We’ve fallen behind on our blogging again….it appears that our last posting was exactly a month ago…much catching up to do (See September for the latest).  But the tour is still rolling on, we’re managing to stay (mostly) warm and dry in Northern Michigan, the color change is on in beautiful Leelanau County, we’ve logged over 800 miles, and we have six more farms to visit!

From Big Dipper, we rode north into the Old Mission Peninsula to Gray’s Fruit Farm, where our friend Todd Springer operates a CSA on his family farm.  Todd’s family has been farming there since the 1860’s.  Currently most of the property is a cherry orchard, but there are also apples, pears, plums, and nut trees.  Todd’s CSA supplies about 20 members with veggies from his garden and fruit and nuts from the orchard.  

It was great to see Todd’s place before the frost (we’d seen it in late October in previous years, after the frost) – the tomatoes were the healthiest plants we’d seen since mid-summer, before late blight struck at most farms.  Todd grew up farming, left the farm and the area, and then returned, to practice his art (pottery) and start a garden. There is plentiful wood (ripped out old fruit trees) available on the farm, and he wants to integrate his art with the land in the form of a wood-fired kiln on site, and often using hand dug-clay.  You can see Todd’s work at the Michigan Artist Gallery in Suttons Bay.  His is one of the few member-initiated CSAs in Michigan—when a few friends learned he was growing a chemical-free garden, they recruited him to grow for them, and the CSA has grown in number ever since.  He also sells produce to local restaurants and events. While we were at Gray’s, we helped harvest, pack baskets, hoe and weed, and canned a bunch of yummy red and green salsa for the winter!  Marty and I realized recently that we won’t have any food stocked up after this growing season, so Todd was generous enough to include us in one big canning day with the hopes of sharing some meals this winter.  We got the chance to work and hang out with Elizabeth, an old friend of Marty’s from Ann Arbor, who helps Todd on the farm in exchange for produce, and we took a couple of long soaks in the hot tub, too.  Thanks so much, Todd!

Todd, like many CSA farmers, creates gorgeous assemblies of healthy produce for appreciative members, but charges much less than the produce, let alone the personal relationship with a farm and farmer, is worth.  The day we helped with CSA harvest, the members received potatoes, onions, winter squash, garlic, cucumbers, radishes, horseradish root, summer squash, peppers, tomatoes, salad mix, kale, chard, apples, flowers, basil, and sage. Whew!  What a gift (“like Christmas every Monday,” as one member put it).

We rolled out of the Old Mission Peninsula and over to Leelanau County next to visit Dave and Pat VanDyke’s Skyview Farm.  Dave and Pat bought the property and started homesteading there 12 years ago, after realizing they wanted something different than downstate corporate, suburban life.  Their home and permaculture-designed garden were  completely off the grid for the first nine years, utilizing solar and wind power.  When they started CSA farming, they added a back-up connection to grid power to run a bigger pump for the irrigation system.  Skyview currently has twelve members, who receive boxes of immaculate veggies every week.  Even though Dave and Pat escaped the Holland area, they brought the Dutch tendency toward order and beauty with them, and their home, gardens, and produce reflect it.  For several years, Dave offered permaculture workshops and talks, using their personal garden and landscape as an example, but once they started a CSA, they realized they could get more yield from a conventional straight-row garden than from permaculture beds.   In addition to veggies, they have a small orchard, make maple syrup, raise chickens for eggs and meat (available for sale), and are considering raising hogs next year.  They put in a small unheated hoophouse last year, in which they grow produce for personal winter consumption, and if they have any extras they offer it for sale.  We have two small-world connections with the Van Dykes – their nephew Jeff was a member of Turtle Spring farm (Marty’s CSA in Chelsea), and they are distantly related to Ryan and Andrea, also CSA farmers at the Wagbo Peace Center in East Jordan where we plan to visit in late October!  

Skyview’s CSA had ended the week before we arrived, so there were no shares that week.  While we were there, we helped rip out old plants from the garden and plant rye, moved the laying hens to a new pen and cleaned out the old one, helped change the angle of the solar panels, cleaned out sumac from the chicken yard and asparagus patch, harvested grapes, visited the town of Cedar with Dave, and took some good long walks with Magic (their dog).  From Dave, we learned about renewable energy systems (they have lots in common with Jim and Jo at Five Springs), solar hot water heaters and plumbing, the teachings of Eli Jackson Bear and Gangaji, permaculture, and chickens.

After two blustery, partly rainy days, the sun shone for the ride over to Big Belly Farm, only about five miles from Skyview.  We were accompanied by our second official joiner! Pat Curly, of Leelanau Cultured Veggies, came over from his home on the east side of Lake Leelanau to ride with us.  It was a beautiful, hilly, crispy red ride, and we arrived at Big Belly, home of Traci and Rico Cruz and their daughters Allie and Lena, in mid-afternoon, and we’ve been here ever since.  We first met Traci three years ago when we attended a talk by Elliott Coleman that she organized in Traverse City, and have wanted to visit her farm ever since.  Traci and Rico both work full time off the farm, and Allie and Lena are in high school, so their plates are full! (though they all have pretty small bellies…teehee) They have an orchard of several different apples, cherries, peaches, and plums (their red Pipestones may be the most delicious plums ever), as well as a big veggie garden and two unheated hoophouses. Their members can choose fruit, veggie, or mixed shares.  Currently the hoophouses are used for getting an early start on the season; so far Big Belly has not offered winter shares, though they certainly could if they planted both houses to winter greens. The Cruz family has had a busy and challenging year, but they have only four CSA members this season.  This (Oct. 3) will be the last week of CSA for the season, and they’re planning to take time off from CSA next year to spend more time with their daughters (before Allie goes to college next fall!) and their community.  Traci and Rico have future plans to build and operate a “dinner on the farm” facility where they will serve home-grown, home-cooked meals right next to the garden and orchard.  We have helped weed and clean out one hoophouse, harvest potatoes, hung out with the family, and caught up on blogging and email.  Today is CSA day, and Traci estimates that the shares will include potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, onions, shallots, winter squash, eggplant, apples, grapes, cabbage, and maybe chard.