Finally Settled...and ready for spring!

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This is long overdue, but I'd like to take this opportunity to let you, our scattered friends, know that we have indeed settled into a beautiful farmhouse in southeast Leelanau County, just 8 miles from Traverse City. We actually moved in at the beginning of February, but you know how moving goes. This past weekend we had a wonderful housewarming party and it was indeed very warming to have so many amazing people (and lots of great potluck food!) show up to welcome us to the community - Bioneers, farmers that we visited on our tour, folks we've met in passing. It seems the warming stuck, as now most of the snow has melted!

We are currently renting our home from a cool couple that live in Chicago. It is an old farmhouse on 20 acres with some great barns and other outbuildings, and the owners want it to be an active farm again! Feels like a perfect opportunity. This season will involve opening up new gardens, growing a big home garden and possibly taking some extras to market, beginning the constant work of building soil, and developing other infrastructure like irrigation and washing areas. If this season goes well, we hope to start a small CSA next year. Marty will also be working with our neighbors as they launch Leelanau Cultured Veggies, a business producing sauerkraut and other lacto-fermented veggies from organic produce grown on their farm. Michelle has been working an uninspiring retail job at Backcountry Outfitters, but hopes to find a more engaging (and better paying) job for the summer.

We are also working on a documentary video about our bike trip and CSAs in Michigan. We managed to get a little grant money to make the video happen, so we've been able to commit some time to it already, but we still have a long ways to go. It's an exciting and creative project, though, and we feel it will be useful in continuing to build the CSA movement. There will soon be a link from our tour website to a site about the video (yet to be created). Check in there for updates on our progress.

That's all for now. We've got plenty of room and love visitors, so if you need an excuse to visit beautiful Northern Michigan, come see us!

Michelle Ferrarese & Marty Heller
7506 E. Birch Point Rd.
Traverse City, MI 49684
231.933.7256

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Photos

the "intern" house
a converted chicken coop that we hope will make a pleasant summer home for some willing farm workers.

our video editing studio
...otherwise known as "the stove room" - definitely the most comfortable winter room in our house.

Comments

[Jason Overdorf]

congrats!
Wow. This looks and sounds fantastic, Martin! And let me tell you, the Michigan winters look a lot more inviting than the impending Delhi summer. J.

[Dan Kahn aka Soaring Tiger]

Howdy Do
Hi friends - welcome home to your beautiful digs! Glad to hear from you. My nephew Eli is getting married in MI in September, so I may finally get out and visit y'all. Best wishes, DK