Michelle Ferrarese’s love of the farm
Our series on young farmers in Leelanau
By Madeleine Vedel
Sun contributor
“I didn’t grow up farming. Farming wasn’t even on my radar, though we always had a garden where we lived in the suburbs,” begins Michelle Ferrarese, owner, farmer and prime motivator of Birch Point Farm, located between Lake Leelanau and Bugai Road, northwest of Traverse City. “After I finished college I was living in Ann Arbor where friends of mine were apprentices at the Community Farm, the first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm in Michigan. I went out to volunteer and I totally loved it.”
Michelle is turning up weeds, and preparing to seed her fall root crops—beets, carrots, radishes, turnips, broccoli, rappini—as we speak. “I saw these farmers taking such joy in their work, such base-line happiness in their life in a way I hadn’t encountered amongst anyone else in my life. I don’t know that it was necessarily farming that gave them this happiness, but they were farming and that was part of it.”
Continuing on her academic path, Michelle went off to Tufts in the Boston area for a Masters in Agriculture, Food and the Environment, a largely policy-related program. Requiring an internship to obtain her degree, Michelle went to work on an organic farm outside of Boston and “fell in love with farming and out of love with school, and Boston.”
Back to Michigan, to work at the nascent CSA farms here (Tantré Farm in Chelsea), to three years managing the brand new CSA program at Michigan State where the hoop house/extended growing season and small farm program was just being conceived. Her passion for farming ever more present with the skills and knowledge she acquired, Michelle set out in 2005 on a five-month bike tour of 31 of Michigan’s 70 CSA farms—working, interviewing, video-taping, learning.
That trip led to the discovery of the 1880s farmstead, now known as Birch Point Farm, 20 acres of land, its original barn and outbuildings, all up for rent. “I loved this place, and rented forever” finally buying it with her husband, co-farmer Jess Piskor in 2016.
Life has changed a lot over the past decade for Michelle, the list of accomplishments is long: growing her farm, diversifying her produce, improving the land, nourishing the soil and bio-diversity, putting in hoop houses, establishing her CSA membership program as well as her regular presence on the Traverse City Farmers’ Markets. The birth of her son Rudy, now a very rambunctious three-and-a-half year old who participates in all farm activities, assuring his mother that when he grows up he’ll do all the farm work, and that he’ll live to be 300 years old and still be doing all the farm work … added new complications and joy to an already very full life.
“Having a kid, being a parent is a game changer. Rudy, family, is definitely the organizing principle in my life right now. I’m putting off projects I’d love to do now, but they’ll still be there … Having my kid older made it a bit more doable. A bit of farm and life experience makes most three-year-old dramas manageable. Parenting brings it all to a focus. A lot of things stop being emergencies that would have been so before.”
As I observe her pushing her wheel-hoe through the soil, Michelle speaks about this season, this year of heat waves beating down upon our region, the lack of rain, the enhanced awareness of the farmer. “From mid June through mid July we watered 24 hours a day. The plants just stalled out with the heat, refusing to grow. We could only water and hope for the best. And we did. But we have only the one well in the house. We’re watering the whole farm off the house well. Which is why I joke, ‘no showers, no laundry.’ It’s silly, but it’s one of the relics of being a rental for so long. I grew the business faster than the physical infrastructure could keep up. So, we’re doing what we can now, and we’ll do more when Rudy is bigger.”
Challenges aplenty, many behind her (buying the farm was a tense and precarious time for her and Jess), many before. But that inner happiness with her life choices radiates. “I’m feeling great about the future. The farm is self-sufficient now. It is not supporting us, but it is paying for itself … Looking forward, I see us staying here. I see the farm evolving over time. I like growing on a small scale. My challenge is to figure out how to maximize efficiency, shrinking the acreage and upping the quality, the yield, the return, the scheduling, the work load, fine tuning as opposed to just going bonzo about it.”
Of particular interest to Michelle, and underscoring her investment in her community is her focus on food security and insecurity. “We should all have access to good vegetables. There’s a lot of food and a lot of people who want it. The bridge to connect them is money. Farmers need purchasers to make ends meet. As well-intentioned and socially minded as we are, we still need to be able to pay our bills. I want to keep doing this, and I want to get my produce to not only those who want it, but also those who need it.”
To this end, Michelle has worked with the Leelanau Children’s Center, Migrants Head Start, and the Samaritan’s Closet to get her CSA shares to those in need. She donates to Father Fred, the Goodwill Inn, and the Food Rescue program when they come to the market. She lets her CSA share members know that they can underwrite this program and every dollar they give translates into quality vegetables donated. She would dearly like to partner with more underwriters and expand this program. She also takes sponsors for her special Thanksgiving shares—suggesting purchasing one for your own family, and one for a family in need.
You can learn more about Michelle Ferrarese and Birch Point Farm, where to purchase her vegetables, her 18-20 week CSA shares, intensive summer 8-week shares, her winter shares, as well as how you might be able to volunteer, contribute, and/or join in farm festivities on this website, and her page on LocalHarvest. Join her email list, or read her blog (many wonderful posts from years past).
To underwrite a CSA share, write a check for $575 (or more) to the Leelanau Children’s Center, with “Birch Point Farm CSA” in the memo line. Send to Leelanau Children’s Center, PO Box 317, Leland, MI 49654. Contact Birch Point Farm at birchpointcsa@gmail.com or 231-933-7256.
