APPLE ACRES FARM
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Houghton Michigan
Apple Acres Farm is an off-grid, solar-powered, family farm located on 14 acres just minutes from downtown Houghton, the Michigan Tech Trails, and the Keweenaw Peninsula. We began our small-scale, regenerative farm in 2020 on a heritage apple orchard that slopes into a mature forest with 100-year old conifers and hardwoods bordered by a tributary to the Pilgrim River, a trout stream.
We believe that small is both beautiful and sustainable. Our farming practices are guided by what our land needs and can support. We use permaculture design principles to build topsoil, to improve our farm's resiliency, and to grow, forage, and raise nutritious and delicious foods.
We love to share our joy of farming with others. As a small, but diverse farm, we set out to create a sort of learning laboratory (farm-oratory?) that allows others to connect with a human-scaled, sustainable food system as well as experience farm living, first hand. We promise we won't try to convert you to becoming a farmer, but we will inevitably share our passion for cycling "wastes" into healthy soil, growing and foraging nutritious foods, and humanely raising farm animals.
Visitors are welcome to stop by Apple Acres Farm to take a farm tour, to enjoy a farm stay, or to take home one of our farm fresh seasonal products!
We are a seasonal farm, open from mid-April through October (the mostly snow-free months!).
OFF-GRID FARM STAYS
It's not just our crops that are powered by the sun, thanks to our 5 kW solar system, our farm operations are 100% off-grid. We offer several farm stay options for those interested in experiencing life on a small-scale farm that also happens to be entirely off-grid. Guests can select to stay in our studio loft, a private room in our farm house, or sleep under the stars at our goat camp site.
UNIQUE FARM TOURS AND EXPERIENCES
From wild mushroom foraging to goat happy hour and natural beekeeping, we offer a variety of memorable farm tours and experiences. Whether you're interested in growing and foraging your own food or simply want to learn more about how a diverse small-scale farm operates, we encourage you to check out our tour offerings. We also enjoy hosting small private events!
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EXPERIENCE FARM LIFE
When you visit Apple Acres Farm, you'll be greeted by our friendly flock of free-range chickens and ducks, possibly spot one of our honey bees foraging for nectar, and see our goats happily browsing away. Our regenerative farm harnesses our animals' natural behavior to provide various land management services. Our farm animals love to meet new people, especially the goats!
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FARM FRESH PRODUCTS
We began farming because we wanted to eat safe, healthy, and nutritious foods. As first-generation farmers, we love sharing what we grow, raise, and forage, including our maple syrup, wildflower honey, free-range eggs, wild mushrooms, garden produce, herbal tinctures, and edible and/or medicinal perennial plant cuttings. All of our products are made in small batches from scratch right here on the farm.
If you've spent any time in farm country, you'll notice right away that Apple Acres Farm is about as different from your typical monoculture farm as you can get. We aren't big fans of the modern industrialized food system that forces farmers to get big or get out. We much prefer the old school family farm model, complete with free-ranging farm animals and intermixed with beautiful wild spaces.
As regenerative farmers, our aim isn't to grow bigger for the sake of being bigger. We'd rather grow more diverse. To that end, we rely on the help of our farm animals. By harnessing their natural behaviors, our livestock are an integral part of our sustainable farming system that promotes happier and healthier animals, people, and soil ecosystems.
We are also a mostly human-powered farm that works with and learns from the natural world. We figure Mother Nature has been experimenting and perfecting resource cycling for awhile so why not learn from the expert? Mimicking natural systems and working towards creating a closed-loop farming system is also just plain fun.
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Hi! I'm Heather, an environmental engineer turned forager farmer and the resident farm animal enthusiast. I never intended to become a farmer. Yet, less than a decade into my conventional engineering job, I was dissatisfied and looking for a new career that would allow me to better align my work with my values.
One of our goals for starting Apple Acres Farm was to create on-farm experiences to help others better connect with a human-scaled food system - which can take many forms! We all have the power to make small but important shifts in our own food behaviors. Individually these impacts may not feel significant, but collectively even tiny positive changes add up to help strengthen local food systems, which ultimately makes our communities more resilient.
If you find yourself in the Upper Peninsula, come check us out. Summers are magical in the Keweenaw and we love having visitors!
Cheers,
Heather
PLAN YOUR FARM ADVENTURE
Agritourism is at the heart of what we offer at Apple Acres Farm. Bringing guests and visitors to our farm not only helps us diversify our operations, it also keeps things interesting. Sharing the farm with others who are excited about experiencing life on a working farm, including hanging out with curious farm animals, is also what keeps us engaged with our demanding, yet rewarding work.
Over the years, we've also gained a greater appreciation for the benefits that come with spending time on a regenerative farm - especially one that is nestled in the forest of Michigan's beautiful Upper Peninsula. Visiting or staying on the farm allows our guests to escape their daily routine and immerse themselves in nature. There's something powerful about unplugging and reconnecting with a sustainable and human-scaled food system.
If you would like to visit Apple Acres Farm, we are happy to help you plan an unforgettable farm adventure. This can include crafting a farm stay tour package as well as planning a unique event for your small group.
Contact us to schedule your farm visit!
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THE LATEST FARM HAPPENINGS
Interested in experiencing farm life but can't visit the farm? We get it! We are nicely (if not conveniently) tucked away in the far north of the Upper Peninsula. It's well worth the trip to get here, but we know summers are busy and we are a seasonal farm open from spring through fall.
Fortunately, you can experience the farm through our periodic blog posts as well as our social media. From our naughty, but adorable goats, to our quirky free-range chickens and ducks, we share the ups and downs of the seasonal happenings on our small-scale, family farm. Besides the cute farm animal posts, we also provide information about specific regenerative farming practices we use, including ways we are working to create a closed-loop farming system.
Although we don't often carry a phone or video capturing device with us (one of the joys of farming!), we do our best to document farm life throughout the year. We welcome you to follow along with our adventures to get your regular farming fix.
@apple_acres.farm
@AppleAcresFarm906
Apple Acres Farm
- Est. 2020 -
Houghton, Michigan 49931