Visit to White Yarrow Farm, Marcellus, Michigan

Agroecolgoy Summer Intensive students traveled to White Yarrow Farm near Marcellus, Michigan on July 14. Farmer Dale Hasenick and intern Luke Nofsinger hosted our visit.

White Yarrow Farm offers a mix of vegetable, cut flower, meat and egg production. Dale and his wife Jo Beachy own and operate the farm.

White Yarrow Farm has about 5 acres of vegetables under cultivation. Half of the produce is distributed through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares, and the remainder is taken to the Goshen Farmer’s Market. There are about 60 CSA shares; boxes of fresh produce are distributed on Monday in Kalamazoo, Michigan and on Wednesday in Three Rivers, Michigan.

It takes about 8 weeks to raise chickens to butchering size. Dale can produce three batches per season. The chickens are kept in open bottom cages that are moved every day. The animals eat much of the vegetation, and also receive a grain supplement.

Laying hens are kept in another pasture. They have coop on wheels that Dale and a volunteer built several years ago. Both eggs and frozen whole chickens are available for sale to CSA members.

Beef cattle are also a part of the farm mix.

Our tour of the farm included the heated greenhouse where seeds are started, the chicken pasture, vegetable plots, and the washing/packing stations. Along the way we stopped in the garlic beds where two volunteer/shareholders were working. We joined them in harvesting and tying up bundles of garlic which will be dried in the barn and then distributed later to CSA shareholders.

Later when it was time to gather eggs, Dale invited us to help. We collected a pail full of fresh brown eggs, some of them still warm under the hens.

When asked about the most important lesson so far this summer, Luke responded, “straight rows!” He has learned that every field task through the remainder of the season is much easier if seeds are planted in straight rows right at the beginning.

Visit to Clay Bottom Farm near Goshen Indiana

On Thursday, July 9, Agroecology Summer Intensive (ASI) students visited Clay Bottom Farm owned and operated by Rachel Hershberger and Ben Hartman. They were able to purchase the property in fall 2008, and are spending this growing season conducting trials, planning drainage and irrigation, and getting ready for full scale production. They continue to rent land for vegetables this year.Though they have been growing and marketing vegetables for several years, Rachel and Ben started offering produce this year under a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) arrangement. They have 11 shareholders, each of whom paid at the beginning of the season for a weekly box of food. Clay Bottom Farm runs the only on-farm CSA in the Goshen area.

Our visit began with Rachel telling us about CSA models and about the history of Clay Bottom Farm. Later Ben gave us a tour of the farm. We saw the moveable greenhouse, cover cropping, compost bins, tractors, implements, and the farm buildings. Most intriguing was a chest-type freezer adapted to serve as a refrigerator for produce.

Moveable greenhouse in the Clay Bottom Farm trial plot. Ben is working with a local welder on finding a way to put wheels on his larger greenhouses.

Agroecology Summer Intensive students check out the compost set up. Clay Bottom Farms gets duck manure from a neighboring farmer. The manure is composted and then spread on the soil as fertilizer.

L to R Darin Swartzentruber ASI student and Ben Hartman of Clay Bottom Farm. Both Rachel and Ben shared their suggestions for helpful farming resources.



RM 07-15-09