Terra House
In 2009, while in a PhD program for cancer prevention pathology, Andrea Neidrauer found herself at a crossroads: finish her degree in an area she wasn’t very interested in, or follow her passion deeper into the world of nutrition. “At that time, medical research was primarily focusing on pharmaceuticals, not nutrition. My advisor felt I might be taking a step backward by studying nutrition,” she recalls. “I wasn’t going to do a dissertation on something I wasn’t feeling, so I terminated with a master’s.”
Her interest in nutrition and holistic medicine goes beyond the academic or professional—it is deeply personal. “In 2000, my maternal grandmother died of inflammatory breast cancer,” she says. “She was in her 60s and the life force of our family. It really rocked my world.” This set her on a path to learning about cancer, as well as thinking about health holistically—for others and herself.
Then, in 2012, another earthquake: She and her mom both tested positive for the BRCA 2 mutation, a harmful variant of a gene that translates into a significantly increased lifetime risk for developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. “That was a really strong moment for me.”
She and her family committed to a path of wholesome eating, beginning by cutting highly processed foods from their grocery list, and then incorporating more and more local, organic and sustainably sourced food into their diets.
She also enrolled in a nutrition program which tied in emotional and mental health, exercise and sustainable agriculture. “It was a whole holistic approach to eating and living and wellness. It was life-changing for me,” says Andrea, who earned a certificate as an Integrative Nutritional Counselor in 2018.
Andrea worked for a while as a nutritional counselor but says, “I didn’t really find that fulfilling because people didn’t have the lifestyle they needed to make healthy choices.”
Eventually, she decided that a better fit would be to bring healthy food to people. So, in 2019, she and her husband John opened Terra House, where they bring delicious food made with high-quality, locally-sourced ingredients to the Akron area through their café, catering and cooking classes.
“Terra means earth, and our mission is to connect people with their food, as close to the earth as we can get it,” Andrea says. This means bringing intentionality to everything that they source and make, from the Farmer Ground Flour used in their house-baked breads that is milled in Trumansburg, NY, to the local, antibiotic-free turkey on their turkey club sandwiches, to the honey drizzled on The Buzz pizza, which comes from bees Andrea keeps herself.
Akron is tucked in the northeastern corner of Erie County, NY, about a 30-minute drive from Buffalo. Home to just under 3,000 people, the village’s charming downtown includes the Rich-Twinn Octagon House, the historic Akron post office, artisan shops, and Russell Park, centered around its picturesque gazebo. Akron is surrounded by farmland, with rolling fields stretching as far as the eye can see. However, as is the case with many rural environments across the country, this pastoral landscape does not always translate into a culture of residents buying local or eating healthily.
“There’s this misconception that because we live in the country, everyone could just grow their own food. But when you drive out here, all those cornfields, wheat fields, soy fields—those are going to feed cows,” says Andrea.
Andrea and John are quick to point out that the issue goes far beyond individual choice; it’s about access and systems-level barriers. “Our country gives food to people in need but, from a health perspective, it’s often just giving them calories,” says Andrea, referring to the backpacks filled with mac n’ cheese cups and sugary cereals that local nonprofits send home with food insecure kids.
“It’s really frustrating to see how our food industry feeds into a really poor healthcare system,” says Andrea. But, while this angers and sometimes saddens her, she knows that the best approach to change is to meet people where they are.
Thus, the Terra House café menu includes many favorite Western New York items—beef on weck, pepperoni pizza, Buffalo chicken sandwich—but done with the Neidrauers’ flair and values: served on focaccia, rolls and pizza crust expertly made by John, with every ingredient thoughtfully sourced and prepared. The café lures customers with its ample patio space in the warmer months and cozy fireplace in the long Western New York winters.
The Neidrauers bring this same care and expertise to the catering arm of their business throughout the year, from weddings to holiday parties. They offer an array of reasonably priced, crowd-pleasing menus—appetizer, brunch, luncheon, entrée and BBQ—all, like the rest of their food, made with local ingredients free of antibiotics and hormones.
A big part of Terra House’s business are their cooking classes, which they offer to the public as well as private groups multiple times a month in their café. Participants of all ages learn to make artisan pizza, bread, pasta, tacos and more.
For two years, they have taught monthly classes to the Collaborative Community Mission, a local nonprofit that offers low-cost or free programming to young people with special needs and their families. “That’s been a really rewarding class for us because we’ve really gotten to know the kids,” says John. “There’s one kid who, every month, comes excited to show us a picture of himself at home, making whatever we made last month together.”
No matter the students, the classes all center on the experience of bringing people together to make something themselves, most likely that they have never made before. “John is a truly amazing teacher,” Andrea says of her husband, who’s taught guitar lessons and, since starting Terra House, shared his extensive knowledge as a self-taught baker. The classes also offer a way for Andrea to naturally work in her nutrition training, planting seeds about where our food comes from and the choices we can make when we’re able.
They are excited about recent renovations that have almost doubled their space, which has come a long way since its previous use as an auto garage. With the expansion, they look forward to hosting special events, like music nights or date nights.
This last holiday season, they put on a holiday baking class in which the 10 participants made 46 dozen cookies in two and a half hours. “It was crazy—we used every single pan we have,” laughs John.
Each spring, Terra House hosts mini ensembles from the middle and high school orchestras for an event called String Night. “It’s really special because it’s an opportunity for the kids to perform, and their families to come see them, out in the world,” says Andrea, who’s always thinking of more ways to fill gaps in their local community.
“It’s important for us to be able to offer this space to our community because there really isn’t anything else like this around here,” she adds. “And that’s what keeps us going.”
