Posts

Stripped of safe haven status, local schools face immigration enforcement threat

Leelanau County Sheriff Mike Borkovich will face tough questions from commissioners, and comments from citizens, at the Board of Commissioners meeting on Feb. 11 — following his recent statements that, if asked, he would cooperate with federal agents arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants. However, Borkovich considered immigration raids at Leelanau County schools “unlikely”. During a Jan. 10 meeting with the superintendents of the county’s four public schools, he said he didn’t think it would be “necessary” for federal agents to visit local schools. Days after Trump’s inauguration, a handful of Leelanau farmers met with Borkovich in an effort to convey to the sheriff the importance of immigrant and migrant farmworkers to the region’s agricultural economy. The Hispanic community is crucial to Leelanau’s agricultural workforce. Out of 22,000 county residents — according to the latest Census — as many as 1,000 identify as Hispanic or Latino. Many have an undocumented parent or family member living here in northern Michigan, now as rooted here as the pine trees, though they may have crossed illegally into the United States years ago.

Read more
/by

So God made a farmer

Award-winning radio broadcasting icon Paul Harvey delivered the impactful words of this speech, “So God made a Farmer,” to the Future Farmers of America convention in Kansas City, Missouri in 1978. This extraordinary speech made the listener pause while underscoring the collective importance of nurturing and embracing our farming communities across America. While it served as a gentle reminder during the Carter-Era to appreciate our “caretaking” farmers, in 2024 this can no longer be just a temperate reminder; the need to protect and prevent the extinction of the American Farmer is paramount—including here in Leelanau County.

Read more
/by

Leelanau farming families historical series

,

During 2023, Suttons Bay resident Rebecca Gearing Carlson has researched and written a series of narrative historical pieces about Leelanau County farming families, which we have published in the Glen Arbor Sun. Read those stories here.

Read more
/by

The Honey Bee Man: Julius Kolarik

,

With all the prodigious natural benefits the honey bee affords the world at large, it is not surprising that honey bees play such an integral role in the world of farming for Julius Kolarik. Click here to read Part 10 of Rebecca Carlson’s Leelanau Farming Family series.

Read more
/by

John Houdek’s legacy in Leelanau County

John Houdek arrived in the Leelanau area in the 1860s with wife Barbara and brother Wenzel, all from Bohemia, writes Rebecca Carlson in the latest installment in her series about the legacy of Leelanau farming families. The brothers settled and homesteaded in the area north of Leland and south of the Gills Pier Saw Mill, owning around 400 acres of land, according to the 1880 plat map. The farms and acreage of these two brothers got passed down through the next three generations. John and his wife Barbara were parents to nine children who became integral parts to the family farm and Gills Pier community.

Read more
/by

A farmer’s wisdom: Interviewing the Kolarik family

Julius Kolarik’s sage farming and local knowledge are legend, even amongst his fellow farmers and neighbors. However, when Rebecca Carlson called him to set up an interview back in May with this treasure trove of Leelanau County farming wisdom, he said “no.” He was too busy. The farm was getting ready for planting, fertilizing and the upcoming summer harvest. What was she thinking asking him, or any of the farmers, for interviews during the early summer months, she writes in part eight of the Glen Arbor Sun’s Leelanau Farming Family Series? They are crazy, crazy busy from sun up to sun down. “I will talk to you in December,” Kolarik told her.

Read more
/by

The Korson Family: Angel harvesters

Martin Korson’s great-grandfather, Martin, was one of the Bohemian families who settled the Gill’s Pier area, writes Rebecca Gearing Carlson in installment seven of our Leelanau Farming Family Series. Korson, pronounced Keer-shan, first settled and worked in Leland at the charcoal foundry that fueled the steam ships running Lake Michigan. Then the work became about clearing the land for homes and farms. Thus, timbering and the saw mill at Gill’s Pier gained importance as the community grew.

Read more
/by

Growing Farmers, Feeding Artists at Loma

Spending a moment in the shade with Nic Theisen is a treat. It doesn’t take long into our interview before I start wishing I could be one of Loma Farm’s privileged 50 CSA shareholders, to be invited to private farm gatherings, receive personalized typeset pressed thank-you notes, and follow more closely the agricultural calendar as visually and deliciously evoked by his wit and craft.

Read more
/by

Leelanau’s young famers: meet Bailey Samp and John Dindia

As they elaborate on their goals and farm structure, I am struck by the planning and intellectual effort that went into the purchase and creation of this new farm. John and Bailey have researched and taken advantage of seemingly every grant and loan available to them as young farmers.

Read more
/by

Buying a farm in Leelanau: meet Gaia Nesvacil

“I feel I’ve been aiming in this direction all along, though it didn’t seem like it at times,” shared Gaia Nesvacil as we sipped a cup of coffee and watched the end of a summer storm approach from the west, wind and rain drops gathering force. “On and off these past three years I’ve been working towards the budding of a flower operation. This is my first year leasing a half acre in Leelanau County to grow cut flowers to take to the farmers market.”

Read more
/by