Well, where do I start? My name is Julie and my husband Floyd and I have been some sort of genetic predisposition to gardening and farming. On my side of the family, I have relatives that have been farming organically since the '70s. I grew up in the city of Detroit and remember digging up the yard in our small Detroit lot to grow a garden just to be scolded for ruining the lawn. On Floyd's side, his family is straight from Italy where it is a waste of space to have grass. Every family has a garden somewhere, whether it is in their yard or on the base of the mountain where they own land. His father, who conveniently lived next door and maintained a pretty sizable garden (30' X 80') for an 87 year old. When I married my husband and we had our own place with plenty of land, that's when the lawn started to disappear and our quest for self-sufficiency began.
Ever since then, we have expanded our farming knowledge by learning how to identify both weeds and pests as well as the use natural, organic methods to battle them. I've done extensive research on ways to identify edible wild plants, wild mushroom identification, natural food preservation, the use of compost, season extension techniques, natural cover crops and more. We both also have moderate knowledge of biodynamic farming, based on the principles of Rudolph Steiner (Waldorf Education), which is the concept of farming based on the phases of the moon and planetary alignment (I call it "organic on natural steroids"). We have 13 acres of land covered with berries, fruit trees, blue spruce and wild mushrooms. We farmed up to 4 acres of it and have harvested as early as April and as late as January. We have grown everything not only that can sustain life in Michigan, but we've tricked other things to grow here as well, at least as an annual or we bring it into the house in the winter. We've taught classes on canning, meat curing (prosciutto & sausage), pasta making, bread, and more. We grow most of our plants from either seed co-ops or our own saved seeds from the previous growing season in our greenhouse.
Our goal is to continue to educate people on how they can be self-sufficient by growing and cooking their own produce. I've been asked about both of our services now offered by numerous people in the past, so it is a win-win.
Ever since then, we have expanded our farming knowledge by learning how to identify both weeds and pests as well as the use natural, organic methods to battle them. I've done extensive research on ways to identify edible wild plants, wild mushroom identification, natural food preservation, the use of compost, season extension techniques, natural cover crops and more. We both also have moderate knowledge of biodynamic farming, based on the principles of Rudolph Steiner (Waldorf Education), which is the concept of farming based on the phases of the moon and planetary alignment (I call it "organic on natural steroids"). We have 13 acres of land covered with berries, fruit trees, blue spruce and wild mushrooms. We farmed up to 4 acres of it and have harvested as early as April and as late as January. We have grown everything not only that can sustain life in Michigan, but we've tricked other things to grow here as well, at least as an annual or we bring it into the house in the winter. We've taught classes on canning, meat curing (prosciutto & sausage), pasta making, bread, and more. We grow most of our plants from either seed co-ops or our own saved seeds from the previous growing season in our greenhouse.
Our goal is to continue to educate people on how they can be self-sufficient by growing and cooking their own produce. I've been asked about both of our services now offered by numerous people in the past, so it is a win-win.