Erik Organic History

Erik Organic

Our company is independently owned and operated by Erik Schimek and Robert Schmid. Gail Kirkman (also known as Erik's mother) answers our phones and emails.

Creating An Organic Home

Erik has been offering custom kitchen cabinets, dining tables and other furniture via the Internet for over a decade.

When he became ill due to solvent exposure several years ago, he became acutely aware of hidden toxins in the home which slow down the healing process.

Erik Organic was founded in 2007 in order to assist our customers in creating a safe, organic home.

Recognition of the Social Contract

Erik and Rob strongly believe that a business must uphold its end of the social contract by being responsible to its customers, to the land, and to the community at large. They were both reared on Midwestern values that stress the importance of hard work and doing right by other people.

To that end, our furniture is created primarily from solid hardwoods -- and is joined together with strong Amish wood joints. We use minimal amounts of composite wood in our furniture, using formaldehyde-free boards and detailing where it is used in our furniture. This assures a high quality piece of furniture that will become the next generation's treasured heirloom.

Our furniture is made in the USA. Purchasing a piece of furniture from our company employs Amish craftsmen and their assistants, local farmers with sections of their land set aside for selective hardwood harvesting, sawmill operators, and local drivers (who hand deliver much of our furniture).

Reducing our Ecological Footprint

We are focused on the following areas in 2010:

Certified Origin Lumber: Our top priority is to increase the proportion of certified origin hardwood used in our furniture. This is a process that takes time due to the dozens of different craftsmen we work with in 5 midwestern states, and due to the nature of farming in the Upper Midwest.

The overwhelming majority of the wood used in our furniture does not travel more than 50 miles from where it is grown to the craftsman's workshop.

Certified origin wood is not available in many remote rural communities, except on special order -- and this generally means importing the lumber from several states away.

The chain-of-custody certification process has yet to become common in many parts of the upper Midwest, where there are only small sections of land that are not devoted to farming. The vast majority of lumber utilized in our furniture comes from windbreaks, hilly sections of land and other small patches of land unsuitable for farming.

For farmers with forested land set aside in small sections and acreage, the certification process is considered cumbersome and unprofitable. They maintain windbreaks because it's practical to do so, and they grow trees in the hilly sections and stream banks on their land because it prevents erosion of valuable topsoil.

When their trees are large enough, they call the local lumbermill and have them cut down. The trees are either replanted because it's practical to do so (every farm needs a windbreak), or because oak and walnut grows naturally along the hillside in this climacic region.

Despite these generally sustainable practices, not every landowner is responsible with their land management practices. Therefore, we will continue to encourage our craftsmen to ask for certified origin wood. This helps to assure that the beautiful hardwoods used in our furniture will be available for the next generation.

Reducing Our Carbon Footprint: We recognize that furniture created from manufactured 'fake' woods begins showing its age after just a few years -- and that the planned obsolescence of poorly-made furniture creates a substantial carbon impact. Much of this poorly-made furniture is also shipped in from overseas, further contributing to its carbon footprint.

By contrast, our solid wood furniture is made in the USA from locally sourced materials. It is also designed to outlast the original owner. These practices reduce the carbon footprint of our furniture by ending the constant cycle of waste and replacement by what has essentially become consumable furnishings.

Despite this 'long view' appeoach, we also recognize the fierce urgency of climate change action and will continue to look for ways to reduce the amount of fuel used to ship our furniture, which is our largest carbon impact.

Photos and Biographies

Erik Schimek

Erik has been offering custom home improvement products through the Internet for over a decade, and has been working with members of the Amish community since 2001. Prior to this, he taught high school technology classes and assisted in grantwriting for local nonprofits.

Erik earned a BA in History from Hamline Unversity, where he won several prestigious writing awards. He is (slowly) working on completion of his masters degree in public administration, with a specific focus on how communities can become more resilient and self-sufficient.

Erik maintains a large organic vegetable garden in the summer months, and is looking forward to completion of his custom tiny home.

Gail Kirkman

Gail has worked in the accounting field for nearly three decades, including customer support and problem resolution. She previously worked at the University of Minnesota as an accounts receivable specialist.

She now enjoys being Erik Organic's lead customer service representative. Family, friends, cats, good coffee and gardening are Gail's passions. (Gail is also Erik's mother!)

Sandy Lyon

Sandy has an extensive background in public radio management and grant writing in the non-profit field of environmental protection. Her work has been featured on National Public Radio.

She enjoys being outdoors during all seasons hiking, canoeing, cross country skiing and organic gardening.

She is also a strong advocate for local organic food and alternative home building methods. She loves to laugh and enjoys people, especially being with her family and grandchildren and her cat, Sam. Sandy lives just a few miles away from Erik in a hand-made, passive solar home.

Sandy assists Gail with our customer service.

Robert Schmid

Robert Schmid is still not sure what he wants to do when he grows up. So far he has been a physicist, a lawyer, a political activist, a computer programmer and environmentalist. Robert supports Erik Organic's business infrastructure and provides advanced technology support.

Robert received a BS in astrophysics in 1990 from the University of Minnesota, and a JD in 1996 from William Mitchell College of Law. Since becoming a licensed attorney, he has managed an Internet service provider, run a law office, and developed medical software for donor tissue matching.

Robert and his wife Roxana recently moved to Texas to support the mission of Last Chance Forever, whose purpose is to conserve the lives and habitat of North American birds of prey.

We keep asking Robert for a better picture but as an amateur photographer he is usually on the other side of the lens. He has told us that he believes that "some people have a Heisenberg uncertainty that is above normal, specifically, their ΔT is high enough that they are simply impossible to properly capture on film. The mere act of observing them alters their localized uncertainty causing their ΔT to spike and ruining the photo." We aren't really sure what he's saying but we think he's trying to pull a fast one.

Other Members of Our Community

Terry Godier and Alana Rice

Terry manages our advertising and marketing campaigns. He is passionate about artisnal quality tea, is an avid vinyl record collector and can often be found picking on his trusty old Martin acoustic.

Alana manages our hardwood samples.

Amy Kilgour and Jeremy Bergo

Amy is passionate about organic vegetable gardening, well-made things, bike commuting, rollerskating and has a background in Marketing and Global Studies. She keeps busy doing the 'social networking stuff' for Erik Organic.

Jeremy is our photographer, and does an excellent job at it! He is a web designer, photographer, musician, animal lover, Minnesota sports fanatic and enjoys organic gardening with Amy.

Jeremy and Erik grew up together in Mankato, Minnesota.

Jaime Owen

Jaime has a background in sociology, public policy, eco-friendly housing, and peace & conflict studies.

She assists us in coming up with product descriptions, and writes several articles a week for our green living blog.

Rachelle Wise

Rachelle studied graphics design at the Art Institute of Minnesota, and assists us with furniture mockups and other website graphics.

Benny and Bitten

Bitten has 5 years experience in keyboard warming, and is an integral part of our 'Make Sure Every Invoice Has Cat Hair On It' recycling campaign.

Benny keeps close watch over the office, keeping it safe from boxelder bugs and errant slips of paper that 'just happen to fall on the floor'.

Dan Miller

Dan's shipping company has been delivering most of our furniture for the past several years.

The personal touch provided by a small, locally owned company has proven to be very popular with our customers.

Amish Communities

We are grateful for the hard work and dedication of our Amish partners.

Out of respect for the humility of the Amish faith and their community's desire for privacy, we do not promote the names or likenesses of individual craftsmen on our website.