Shopping in Cutlerville

"As a culture, we’ve gotten away from digging our fingers into the dirt," says Craig Koetsier. At Koetsier’s Greenhouse, co-owner Craig is trying to change that and remind people—particularly the next generation—how to work with the earth. "We’re kid-oriented," Craig says, describing his center's plethora of youth-friendly diversions such as crafts and train rides; their smorgasbord of children’s spring activities was even featured on FOX17.

When he was a child, Craig ferried flats of petunias and impatiens around the family greenhouse. Today, he and his brother are third-generation owners of the business, and their sister works with them at the 100,000-square foot greenhouse where visitors spy hanging plants, annuals, container gardens, and flowering shrubs, asking them where they see themselves in five years to asses if they're a good fit. Although the Koetsiers still coax blooms from traditional favorites such as geraniums, their greenhouse has thrived over the past century by keeping up with contemporary gardening trends and transforming its stock in coordination each season. In the autumn, families arrive to play amid mazes and inflatables and assess the structural integrity of pumpkins before outfitting them with wheels and hitching them to horses. When winter blows in, guests browse the center's pine boughs and live evergreens to decide which to take home and string with decorations.

After Prohibition, many American home brewers had lost the threads connecting them to the nation’s long history of home brewing, opting instead to hang up their brew kettles in favor of the big brand lagers. The knowledgeable staff members roaming the floor of HomeBrew & Hydroponics Hobby Shop are working to ensure that the art of home brewing flourishes again, supplying at-home brewers with the skills and supplies necessary to conjure their own suds. The shelves showcase a variety of easy introductory kits that invite guests to try their hand at brewing beer, making wine, or growing hydroponic vegetables to save valuable soil for dad's morning mud mask. For serious enthusiasts, the shop curates a comprehensive menu of the equipment, soil systems, and supplies needed to set up full-scale brewing endeavors and indoor gardens at home.:

On any given day within WorkShoots’ 1,280-square-foot studio, the shining wooden floors and cheery yellow walls echo with the clicks of cameras and shine with bursts of flashing light. Committed to granting photographers of all levels access to a professionally equipped space, WorkShoots rents out the studio throughout the week for individual and group use. They foster a community of photographers via their photography club for members eager to interact with others in the area and partake in regularly scheduled photo shoots. They also host a variety of photography classes ranging from The Fundamentals of Photography for beginners to an advanced Boss Your Lights Around: Studio Lighting Class, which teaches participants how to illuminate a photo via lamps, light meters, and the glow of lurking phantoms.