If you’re looking for a fun, free, educational, and delicious way to celebrate fall, the Third Annual Tantre Farm Honeybee Nut Festival in Ann Arbor is the place to be on Sunday Ocotber 8th.
Posts filed under Farms
In Pursuit of the More Perfect Apple at Amrita Farms
Amrita Farms is the only organic apple orchard within over a 50-mile radius for U-Pick apples. The farm was started 27 years ago, on a 54-acre parcel, in order to combine sustainable farming and education in pursuit of an eco-friendly lifestyle. The owner’s first initiative was to help mother nature by planting several hundred evergreens. The farm struggled since its start to find its identity, milling through multiple products with a revenue stream not taking root because of the clay soil. Kymal, known in business circles as a serial entrepreneur, refused to accept failure
Gateway Farm: Growing with Permaculture
The mid-January day I visited Gateway Farm in Plymouth was breezy, and the temperature was in the low thirties with faint flurries falling. At the farm’s small, dirt parking lot off Joy Road, I met Bridget O’Brien who, along with her husband Dr. Charlie Brennan, is the farm’s co-director. After we greeted each other, I said, “Not the best time of the year for me to see the farm, I guess.” “It’ll be okay,” she replied cheerfully. “We’ll be able to see everything because there’s no snow on the ground. Plus,” she added, “The sorrel is still green.”
Peace, Love, and Cows
There is a feeling of peace in the cowbarns at Goloka Eco Experience in Maybee, Michigan. The farm air feels crisp as it enters the lungs—unequivocally more clear than city air. In this moment, the gentle thud of a heartbeat or thwap of a tail against the ground is one’s only soundtrack against the world. Soft, big brown eyes peer out from underneath impossibly-long eyelashes, begging for pats on the head or scratches at the nape of the neck. Goloka Eco hosts an experience one simply cannot find among the hustle and bustle of regular everyday life--an invitation to be present. To come sit. To forget about time for a while. To cuddle a cow, as volunteer Karunasindhu Nitai Gaura Dasa says, is to form a “meaningful relationship.”
A Good Crop of Mental Health: A Conversation about Animal Assisted Therapy with Laura Sanders
Laura Sanders, LMSW, ACSW, has been practicing in the Ann Arbor area for 34 years and has been teaching as an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work for 26 years. Her approach to therapy utilizes a wide variety of evidence-based and creative therapies, including trauma recovery methods, art and play therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and relational approaches through Animal Assisted Therapy.
Argus Farm Stop: Mission Driven
Mission driven in all its disparate pieces, this grocery store, that is so much more, is determined to serve many sectors of our local culture. It could seem confusing, if it wasn’t all so smooth. Argus is a daily farmers’ market, and a local grocery and sundries store. It is a coffee shop and cafe, a tavern, and an entertainment venue. It is an education center offering weekly webinars, classroom curriculum, and full trainings. And Argus Farm Stop is a crucial component that was missing for the growth of our local food system.
Detroit Nonprofit Paves the Way for Innovative Urban Agriculture
Tucked into a three-acre section of Brush Street in Detroit’s North End lies a utopia of freshly grown foods available to the surrounding communities at no cost. Made possible by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Michigan Urban Farming Initiative (MUFI), the project, known as America’s first sustainable urban agrihood, aims to combat challenges unique to urban communities such as Detroit. More than 120,000 pounds of food are grown from seed from this portion of Detroit’s land, which was once abandoned.
Zen and the Art of Community-Supported Agriculture
Celebrating, preserving, and sharing our areas rich Agro-Centric heritage is one of my favorite interests. A somewhat new land preservation project has gained my interest over the past year and is ongoing at the corner of Scio Church and Zeeb Road. Follow me on a journey of one family’s dream passed on. This is yet another food-farm venture of Tantre` Farm’s stewards, Richard Andres and Deb Lentz.
Community Farm of Ann Arbor-- A Look at the Past, the Present, and the Future
The Community Farm of Ann Arbor was founded in 1988. It was one of the first organic, and perhaps the only biodynamic, farm in Michigan, as well as one of the first CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture). A few years after the Farm began, and up until three years ago, it was run by Annie Elder and Paul Bantle. After Annie and Paul moved to California in 2018, several other farmers ran things, and then this spring, Dan Gannon was hired to run the Farm.
