Colby Theisen and Chris Schmitt share how a small, third‑generation Florida you‑pick farm became Loggerhead Distillery — a story of stubbornness, creativity, and getting legal when necessity knocked. We trace the moment a blueberry harvest turned into a new craft and hear why making something you can point to changed everything.

Episode Transcript

Colby grew up on a family farm — fourth rows, sunrise work and the hard calculus of competing with much larger operations. When bigger farms began to edge into his you‑pick customers, he and a friend leaned on an old habit of making blueberry wine and decided to take a risk: make moonshine from the fruit and give their farm a new kind of lifeline. His wife’s blunt advice — “you better get legal, because I like our house” — became the turning point.

Joined by co‑owner Chris Schmitt, they built Loggerhead Distillery out of that pivot: lessons learned in dirt and in the distillery. In this episode they talk about adapting a farming legacy into an entrepreneurial craft, the day‑to‑day work of running a tiny operation, and what it feels like to turn a harvest into something you can point at and own. As Colby puts it, “Sometimes when you're an engineer, it's hard to point to something and say, I made that today. With this, you have a lot of art and a lot of science coming together. At the end of the day, you can point to it and say, I made that today.”

We sit with the small decisions that add up — choosing equipment, finding a market, and learning to marry technical discipline with creative intuition. This is a conversation about making, adapting, and the pride of craftsmanship: a reminder that sometimes the best business plans begin with desperation, curiosity, and a patch of stubborn blueberries.