the story behind nourish food club

It all started with two sisters, a shared dream, and eight backyard chickens.

We’re Ashley and Sarah Armstrong (also known as the Strong Sistas). After years of struggling with chronic health issues, we began questioning why real, nourishing food seemed so hard to find. What we uncovered wasn’t encouraging: a modern food system built for scale and efficiency, not health or integrity.

In 2020, with zero farming experience, we purchased 26 acres in southwest Michigan. In 2021, we officially became first-generation farmers and named our little patch of land Angel Acres. Our mission was clear: to raise the healthiest, most nourishing eggs possible: the kind our ancestors would recognize!

Armed with curiosity, grit, and a lot of determination (and very little clue what we were doing: just check out our early videos for proof like this one!), we started with just eight chickens.

But it didn’t take long to realize a big problem: every feed option available (even the 'corn and soy free ones') was packed with ingredients high in polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs): the same unstable fats found in industrial seed oils we were trying to avoid.

So we had to make our own.

Ashley (BS, MS, & PhD in Mechanical Engineering) had spent years reading the research and knew this mattered: what animals eat becomes the fat in their eggs and meat. The science was clear. More PUFAs in = more PUFAs out.

So she got to work formulating her own custom chicken feed, designed to not only be corn and soy free, but also low in PUFAs to better support both animal and human metabolic health.

The result? Lab tests in collaboration with Michigan State University showed significantly lower levels of metabolism-suppressing fats Omega-6 PUFAs, Linoleic Acid, found in seed oils) and a fatty acid profile much closer to what our ancestors would have consumed.

Even more powerful? Customers who couldn’t tolerate other eggs were suddenly thriving on ours.

Proof that how your food is raised and what animals eat affects how you feel.

As demand for our eggs grew, so did our flock, and our mission.

We expanded into grass-fed beef, lamb, pork, and pastured chicken, even raw goat milk at Angel Acres Farm.

Through it all, we kept the same principle guiding every decision: real food that fuels, not fights, the metabolism.

learning what farming really takes

But here’s the thing: you can’t do it all. Between feeding and taking care of animals, working the land, website building and design, filming and editing content, sharing on social media, answering emails, and shipping perishable foods… we hit a wall.

That season taught us something vital: building a better food system takes a team and a community.

Enter Brandon (now, Sarah’s husband) who stepped in just when we needed him most and took the lead on fulfillment, packing, and distribution. With help from his brother and good friends (shoutout to Shando and Gooby!), Nourish shipping was born in a tiny shed on the farm.

Humble beginnings. Full of heart.

Producing high-quality food is one thing. Getting it safely from our farms to your front door is another challenge entirely.

Brandon stepped into that challenge head-on, leading our fulfillment team with care, precision, and grit. He’s helped turn an ambitious idea into a working system that makes traditional, farm-fresh food accessible across the country, without cutting corners or compromising quality.

Today, Nourish operates from two hubs:

- Michigan, where most Nourish orders are packed and shipped, sourced directly from our network of small regenerative farms
- Kansas, where our feed is grown, heritage wheat is grown and freshly milled, and where some eggs, all flour, and soon sourdough boxes ship from our local regenerative partners

Bringing truly traditional food into a modern delivery system is uncharted territory. But we’re committed to doing the hard things so more families can access the kind of unaltered, nourishing food that sustained generations before us, and so small regenerative farmers have a reliable market and a financially-stable future.

a new model for real food

As Nourish Food Club and our partnership of regenerative farms began to scale, we made a choice: focus Angel Acres on what it does best (egg layers, pigs, a few cows), and build a network of trusted small farms to expand offerings without diluting standards. (There are only so many hours in the day!)

Our farm partners share our vision, follow the large Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) booklet, use our custom low-PUFA feed, and host regular visits from our team. Together we produce nutrient-dense, pasture-raised food with integrity and intention.

OId-fashioned food, but with the convenience of modern delivery.

Watch the story of Angel Acres:

Today, Nourish Food Club serves families nationwide, with distribution hubs in Michigan and Kansas. But our core remains the same: two sisters who believe in real food, traditional farming, and doing things the right way, even when it isn't the easiest path.

We refuse to compromise by turning to industrial confinement or shortcut-driven food production. Instead, we’re building a food system from the ground up: patiently, intentionally, and in partnership with farmers who care as deeply as we do.
Through our LowPs™ standard, we focus on keeping levels of PUFAs (polyunsaturated fats), phytoestrogens, and pesticides as low as possible in the food we produce. These compounds are nearly unavoidable in the modern industrial food system, yet they were far less prevalent in our ancestors’ diets. We believe reducing them is a key step toward restoring metabolic health today.

At the heart of it all, Nourish is a family-run business. When you support Nourish, you’re supporting a growing team of real people and small regenerative farmers working together to raise food the old-fashioned way: for your family and ours.

Today, our original founders each steward a core part of this family-run business:

- Farmer Ash leads farm partnerships, farming standards, low PUFA feed formulation, and website development. She oversees product and project development, writes our educational blog content and recipes, and shares behind-the-scenes insights across weekly emails, blog, and all of our social media platforms because education is just as important as food!
- Sarah leads customer experience, customer support, and labeling (how gorgeous are her label designs?!?) She manages a high volume of member communication, order questions, and issue resolution with care and precision. She ensures clarity, transparency, and trust at every touchpoint, and also writes our weekly entertaining Momma Hen emails for our egg subscribers.
- Brandon leads fulfillment, packaging systems, and logistics to ensure that your farm-fresh food arrives safely, efficiently, and with care (this is not an easy task!) He also manages our financial operations and accounting.

(And yes, there's always a lot to do!)

So what's our why?

At its core, Nourish is fueled by a deep, instinctive desire to care for others. The same motherly instinct that wants to feed, protect, and truly nourish the people we love.

Combine that with an obsession for traditional farming practices, a deep curiosity about fatty acids and human metabolism, and the realization that the modern food system is actively working against our health... and Nourish was born.

We believe food should support your metabolism, not hinder it.

It should come from healthy soil, thoughtfully fed animals, and time-tested practices, not shortcuts and industrial fixes.

We’re passionate about restoring old-school food production that actually nourishes the body, and pairing it with modern convenience so real food can fit into real lives.

Thank you for being part of this journey with us. We’re just getting started. 💛