The King Family: Half a Century of Farming, Making Music, Teaching Yoga, and Building Community
The King family has been a prominent presence in the Ann Arbor and Southeastern Michigan community in a myriad of ways—as farmers, musicians, teachers, and more—for nearly fifty years. The roots of the King family and their Frog Holler Farm go back to 1971, to the founding of the Indian Summer restaurant in Ann Arbor. That’s where Indian Summer’s co-founder, co-owner, and head cook, Ken King, met Cathy Munkholm. Cathy had been hired to make salads at the restaurant and worked alongside Ken, chopping vegetables.
Necessity Grows Innovative Farming In Our Own Backyard
What were once three businesses, Ann Arbor Seed Company, Green Things Farm, and the Land Loom, is now one: Green Things Farm Collective. They came together in 2020, as their website explains, “to expand production, share the management of running a diverse farm business, and develop a model of sustainable, cooperative, and responsible farming.”
Learning the Culture and Heritage of Washtenaw County through Food and Architecture
Prior to Covid-life, the Local Food Summit event took place with food diversity and food justice being the main focus. I had the pleasure of sitting with speaker, Melissa Milton-Pung, who represented a program she created in conjunction with the county’s Heritage Tourism department. The tour is called the Foodways Heritage Tour and there is a recipe guide online for those interested in our counties rich and bountiful cultural heritage.
Vestergaard Farms: Pasture-Raised Local Meats and Local Foods
This past winter I was eager to visit the newly built storefront of Vestergaard Farm, attractively situated on the farm property. Along with their farm raised meat, the store offers other goods from Matty’s Bakery in Saline, Zingerman’s coffee and treats, Calder Dairy products, The Brinery products, Aldente Pasta, Amaizin Pop Popcorn, honey, bath products, maple syrup, eggs, and many other locally sourced items.
Carnivores Unite! A Meat Eater's Guide to Supporting Local Farmers, Mongers, and Butchers
My passion for great food, and for those who produce and handle all aspects of providing it, is at times an obsession. I become a little rapt when meat and fish are involved because I have health issues that demand clean, healthy food, and environment. I place huge emphasis on the person behind the product when I embark on seeking out a farmer, hunter, monger, or purveyor. There is a symbiotic relationship between one who raises, gathers, and hunts animal meat and the end consumer. This relationship should be taken on with deep sincerity and thoughtfulness. I prefer, when possible, to purchase meat from animals bred and raised locally. The animals feed from grass in the pasture where they live and roam, until they are nearing full growth. At this point they are usually grain fed for higher fat marbling, but the lives of the animals are still cared for and properly managed.
Crazy Wisdom Kids in the Community: Kid-Friendly Animal Rescues of Ann Arbor
I know I’m not the only one who has had to learn how to care for animals and who deeply enjoys their company. A natural affinity with animals since childhood is what led me to become a trained animal whisperer and animal Reiki specialist in addition to being a journalist. It’s often hard to tell where a love of animals will take a child, but these days there are some amazing programs out there to test the waters, whether a kid is interested in learning the basics of animal encounters, adopting a new family member, or becoming a veterinarian, animal trainer, or therapist.
Local Farm and Orchard Visits
When school starts and the stars begin to twinkle a bit earlier in the evening sky, one can’t help but think of picking apples, carving pumpkins, Halloween costumes, and hay rides. We’ve compiled some of the most unique orchard and farm experiences we could find in southeastern Michigan. Grab your jacket and wellies and enjoy the crisp autumn air before Jack Frost dances on your eyelashes!
Four Seasons of Fresh Inspiration at Brighton’s Stone Coop Organic Farm & Learning Center
When my business partners and I bought the property that Stone Coop Farm lives on in November of 2011, I knew we had to save it as farmland for future generations. Our farm is on 30 acres, but it is zoned residential. 1000 new homes in four new subdivisions are being built on both sides of us. I can hear the excavation equipment every day. A wastewater treatment plant is being built and the high-pressure sewer line will be connecting these subdivisions along our property line. Developers are approaching us to sell the farm, so that more homes can be built. The value of our land is increasing as residential lots, not as farmland. I know my mission is to save the farm, but that often feels like an insurmountable task, given what’s going on around me.
