Looking Back:
Welcome to Witt Family Farm.
I am going to begin with the Family part of our farm name.
My ancestors farmed and were stewards on land that they created from the sea. With the help of windmills they drained the water, and using cattle created fertile soil from the exposed mud flats. My grandfather lost everything in WWII and came here to the great lakes region to start over. He had a mixed farm that included half a dozen dairy cows and rows of vegetables which were sold to the local cannery. My uncle inherited that farm, my parents became teachers and generations of knowledge of the soil was lost to me.
I became the steward of this land here in Antrim County in 1996. According to historical, archeological and DNA evidence this area has been stewarded by what became the Odawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi people for about 14 hundred to 1500 years. After that came a succession of families like the Byard’s who grew beans and other vegetables that they sold to the canning factory in town. Others grew potatoes here. Prior to our family, the Hollands had over 100 head of cattle on these hills. The field between here and the neighbors which I bought 6 years ago was hayed with no fertilizer until it grew only knapweed and then the farmer abandoned his lease. Some stewards saw the land as something to extract resources from, but I recognize that as steward I am called to leave this land as well as other land that I rent better than I found it.
When we first moved here the hillsides were bare so I knew that if they were to sustain cattle I would have to make some changes. I let volunteer pine trees grow to help stabilize the soil. I kept a small herd of only 5 or 6 cattle, and used pigs to till up a small flat area for vegetables. But in many ways I didn’t know what I was doing.
In about 2006 I heard an interview on the radio as I delivered mail. It was by some guy named Michael Pollan who wrote a new book. The light came on in my head and I now I had direction. I found Acres Magazine, full of articles about farms that were anything but conventional. I went to the small farm conference in Gaylord where I heard Joe Salatin speak, read what Greg Judy was doing in Missouri and then what Gabe Brown was doing in North Dakota. I am still learning. In future articles I will explain what I have done to encourage healthy soil. This in turn grows healthy plants, which are eaten by healthy animals, who make meat which is full of both nutrition and flavor.
Back of the truck snack with my granddaughter.
Witt Family Farm 