Co-owners of ducks and chickens, a team to manage and repair a longstanding orchard, caretakers in times of trouble, pet-sitters and friends. When the Menzel family moved to a farmstead just outside of Solon, they couldn't have guessed that their neighbor, the widow Jeanne Cadoret living alone just down the street, would one day feel more like family.
Eric Menzel says he first learned of Cadoret when a mutual friend suggested she might be able to help him house some chickens. So, he “came a-knocking.”
Cadoret recalls initial hesitation when Menzel came to her door – Menzel remembers getting the side eye.
The two didn’t know that Menzel’s knock would lead to 15 years of friendship and raising 15,000 chickens together.
Farming friendships
The friendship between the Menzels and Cadoret started when Eric, his wife Eve and their baby Milo moved just down the road from Cadoret. The Menzels had just enough land to grow vegetables and contribute to a CSA, but the small family quickly found need for more land.
“We had all these chickens and we didn’t have much of a plan,” recalls Menzel.
That’s how he got connected through a mutual friend to Jeanne Cadoret. And, as it turned out, Cadoret had some needs of her own.
“My concern is to keep this as much of a farm as possible,” Cadoret said.
Her home sits on a century-old farmstead, with land and farm buildings she wanted help to preserve.
So the two worked in tandem: Jeanne got to keep her land functioning as a farm and Eric got to raise his chickens. Those cherished chickens ended up being the launching pad for nearly two decades of farming, friendship and teamwork.
“Whatever one of us needed, we asked the other,” said Menzel.
The neighbors would go on to share other fruits of their farm labors. Together they also rehabilitated an entire orchard, which Cadoret said was definitely a job for two people.
Today, they share nearly everything from family meals to holiday dinners, and even the Menzels’ border collie, Lolli.
“Lolli’s home,” Cadoret will call as she opens the door to the Menzels’ home after spending the afternoon taking care of their border collie.
Becoming family
Cadoret and the Menzels forged a lifelong bond based on mutual generosity, but neither Eric or Jeanne can pinpoint when they became friends, or when that friendship became family.
As Cadoret puts it, "These things start small and grow."
Menzel's philosophy: "Life is about helping each other through it."