Support Your Local Farmers and Growers--Even in the Winter!
Artwork by Caitlyn Muncy
By Angela Madaras
Yes! You can support our local farmers and growers even in the winter months. Most of us know that eating fresh food grown locally is better for both our bodies and our environment and like to support farmers during traditional growing and harvesting seasons. We also know that the average backyard farmer can’t grow produce in the snow. However, there are many local farmers who can grow all year long due to having hoop houses (greenhouses) that keep the air and soil warmer than what most Michiganders are experiencing in mid-January. BRRR! This technique of greenhouse growing allows the consumer to benefit from locally grown food even in the cold months.
So what kind of produce can you expect at a winter farmer’s market? Potatoes, greens, sprouts, herbs, garlic, spinach, sprouts, lettuces, carrots, as well as pork, beef, lamb, chicken, and honey to start! By shopping at a local farmer’s market you will eat seasonally fresh and ripe produce. What could be better than that? They also sell storable foods such as winter squash, dried beans, grains, and dried herbs. Think of your grandma’s root cellar. Jams, jellies, canned goods, baked goodies, cheese and dairy products, pickles, and even jerky can be preserved along with sauerkraut and kimchi. Most markets also carry art, handmade crafts, furniture, jewelry, and body care products.
What are you waiting for? Find a winter market near you!
Ann Arbor Farmers Market
315 Detroit St.
Ann Arbor, MI
Winter hours: Saturday, 8 AM - 3 PM www.a2gov.org/market
Saline Farmers Market
At the Liberty School
7265 Saline Ann Arbor Rd. (turn on Thibault Lane)
Saline, MI
Winter Hours: Saturday, 9 AM - Noon (Nov. - April)
No market Nov. 10th or Mar. 16th www.cityofsaline.org/farmersmarket
Ypsilanti Farmers Market •Downtown
16 S. Washington St.
Ypsilanti, MI
Winter Hours: Tuesday, 3 PM - 7 PM growinghope.net/farmers-markets/ypsilanti
Chelsea Farmers Market
At the Washington St. Education Center, Building 100 cafeteria
500 Washington St.
Chelsea, MI
Winter Hours: Saturday, 10 AM -2 PM (Nov.3-Dec.29) chelseafarmersmkt.org
Webster Farmers Market
At the Crossroads Community Center
5501 Webster Church Rd, Dexter, Michigan
Dexter, MI
•Winter Hours: Sunday 12 PM - 3 PM, except third Sunday www.websterfarmersmarket.org
Argus Farm Stop
Two locations!
1200 Packard Rd or
325 W Liberty St Ann Arbor, MI
Year Round, Weekdays 7 AM – 7 PM, Saturday 7 AM – 6 PM, Sunday 8 AM – 6 PM www.argusfarmstop.com
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Webster Farmers Market: Preserving a Historic Neighborhood through Farming, Food, Craft, and Community
When my friends told me about a Sunday Winter Farmers Market, my husband and I jumped in the van and headed to Webster Township. It was a particularly cold day. Thankfully, aromatic hot coffee greeted us at the door. Violet Raterman, one of the market managers, helped us navigate the market for our first visit. The entire experience was moving for some reason, but I could not put my finger on it. I had to find out more about the people behind this market and the space in which it thrived.
Reiki with Dali Llama
by Laura Cowan
I’m guessing you’ve never had a ram approach you like a puppy, because even if you are lucky enough to know one, that isn’t the sort of thing rams do — unless they have a reiki therapist like Dona Duke as a friend. Dona is an Usui Reiki Ryoho Reiki master, and the resident animal reiki therapist at the Humane Society animal shelter. She accepted my invitation as a locally based holistic living editor to interview her and see animals receiving reiki in a farm environment. Dona wanted me to bring you the experience of something beyond cat shelter or hospital reiki that is so often written about these days. I’m so glad reiki is written about enough to require the variety, and she was so right. Reiki on a farm is a world unto itself. Let me tell you about this ram at Fluffy Bottom Farms. Call him Ishmael.
“No, really. Everyone on this farm has a fabulous name. The ram was just the beginning.”
