Meet Akaycia & Hadassa Berger | Owners of Rooted Gypsy Farms

We had the good fortune of connecting with Akaycia & Hadassa Berger and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Akaycia & Hadassa, is your business focused on helping the community? If so, how?
We want to eat well, and we want the same for others. We built our farm not only to provide local and sustainably grown food to our community but to also support other local businesses. Each week, we work closely with fellow local, sustainable farms throughout the Grand Valley to provide our customers with the freshest and highest quality meats, eggs, produce and specialty items. All delivered directly to our customers in a rustic Rooted Gypsy Farms Cooler Box.

At Rooted Gypsy Farms we believe in abundance, variety, sustainability and supporting your roots.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
How did you get to where you are today business-wise. Was it easy?:

Hadassa and I are the Mother Daughter duo that own Rooted Gypsy Farms. We started running RGF about 4 years ago this coming August. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but never did I think I was going to run a business at 19, in college and in the midst of a pandemic. About 6 months after we took over Rooted Gypsy Farms Covid- 19 hit; we went from 50 weekly customers to over 200. With an amazing staff, vendors and a whole lot of spirit we were able to quickly expand to meet our newly found demand. It was probably the most challenging, stressful and valuable experience we’ve ever been through. During all of this I was a business student pursuing a major in entrepreneurship, a big piece in overcoming the challenges of rapid change was thanks to hands on experience. I was able to bounce ideas off of my professors, implement practices that we were learning in class, and ask for help in the areas I was not successful. It took a lot of failure to get to where we are today, it was not easy, but I am so thankful for everything we have learned in the process.

We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about.:

What sets us apart from other farm- to- table businesses is that with Rooted Gypsy Farms you not only support us, but 150+ other businesses/farms that we work with year-round. We are so excited at the prospect of serving more and more of Colorado. We recently started making deliveries outside of our local area and want to continue to provide the great taste of the western slope to areas that do not have access to local fresh food.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
There is sooo much to see and do here. The best thing about living in Grand Junction is that adventure is never far! We have the mesa, national monument and the Colorado river all right here, we have the perfect mix of all kinds of fun. If I had a friend visiting for a whole week, we would have to take a day to go floating down the river and end the day at one of my favorite breweries in town-Trail Life. Another day would be dedicated to mountain biking on the national monument with a tour of the cutest place ever, Palisade and dinner at Pêche. To end our amazing adventure, we would have to go camping on the Mesa, the beautiful mountain that overlooks GJ.

Ahhhh the perfect week!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Shout out to the farming community and small business here on the western slope! We are so blessed to operate our business in a place that loves to support one another. The farms and businesses we work with are so attentive to the quality of their products and work hard to make sure that we receive nothing but the best. This entails so much communication, coordination, all on top of growing! We would also like to acknowledge our family/ work family: To the ones that are alongside us here at the farm, to the ones cheering us on it is because of your support and love we are able to what we do. Thank you.

Website: https://www.rootedgypsyfarms.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootedgypsyfarms/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rootedgypsyfarms/

Image Credits
Pictures by Jeremy Poland and Justin Jolley