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9 Bean Rows, an innovative agritourism champion

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Farming is tough, and the margins are small. The same is true for grocery stores and for restaurants. So, of course, Jen and Nic Welty decided to combine all three. They say it’s worth all the work, and judging by the crowds at their farm/café/retail bakery, so too do those enjoying the fruits of their labors. “It’s been pandemonium. We’re taking the winter to regroup,” says Jen. The latest iteration of 9 Bean Rows includes indoor seating as well as the outdoor pizza oven and outdoor seating. Lines for the bread and pastries frequently extend out the door, while diners navigate the ordering process through QR codes at their tables. Part of our series on agritourism and solutions to the farming crisis.

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Navigating the corn maze: Jacob’s Farm champions agritourism

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“Houses are great, but I think this is real pretty,” Jacob’s Farm owner Michael Witkop said as he stood outside the hilltop Orchard View wedding barn and gazed north across their 10-acre corn maze to the red centennial barn, where workers scurried like busy ants to open the restaurant, bar, and outdoor music venue by early June. Beyond the M-72 corridor, which connects his destination to bustling Traverse City, the hills of Leelanau County hovered in the distance like low-hanging clouds. We’re featuring Jacob’s Farm as part of our series on innovative solutions to the farming crisis. On May 7, Witkop addressed 65 attendees of Michigan State University (MSU) Extension’s first-ever Agritourism Summit, which included a tour of local agritourism businesses that have succeeded in bringing customers directly to their farms—thereby forestalling the fate that has forced tens of thousands of small farms across the United States to close in recent decades.

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Left-handed gigging throughout Leelanau

Leelanau County has a vivacious music scene all summer, that continues into the spring and fall months. Whether they are buskers in Glen Arbor, performers at restaurants in Northport, or concerts at The Old Art Building in Leland, the county is filled with talented musicians who love to share their art with the public. Blake Elliott is a local musician who plays a variety of music spanning from jazz and blues to old fashioned country and folk in Leelanau County. She makes her living by playing gigs all around northern Michigan, and entertains audiences nearly every single day in the summer. In the winter, Elliott is an instructor in the songwriting department at Interlochen Arts Academy, and continues to play music professionally full time. 

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Local farm produce springs in Leelanau

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There is nothing shy about a northern Michigan spring—grouse and turkeys heady with lust walk the roads bemused by approaching vehicles, the stuttering calls of sand hill cranes returning to fields that green while you’re watching, and a hillside that just yesterday was filled with decaying leaves is now covered with the verdant stems of ramps, writes Julie Zapoli, whose story about farm produce in Leelanau County features Bardenhagen Farms, Lively Farms, 9 Bean Rows, and MI Farm Co-op.

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Four Spaniards, 9 Bean Rows, and one giant clay oven

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Sometime in late August, Jen and Nic Welty, who own 9 Bean Rows bakery on M-204 between Lake Leelanau and Suttons Bay, will use their new, state-of-the-art, wood-fired clay convection oven for the first time. The oven, which measures 12 feet in diameter, occupies 144 square feet, weighs 70,000 pounds, and emits exceptional radiant heat, was built on-site by a team of four Barcelonians during one week in mid-July.

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BARC hopes to build workforce housing with recycled materials

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From the outside, it may seem surprising that a recycling company would be interested in building homes. But for Andy Gale, President of Bay Area Recycling for Charities (BARC) in Traverse City, the move makes complete sense. Not only is it an opportunity for their organization to step up the “reuse” portion of the “3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” but it also enables Gale to return to his roots in construction. And, perhaps most notably, it could offer access to more affordable housing that northern Michigan desperately needs.

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MI Farm Cooperative adapts to CSA shares after pandemic shuts schools, restaurants

Nic Welty, farmer and owner of 9 Bean Rows, is one of the key people behind the emergence in 2015 of the MI Farm Cooperative which brings together 12 different farms to collaboratively meet the needs of schools, restaurants, caterers, and as of this past fall, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box purchasers.

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9 Bean Rows wood-fired pizza returns

On June 12, a quiet opening took place. But it didn’t take long for passersby on M-204, as well as many a regular croissant purchaser, to notice. Beneath its solid wood beams, the curious discovered 9 Bean Rows’ outdoor, wood-fired pizza house/café, open and serving out a medley of hand-crafted pizzas, their classic sandwiches and pastries. Salads tossed with the abundance of fresh produce from the fields alongside are soon to follow. Many have watched the construction, begun with the mounting of the golden trusses and the pouring of the concrete floor, just one year ago

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Sunday suppers at The Tribune in Northport host culinary journey

On the early evening of a spitty, sleety, slush-gray Sunday, 23 people gathered at The Tribune in Northport for a feast. Three cooked it. One served it. One washed its dishes. And 18 were there only to drink their BYO wine and eat— not food they chose from a menu but food chosen for them, and prepared in an open kitchen no bigger than a bathroom.

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9 Bean Rows Farm hosts on-farm learning

Growers interested in getting the literal dirt on seed saving, beekeeping and soil health are gathering Sept. 30 for the Crosshatch Field School at 9 Bean Rows Farm on M-204 between Lake Leelanau and Suttons Bay.

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