Ishmael and his herd of sheep and cows at the Fluffy Bottom Farms farm and creamery in Chelsea, receive reiki from Dona on a weekly basis. I wish I had the data to prove to you that reiki improves the cheese they make, but suffice it to say it’s phenomenally delicious stuff, now sold at grocery stores and retailers all over Michigan. I tried the aged raw manchego, which went perfectly in a cherry spinach salad. Owners Kelli Conlin and Angie Martell were out of the house the day I visited. Dona brought treats for the turkeys and hens on the day she introduced me to the animals. The three tom turkeys were not so welcoming, but it was mating season and they were strutting their stuff, so I won’t hold it against them that they followed me around with fanned feathers and a serious attitude.
I was nervous. Why was I nervous? I have turkeys in my rural wooded yard daily so it wasn’t about being stalked by birds half my size. I used to belong to a dairy farm share myself, so I’m comfortable around herds of cows and sheep, and free-range birds. I am also trained as an animal reiki master. Was I nervous because I know I shouldn’t walk up to farm animals and assume they’re friendly when I enter their pen? Maybe, but this growing awareness of my own nerves led to a profound reiki-led epiphany in short order. Ishmael was climbing the gate of his pen to nuzzle Ms. Duke, and the other ram, Gabriel, accepted me into his pen to rub up against me for reiki and a pet. I was experiencing the effects of animal reiki before I even realized it. I’m used to giving reiki, you see, but I’m not used to receiving it from animals.
We entered the sheep pen in the barn, where a tall brown llama named Dali watched me attentively. He was gentle and protective, that much was obvious, but I didn’t expect what came next. Dali noticed I was nervous, Dona said, and as the protector of the herd against local coyotes, he was investigating why. Ah, that was the reason for the nerves. I had been considering a number of ways of applying reiki in my own life and career with animals, and I had expected to be more at ease. It hardly does to have an animal reiki master acting jittery around a flock of sheep. But by now, I should have known something else was afoot. This was animal reiki in action. It wasn’t magic. It was reciprocity.
Suddenly, it was just me and Dali, experiencing that connection of minds that comes from the unity consciousness of universal life energy flow. The llama was teaching me, not only to experience sacred space on the receiving end from an animal, but he was giving me a nudge. Suddenly I knew. I wasn’t meant to focus on animal reiki. With one glance, I understood. I should have figured, given what I know about reiki, that it would be the animals to give me that course correct on how to apply healing energies in my life and career. I wish I could tell you how this felt, but maybe if you have experienced reiki, you already know. Even getting a nudge of “no, not quite this path” is a profoundly healing experience. It was just that in this case, it was the llama receiving reiki that helped me as much as I helped him, if not more.
“You must approach them as equals,” Dona said. So true. Because they are. That’s where the reciprocity comes from, however you experience it. “It’s easy for me to work with animals, because I approach them as friends,” Dona tells me. Indeed. These animals dearly loved this woman, crowding her for treats — the largest behaving the most gently of all. The new lambs watched her with cocked faces from behind their mothers. The llama was at complete peace around her. The sheep readily decided to try to eat the buttons off my coat rather than ask too many questions about whether I belonged, since I came with recommendations from Dona. She was at home. This was her herd.
Dona used to have horses and rode dressage. “What you learn training horses is that if anything goes wrong, it’s not the horse’s fault,” she tells me, adding:
What is key in training horses is being present, being consistent, and in an emotionally good place, because you are literally sitting on a large animal’s nervous system. It’s the same thing with reiki. You need to communicate with their whole system. You have to learn to be quiet and be still, and work together.
This is true of human reiki, as well, and is particularly true of animals who live outdoors, as they are highly tuned in to their environment.
Dali the llama blinked with his long soft lashes. I felt the healing space around us. We were connected with everyone and everything, but we were also just the two of us. How odd. Sometimes a feeling of discomfort and nerves as you receive reiki is the message. There was nothing wrong with me. Healing in general often comes to us like this — wrapped up in the messages of anxiety and health problems and feelings that warn us of the importance of a change. There is nothing wrong with the message, and there is nothing wrong with our ability to receive the message. When we learn to listen and flow with the energy, the healing and growth naturally comes. Because that’s what reiki is. It’s just life, and life is growth, and healing, and creativity. Reiki is delightful, but sometimes upending. It is the never-ceasing river of powerful change that will help you align with your highest good if you simply allow it and flow with the process. Reiki had not too long ago swept me out of one life and into another set of new possibilities, and here I was. Llama-facilitated therapy. So much for humans being on top of the chain of consciousness! It simply isn’t so. The animals can teach you this, particularly through animal reiki.
