We came into 2026 thinking, "This is going to be our year!" and my goodness, did life ever have something else in store.

We've faced blow after blow, and the one we're staring down now? Well, it might just be the final nail in the proverbial coffin.

Let me start off by saying, I am SO. EMBARRASSED. that this is the reality we've found ourselves in. What is even more embarrassing is having to say all the hard parts out loud and ultimately asking people for help.

With that said, we KNOW that there are folks out there that care about us and want a way to provide support as we navigate this really stressful and terrifying chapter.

My biggest fears?

The critical and mean comments.

The one-star reviews.

The grapevine conversations centering around us as business owners and as people.

The second-hand embarrassment that friends and family might feel because of our struggle, candidness, and request for help.

My ADHD brain is already spiraling into a Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria meltdown just thinking about it.

But I'm putting that all that fear aside because what I'm fighting for is our family's future.

OUR STORY

We are Marie & Chad Miller, the folks behind Lofty Butter Company, Ontario’s first small-batch cultured butter company, based out of Colborne Ontario in Northumberland County.

We’ve been churning up the good stuff since 2020, through hardships, pivots, a global pandemic, loss and grief , mental health crises, new parenthood, and economic uncertainty.

Despite how challenging the past 6 years have been, nothing could’ve prepared us for 2026.

In February 2026, after attempting to start Instagram Live Selling to keep our business and household afloat after a less than stellar holiday season and slow winter markets, the Ontario government launched an investigation into our business.

Immediately, we had to stop shipping to our customers via a certified food-safe, temperature-controlled third-party delivery partner.

Then, in April, the government advised us that we could no longer utilize our local partner pick-up method that they had previously approved for us in 2020.

These were hard hits to take. Two out of the three purchase options we had to offer our customers vanished overnight.

But, we pressed on.

We booked every single weekend with farmers’ markets from January to November, and prayed that the good months would carry us through.

To be honest, the “good months” have never really materialized.

We all know that many small businesses are being stretched beyond capacity. With slower than expected spring and summer seasons, household spending tightening, all costs associated with doing business increasing, and basic living costs continuing to climb... the impact is impossible to ignore.

And if this were the end of the story, I still would not be here, making this plea.

But that was really just the beginning.

We realized that the only way forward was to work within the framework provided by the government to scale our business. We needed to find a location to make into our production facility and work with them to build a licensed dairy plant.

Doing this would be life-changing.

We’d be able to ship. We’d be able to supply restaurants and bakeries. We be able to stock all the incredible food shops that have been eagerly but patiently waiting to carry our products.

We found a place not far from where we live, and it felt like the perfect fit!

It had a kitchen roughed in. It was big enough for what we needed it to be RIGHT NOW and for all of our big dreams in the future. And it had some key structure features that would make licensing possible (most notably being a stand-alone building with a built-in floor drain).

We signed a commercial lease for the space in June.

Chad and our eight-year-old spent a few evenings there, renovating, planning, and dreaming about what the space would become.

We had SIX WEEKS to get a commercial kitchen built and certified by the health unit to maintain our current farmers' market business. We were also going to set-up a small retail counter, offer regular pick-up hours, start hosting Instagram Lives again, have a dedicated office for me there, and make a comfortable place for the kiddos to hang out.

It was ambitious, but we were committed.

Getting it done in the six-week timeframe would ensure we wouldn’t have to carry the expense of two locations and would have little disruption to summer business.

One week after signing, we were notified that the zoning did not permit our business to operate from there. The building is actually zoned RESIDENTIAL, so our commercial operations are not permitted on this property.

Making this move was our last-ditch effort to build a successful business for us and our kiddos.

We’ve bootstrapped, buried ourselves in debt, and sold our home to keep this dream alive. We gave the landlord the last few thousand dollars we could scrape together to secure this property, confident that this was our turning point.

Last week, after months of trying to get the lease rescinded and our deposit back, the landlord served us with a lawsuit, and wants to take us to court for tens of thousands of dollars.

We have mounting legal fees, an uncertain future, and are unable to make any decisions to help move our business forward. I'm barely holding on mentally, and am taking life one moment at a time just to hang on.

I really, really hope that this is rock bottom.

Because as Buster Moon from Sing says (which I hear at least once a day since it's our two year-old's favourite movie) "You know what's great about hitting rock bottom? There's only one way left to go, and that's up!"

So... what do we need?

A heartfelt 'Thank You' to YOU for taking the time to read our story, and our deepest gratitude to our community for the love and support they continue to provide us.