1Elk Rapids NewsMay 2, 2019

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Volume XIII Issue No. 49

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May 22019

FARM FRESH continued on page 8

BY BARB MOSHER , CONTR IBUT ING WR ITER

Jacquilyn Williston and Carey Colliver want to be your local farmers, and here’s why: Nothing fi lls them up more than fi lling up others with the bounty of their Fainting Robin Farm.

“Feeding people is one of the most satisfying things you can do, whether it’s cooking someone a meal or providing them with fresh produce and meat,” said Carey, a Kentucky native who married Jacquilyn, a 2007 Elk Rapids High School graduate.

“I love being outside, working in the soil,” Jacquilyn added. “And I also love being able to provide nourishment to people. That’s so special to me.”

The couple met nine years ago during a permaculture course at Alderleaf Wilderness College, a nature education and wilderness survival school in Washington. Both were seeking an alternative to traditional university education; both knew they’d never be content with inside, cubicle-defi ned work spaces. It was a natural partnership.

After a stint at a native plant nursery in Kentucky, Jacquilyn and Carey moved to Traverse City in 2012 to

Farm freshbe nearer to her family and to take advantage of internships on several organic farms. They rented a home near Lake Ann and immediately tilled and planted most of the acre-sized yard with herbs, vegetables, hops, and strawberries. They sold their produce (and eggs from a few chickens) at a nearby farmers market.

Their dream of farming with sustainable practices quickly outgrew the rented plot, and the couple began looking for land to buy. About the same time, Mike and

Phyllis Wells, who had raised vegetables, fruit, and fl owers for more than three decades on their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm halfway between Williamsburg and Elk Rapids, were ready to retire. They were looking to sell off part of the contiguous land they had inherited from Phyllis’s mother (once home to a thriving cherry orchard), but the buyer would have to be someone who shared their commitment to responsible agriculture.

The Wellses saw in Jacquilyn and Carey a younger version of themselves with the same passion for sustainability plus the independent, can-do spirit that farming requires. The transaction was made, and Fainting

Robin Farm came to life on a 20-acre strip along the east side of Elk Lake Road, a slice of soil rich with the history of local agriculture and primed for the next generation.

Now heading into their third year on the property, Carey and Jacquilyn use herbicide- and pesticide-free, bio-intensive methods to achieve maximum yields from a minimum area of land while sustaining and even increasing soil fertility. They’re developing a closed loop system that mimics nature by recycling all nutrients and organic matter back to the soil that it grew in. “We believe in using growing practices that are both effi cient and enhance the health of our biome,” Jacquilyn explained.

“We love seeing the land carried on in that way,” Mike said. “We would not have sold it to anyone else.”

Like the Wellses did before them, Jacquilyn and Carey have established their land as a CSA farm. Members or “shareholders” pay in advance to support the costs of the farm operation, receiving in return weekly or bi-weekly shares of just-harvested crops throughout the summer and fall. CSA farmers benefi t from the upfront working capital that frees them to

focus on farming with minimal marketing expense. It’s a win-win relationship that puts the freshest seasonal food possible on dinner tables while supporting the local farmer and economy.

This year, Fainting Robin Farm hopes to sign up 40 members for the 16-week season that begins June 16. With access to a website designed specifi cally for CSA orders, shareholders will be able to customize weekly or bi-weekly boxes, choosing from more than 40 varieties of vegetables and herbs, many grown from heirloom seeds. Egg shares are also available. Heritage breed meat chickens are sold out for the summer but will be available again next year.

“The model for CSA shares in the past packed a standard box of food for each member regardless of

“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin unto his nest again,I shall not live in vain – Emily Dickinson