We walked outside to the field, where Dona told me the herd often comes running to meet her. Sure enough, the remainder of the herd came at a full trot all the way from the next pasture. I have never seen more animals happy to see one person. Granted, she brings carrots, but even so. She allowed the animals to approach her for reiki. They stood next to her, quietly alert, until they were finished — usually about five to ten minutes per animal that approached her. They often seemed to wait their turn.
Ishmael ran to the back of his pen at the barn and climbed it like a goat.
“Get down,” Dona told him. “That isn’t safe for you.”
He pushed his hip up against the fence. “They show you where they want reiki,” Dona told me.
Sure enough, this was exactly what the other ram Gabriel had done with me. He had allowed me into his pen, sniffed my hand, and then pressed his side up to me and turned around. Like I said, not rammish at all. Reiki-ish. Not that there is anything wrong with a ram acting like a ram on an ordinary Tuesday, but these animals were co-creators in their healing. Phenomenal stuff. The air was thick with healing, like walking on air. I noticed this with my cat as well when I started practicing reiki on family members. She started sitting on my hands while I was working. Animals love reiki, because animals are very aligned with their natural selves and the balanced energies around them.
Inside the farmhouse, the dogs were waiting for treats and to be let out in the yard. A feral cat scrambled under the porch, while a black domestic pawed to be let in for food. A tiny lamb named Athena, who was born with a leg injury and rejected by her mother, was waiting for us in a pen wearing a diaper. She was only an armful of animal. Dona picked her up and bottle-fed her. Of all things I expected that day, it wasn’t to change a lamb’s diaper and have her cry after one of her surrogate moms. She rooted and arched her neck for Dona just like a human newborn
for its mother. She didn’t want me, and you have to understand animals often do. But there was nothing wrong. This was the message. This was the healing.
Dona told me more of the story of how she got into reiki, and just like my story, it was full of synchronicities and healing experiences, and meetings with amazing animals. I was deeply grateful she had opened up her life to me at all, as she is clearly at home with animals even more so than with humans. She was gracious and empathic while I trailed her around the farm, and like many reiki masters I know, she was also highly intuitive and could see straight through to people’s energy and feelings, just like she does with animals. She quickly spotted my connection with Dali, and how the other animals pushed me away almost in unison. This is more than impressive: it is an important skill for both animal and human reiki masters to be able to spot areas of tension and potential problems and possibilities when dealing with clients or rooms full of animals or people, even though the reiki will always go wherever it is needed anyway. Maybe that is what I love about reiki above all other healing properties. It isn’t just a healing energy flow. It is sacred space and witnessing the miracle of life. People who practice reiki, at least in my experience, are profoundly tuned in to universal healing energy flow and the feelings of those around them.
We went to say goodbye to the herd before we left. Dali approached me. I reached for his face.
“No,” Dona said. “He doesn’t need you to pet him. He is telling you you’re okay. He’s checked you out. You’re part of the herd.”
Already? And I was still trying to make friends. I put my hand down. Dali brought his soft wooly face right up next to mine and stood, touching cheek to cheek, for a good minute.
I closed my eyes. So did Dali. We stayed cheek to cheek, touching our chins.
“Isn’t that amazing?” Dona said. “They help us as much as we help them.”
Yes, they do, very much. Thank you, Dona and Ishmael. Thank you, Dali. Namaste. Thank you, reiki. And the path flows on.
Laura K. Cowan is the Kids in the Community Columnist and an editor for The Crazy Wisdom Journal. She is a green tech editor and magical realist author from Ann Arbor (Winding Road Magazine, Inhabitat). Ms. Cowan once ran her own green parenting blog 29Diapers, which gave her the dubious distinction of being the only mommy blogger in existence who could explain variable valve timing. You can reach her at cwkidscolumn@crazywisdom.net.
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As a young mom and graduate student, this shopper, now in her mid-thirties, used Double Up Food Bucks during her last year in school—stretching her food dollars at the farmers markets for fresh, nutritious produce for her family. Today, she’s a social worker in the area and a Double Up volunteer who refers others with food needs to the program.