Showing Up for
Those Who Spent
Their Lives Showing
Up for Others
A Vietnam veteran who still gardens at 79. A grandson who ran through the garden to show his grandfather what he grew. The men who needed a reason to show up. The kids who just wanted to learn. This farm exists because of all of them.
It Started with
Artie Short
Before there was a farm, before there were products, before there was a vision — there was my father, Artie Short. Vietnam veteran. Gardener. A man who has been putting seeds in the ground his entire life and at 79 is still doing it every year.
My father planted something in me that had nothing to do with business and everything to do with paying attention — to the earth, to the season, to the quiet work of tending something over time and trusting it to grow.
That is where Bodytruth Family Farms begins. Not in 2014. Not with a product line. With a veteran who gardened, and a daughter who watched, and a grandson who would one day run through that garden to show his grandfather what he grew.
A 9-Year-Old,
Colored Pencils,
and a Garden Plan
In 2009, I took away my son Chris's video game and replaced it with a gardening book. Then I handed him a blank piece of paper and a set of colored pencils and said: draw every crop you want to plant, and where you want it to go.
He did. That drawing became our first garden.
Chris became obsessed. He saved seeds from every harvest — calypso beans, tomatoes, whatever he could — and ordered more from seed exchanges. By age 12 he was baking and earning his own money — and he spent it on a homesteading book called Country Living. He brought it to me and encouraged me to make soap. The seed was planted. Three years later, in 2015, I made my first bar.
When I opened my first store, Chris looked at me and said: "Aren't you glad I encouraged you to make soap?"
Today Chris is an Honors Physics student in graduate school — still growing, this time hydroponics in shared student housing. Still cooking. Still diligent. The same kid who drew the blueprint is still building things.
"Aren't you glad I encouraged you to make soap?"
— Chris, age 12 · 2012
"Showing up for those who spent their lives— Stephanie Willis, Founder · Bodytruth Family Farms
showing up for others
and those that come after us."
The People Who
Showed Up
When it was time to build the raised beds, men from Life Challenge — a recovery facility in Detroit — came and built them. People whose lives had been shattered by addiction, who needed meaningful work and a reason to show up. They showed up for me.
Church youth groups came through. Kids who wanted to learn, to help, to get their hands in something real. They showed up too.
They are the story. They are exactly who I am building for — veterans, people in recovery, young people who need access to land, to knowledge, to dignified work.
This farm is a demonstration of what is possible when a community decides to grow something together.
See Our Programs
The Timeline
A 9-year-old gets a gardening book instead of his video game back. He draws every crop and where it goes on a blank sheet of paper. That drawing becomes their first garden.
Chris, now 12, earns money from baking and buys a copy of Country Living. He brings it to Stephanie and encourages her to make soap. The seed is planted — three years before the first bar is made.
Men from Life Challenge recovery facility in Detroit show up and build the raised beds together. Community shows up for community. The operation begins to scale.
Three years after Chris planted the idea, Stephanie makes her first bar of soap. The Bodytruth product line is born — handcrafted, botanical, grown from ingredients she could trace back to soil she trusted.
Bodytruth soaps and botanicals go to market. Real customers report transformative results — skin clearing, conditions improving. Word travels without advertising. Trust is built one bar at a time, all the way through the brick and mortar years.
Youth programming, community workshops, and the farm vision begin to formalize into a unified mission — regenerative growing, clean botanical products, and the belief that community is the strategy.
Bodytruth opens its first physical store in the Midwest. A real space, a real presence — and then COVID tore through the world. The store survived the pandemic years, continuing to serve customers through one of the most disruptive seasons any small business has ever faced.
Bodytruth is featured on Episode 124 of the Mother Earth News and Friends podcast, "Natural Health and Beauty for Skin and Hair" — a conversation about how Bodytruth got started and why natural health and eco-mindfulness matter. Listen to the episode →
The store closes. The inspiration for it all launches out of Lawrence to finish graduate school. The season calls for stillness and regrouping rather than pushing forward. A return to Michigan is underway to take all that has been learned back to the origin. The mission stays intact while the next chapter gets built.
Bodytruth Family Farms relaunches — securing land in SE Michigan, expanding the team with a veteran employment commitment, and building a model that proves regenerative business and community wealth creation belong together.
Our Values
The Land Comes First
Every decision runs through one filter: does this restore or does this deplete? We grow regeneratively because the land that feeds us deserves to be fed in return.
Dignified Work Is Non-Negotiable
We pay living wages. We hire veterans. We build roles that give people purpose and ownership — not just a paycheck, but a stake in something that matters.
Community Is the Business Model
We are not extracting value from the community. We are generating it together. The people we serve, employ, and grow with are not customers. They are co-builders.
What You Put on Your Body Matters
Skin is the largest organ. We grow the botanicals, we make the products, we trace every ingredient back to soil we trust. No shortcuts. No compromise.
Knowledge Belongs to Everyone
The skills to grow food, make medicine, and care for the land are birthright knowledge. We teach them freely and without gatekeeping — because a 9-year-old with colored pencils proved they belong to all of us.
This Is a Long Game
We are not building for an exit. We are building for generations — the way Artie Short has gardened his whole life, the way Chris drew a blueprint at 9 that is still growing in 2026.
This Story Is Still Being Written
Whether you want to visit the farm, partner with us, bring your team, or just stay connected — there is a place for you in what we are building.