Bardenhagen Berries Farm celebrates sesquicentennial and strawberry season

Sun contributor

Bardenhagen Berries Farm celebrates its 150th anniversary as a family farm this year by commemorating its rich history and continuing to diversify for its future. While the farm offers a variety of crops, it is perhaps best known for strawberries.

Popular opinion in Leelanau County is that Bardenhagen strawberries are unbeatably delicious. The small, vibrantly red and juicy fruit is highly sought after and only available for a short time each year, usually from mid-June to early July. Although the berries are sold at various farm markets and local grocery stores around Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties, they sell out almost as fast as they hit the shelves.

Strawberries are available to pre-order through the farm’s website closer to harvest time. The lucky folks who place their orders in time can pick them up at the Bardenhagen’s farmstand on Horn Road. The family started this service during COVID-19 and it worked out so well that they’ve continued the option.

What exactly it is that makes Bardenhagen strawberries so delicious is a mystery even to Pam and Steve Bardenhagen, whose family has owned and tended to the land where these berries are grown for 150 years. Steve’s grandfather was the first to grow strawberries on the Bardenhagen farm back in the 1960s. They can only speculate, providing several possibilities: Leelanau’s climate and water; the cool nights and warm days of early summer; their chosen variety of berry, grown in straw without any plastic. Steve also thinks it’s possible that keeping their plants as happy as possible expresses the best flavor.

The farmstead started with Johann Bremer, Steve’s great-great-grandfather, who emigrated with his family as a boy from Germany to the United States. At the time that Johann was married with children, he lived near the Mason-Dixon line, a demarcation line that symbolized the border between the North and South during the Civil War era. In search of a safer life for his family, Johann moved the bunch to Leelanau County in 1863. His sister lived in the area where he purchased 180 acres of land.

But just one year later, Johann was drafted to serve in the Civil War and had no choice but to leave his family to fight for the Union. During his year in service, he marched alongside 60,000 fellow soldiers in General Sherman’s famous March to the Sea. The group walked 285 miles from Atlanta to Savannah with the aim to instill fear in Georgia’s civilian population so they would abandon the Confederate cause. The march helped to free some 17,000–25,000 slaves in Georgia.

By 1865, Johann was discharged and returned to Leelanau with his family, wasting no time getting started on homesteading their 180 acres. In 1872, he built the farmhouse that still stands today and has served as the center of family operations for 150 years and five generations of descendants.

The family acknowledges the farm is located on the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Anishinaabeg—the Three Fires Confederacy of the Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi peoples. In 2006, the family worked with the Leelanau Conservancy to protect these lands and prevent future development. Today, the farm is MAEAP (Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program) certified, a voluntary program that recognizes Michigan farmers who are top stewards of their land.

Steve Bardenhagen’s mother is a fourth generation Bremer who married Gary Bardenhagen. Christi and Gary purchased the farm from her parents in the 1970s, carrying on the Bremer family farming tradition while building a reputation for high-quality strawberries and cherries, as well as adopting many environmental practices. Steve took over the farm from his parents in 2008, with his wife Pam joining not long after, and it remains a true family operation to date. While Pam and Steve have taken over the reins, Christi and Gary are still heavily involved in farm operations.

Pam and Steve spearheaded many changes over the last several years, shifting their focus to more direct marketing from the farm while relying less on the processing market. They have reduced the number of acres dedicated to cherries while diversifying the farm with a variety of new crops including flowers, various fruits, asparagus, and new potatoes. They also offer a Community Supported Agriculture program they call Homestead Hill CSA.

For the farm’s 150^th anniversary, the Bardenhagens invite the public to join guided farm tours throughout the 2022 summer growing season. Kristy Radakovic, Steve’s cousin and Bremer ancestor, will guide the tours and educate visitors about the land, the Leelanau Conservancy, the cultural heritage of this area, and the challenges of farming. The tours will not only include a sampling of Bardenhagen homemade jam but also several stops across the property to take a closer look at the solar panels, hoop houses, fields and crops, orchards, woods, seasonal worker area, and barn.

A special tour focusing on strawberry production will be offered Saturday, June 11. Unfortunately, the Bardenhagens had to scale back their strawberry acreage since the first crops in the 1960s due to increasing labor shortages. Strawberries are harvested by hand, and their fields are weeded by hand, requiring a lot of hard work and help. The farm provides worker housing, and typically 15–25 migrant workers live on the farm during strawberry harvest. Many of the same families have traveled here from Texas over the last 25 years to work, and some stay beyond strawberry harvest to help with all the crops. Yet fewer and fewer are coming back as the younger generation seeks out different opportunities for their future.

Tours will take place weekly on Fridays and require reservations at a cost of $21.85/person, a portion of which will be donated to the Leelanau Conversancy.

The farm is located at 7990 E. Horn Road, Lake Leelanau (approximately 1.5 miles north of M-204 on Horn Road, between 45 North Winery and Aurora Cellars).

To purchase Bardenhagen farm products, sign up for a CSA share, or reserve your spot on a farm tour, visit www.BardenhagenBerries.com. For the most current information on strawberry availability and how to purchase online, follow Bardenhagen Berries on Facebook and Instagram.