Laura Goostrey has been on a quest for better health most of her life. Since discovering in her 20s that she had an autoimmune disease, she’s developed a passion for getting the most out of the food she puts in her body. It’s a passion she loves to share with others in a number of ways.
Since she and her husband, Ron purchased the former Tirrell Farmstead Specialties building in December of 2016 (on the corner of Battle Creek and Kalamo highways), their new business has given her a new outlet to share her knowledge and expertise of healthy food. The Olde School House specializes in a number of health-focused, locally made foods.
“I’ve always been interested in healthy eating,” Laura said in her interest in purchasing the business. “This gives me the perfect venue to promote it. If people really pay attention to their nutrition, I think they’d see some of their health issues take care of themselves.”
Laura said she loves to cook and to bake, and the commercial kitchen allows her to do more of that while sharing more of her creations with the local community.
“I do a lot to help people with gluten issues by using a lot of ancient grains,” she said. “I can’t go completely gluten free, but we offer a lot of foods that are good for the digestive tract. Healthy digestion equals good health in a lot of ways.”
While The Olde School House offers a number of specialty crackers and baked goods, not everything in the store would fall in the health food section.
“We do have some ‘junk food’ because I believe in everything in moderation,” Laura explained. “It’s not always what you do when you fall off the healthy food wagon, it’s what you do the next day to get back on.”
In addition to baked goods — crackers, breads, and cakes — The Olde School House offers a number of healthy choices for milk, cheese, and salad dressing, pasture raised beef, chicken, pork and lamb. Laura and Ron also believe in keeping their products as “close to home” as possible, utilizing local honey producers, and a large variety of local artisans who create everything from crafts to goats milk skincare products.
“Anyone who has a product to sell, we’ll give it a try,” Ron said. “We’re more than willing to give people a venue for their products.”
Anything in the store that is not Michigan made or produced is a product Laura fully believes in, she said.
“I’ve tried to implement things that are important to me,” she said.
The Olde School House carries such a wide variety of products it’s worth the trip to see it for yourself. Stop in Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. or Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Olde School House is located at 1959 W. Kalamo Highway in Charlotte. You can also find The Olde School House on Facebook.
