Seth and Tyler, the Yentes brothers, grew up in an agrarian setting; their affection for farming began on the family homestead just three miles from where North Branch Farm is now located.  For most of their childhood, Tyler, Seth, their brother Gilbert, sister Lucretia, and their parents (a home birth midwife and a builder) produced a significant portion of their food.  They grew vegetables, grains and beans in a large garden and raised a variety of livestock on pasture, and then canned, fermented, root-cellared and froze food for the winter.  While homeschooling, the siblings milked goats, gardened, and studied music in addition to their classroom work.  Currently, Seth and Tyler have a fiddle-cello duo called Whiffletree and they play original, traditional and classical music for concerts, weddings, contra dances and other events.  They each teach music—Tyler classical violin and fiddle, and Seth the cello.

At sixteen, Tyler purchased his first team of draft ponies and set about learning to drive a team and use the various horse-drawn implements that he and Seth had started accumulating.  Around that time, the two brothers decided they wanted to farm together on a larger scale than the homestead would allow.  Together, they spotted a largely defunct dairy farm—Guernsey Knoll Farm—in Monroe and began to court the elderly couple that owned it.  With the addition of Elsie and Anna and the decision by the owners to retire, Guernsey Knoll Farm was purchased and reborn as North Branch Farm.  Since North Branch Farm began in 2009, Tyler has acquired a team of Percheron mares who do the vegetable fieldwork and make the early-season hay on the farm.  He and his partner Elsie Gawler jointly manage the grass-fed dairy and beef operations.

Seth learned from his stepdad how to graft apple trees at the tender age of thirteen, and that interest quickly turned to a passion for all things fruit.  Seth planted and fenced a three-acre orchard at the family homestead as a teenager and began grafting and growing young fruit trees for Fedco Trees, a cooperative nursery resale business nearby where he also works seasonally.  After relocating to North Branch Farm, Seth headed up the planting and fencing of a five-acre orchard, one-acre high bush blueberry field, and quarter-acre fruit tree nursery.  He has also surrounded the two houses at the farm with fruiting trees and shrubs, including peaches, pears, apples, apricots, juneberries, medlars, cherries and more.