in 2022 and I was working somewhere else and I saw a job posted. When I attended the wedding, everything just seemed so effortless and beautiful.
What do you like about working here?
The dahlias are my favorite thing to grow. They are my favorite flower and I love to grow them at my house too. I grow over 100 varieties at my home as well. Their color changes even in the same variety at different places. I love the smaller ones, my favorite variety is Robann Creamsicle, a light orange and peach variety with sparkly petal tips.
What did you think you would do for a job?
I thought I would be a vet or be in medicine. I have education in hospitality and nursing. I worked at a greenhouse and did farmers’ markets before I started working here at OTL.
What have plants taught you that nothing else could?
The plants have taught me that I don’t have control over things. The plants do what they are going to do and I just hope for the best. I’ve always struggled growing cool weather crops in the summer. There are going to be disappointments and crops that don’t grow. The main thing is that not everything is disappointing– but if you try a lot of different things, you won’t nail all of them.
What do you want people to know about the plants, or the spaces, or the gardens here at Of The Land as they walk around and look?
The amount of thought, time, and effort that goes into every space is astounding. It is so much work and there are so many details that we plan to go into the basic things we do. After the initial layout of the spaces, there are always things we replan every year. There are always new things that need to be added, moved, or replaced.
Is there any advice you’d give to a beginning gardener or someone who wants to learn about plants?
Lower your expectations. Things don’t normally turn out like the pictures– give yourself some grace. There are so many nuances to your soil and your garden.
What is going on at your homestead?
At my house, I grow herbs, tomatoes, peppers, green beans and all the stuff I love to eat. I grow flowers and sell arrangements at my farmstand. In the past, I’ve had meat chickens but now I just do the egg layers. I’ve done my own maple syrup and honey before too.
What is your favorite thing to eat at OTL?
I love it when Amanda makes the taco bowls with roasted sweet potatoes, ground beef, kinda spicy pinto beans, and the cilantro crema. I’m in a chokehold on that lunch and I’ve been meal-prepping that at my house weekly. (We have staff lunch at least once a week where Amanda, the kitchen director, feeds all of the staff. )
Photos by Alyssa Grace Photography
