At Trillium Haven Farm off Maplewood Drive in Jenison, dozens of people arrive throughout the day to pick up bags filled with freshly-harvested produce culled from the rich soil indigenous to Ottawa County’s “Salad Bowl’’ region.
A similar event unfolds in a working class neighborhood on Grand Rapids’ Southwest Side. Scores of people head to a building on Godfrey Avenue at Hall Street SW rented by West Michigan Co-Op for sweet cherries, frozen beef and farm-fresh eggs.
It is not another charitable give-away for people stung by hard economic times, though the people are certainly buying in bulk.
Rather it's a sampling of the bounty that metro Grand Rapids residents can enjoy when it comes to convenient ways to get fresh, organic produce for their tables.
Different Strokes for Different Folks
In some cases, participants pull weeds in exchange for produce. Others fire-up the home computer and place food orders on-line. The end result is the same: fresh food boasting flavor unlike anything you’re likely to buy from grocers that get produce trucked in from Texas or California.
“A lot of people are interested in getting fresh vegetables, and the nice thing about it is you build a relationship with people growing your food,’’ says Kris Van Haitsma, owner of Mud Lake Farm near Hudsonville, where hydroponic lettuce grows year-round.
“You also get to know what is in season and when,’’ Van Haitsma says. “There’s a progression of fruits and vegetables available and we’ve sort of lost that; in the grocery store it is available all the time.’’
So if you’re looking for locally-grown watermelon in May or asparagus in August, the co-ops are not your best bet. If, however, you’re looking for hard-shell squash to use in the winter, or need several pounds of tomatoes for canning, the co-ops make sense based on economies of scale.
In addition to co-ops, metro Grand Rapids residents have a wide variety of other sources of fresh produce such as backyard gardens, community gardens and farmer’s markets.
There’s no shortage of the latter, certainly. Coopersville, Grand Rapids, Grandville, Holland, Rockford, Sparta and Plainfield Township are among communities in Kent and Ottawa counties with farmer’s markets.
Then there are myriad community gardens sprouting up from Eastown to core city neighborhoods. Neighbors pitch in, get to know one another and reap the rewards of their labor – assuming raccoons and ground hogs haven’t gotten there first.
Co-ops on the Web
But along with farmers markets, probably co-ops have made the most inroads due to the Internet. Plans for a food co-op tied to the Web took root five years ago when a food cooperative in the Eastown district of Grand Rapids closed due to high overhead costs.
Launched about three years ago, West Michigan Co-Op lets customers make selections on-line from about 30 participating vendors.
“We are more popular than we thought we’d be, so it’s a good problem to have,’’ says Paul DeLeeuw, one of four partners in the West Michigan Co-Op.
“We’ve been setting records with the number of shoppers using us and also with the volume of food sold,’’ DeLeeuw says. Paid memberships in July topped 300.
Here’s how it works: After paying a $35 membership fee, members for one week can place food orders on the co-op website. Once the 7-day order period ends, food requests are placed with participating growers.
Growers then have nearly two weeks to fill the orders and then, usually on a Wednesday evening, farmers and customers meet at Hall Street and Godfrey Avenue SW for the exchange. Orders placed in early July are ready for pick up July 22. “It’s like one big farmer’s market,’’ DeLeeuw says.
He’d like to see more farmers participate, especially growers of in-season fruits and vegetables.
Support Your Agriculture
Another avenue for getting fresh produce is through Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, such as Mud Lake Farm in Hudsonville and Trillium Haven in Jenison. They are among nearly 90 CSA farms in Michigan, which includes eight in the metro Grand Rapids area.
Trillium Haven is a 50-acre farm launched in 2001 by Anga Mast and Michael VanderBrug where produce is harvested from June through October, ranging from lettuce to pumpkins. Participants pay $450 in exchange for fresh produce grown during that season.
Though memberships for this season are sold out, Trillium Haven is among dozens of organic operations offering fresh produce at Fulton Street Farmers Market.
The way it works, people buy a share in the CSA, which may even require participants to provide a few hours of labor each month.
In return, shareholders each week cart home grocery bags or boxes filled with in-season produce. CSA, long popular in Europe and Japan due to limited garden space, took hold in the U.S. more than 20 years ago and continues to grow.
Mud Lake Farm outside of Hudsonville grows 45 varieties of lettuce year-round to keep its broad client base, including area restaurants, in the green.
Growing lettuce without soil makes the niche business especially popular in winter, says Van Haitsma, who started the business in 2005.
“We pick, wash it and bag it and it is ready for pick-up or we deliver,’’ she says. “Business is down a bit in the summer when people are going to fresh markets, but in the winter it is the only place you can get fresh greens.’’
CSA got its start in Kent County nearly two decades ago, thanks to efforts by Helen Lundberg, who, with husband Dave, opened Ingraberg Farms outside of Rockford.
They are no longer a CSA due to burgeoning demand from the food service industry for its organic produce. But insights gleaned from the early 1990s indicated the movement was more than a fad.
“Many of the people who came here were cancer patients who says they felt much better and had more energy after eating organically-grown food,’’ Dave Lundberg says. "There’s no question you get more nutritional value out of freshly-harvested produce because of the availability of trace minerals still in the product.’’
Lundberg has stepped away from day-to-day operations, turning it over to Helen and sons, Mike and Jason. He serves more as the farm’s marketing arm. “I’ve seen over the last 20 years more and more people taking an interest in where their food comes from,’’ Dave Lundberg says. “It’s pretty much followed the curve of organics with people playing a greater role in how they put food on the table.’’
For information on Community Supported Agriculture, farm markets and U-pick locations, visit these websites:
www.sustainabletable.org, www.localharvest.org and www.pickyourown.org.
Former Home & Garden Editor for The Grand Rapids Press, John Hogan is a journalist with more than two decades of professional experience covering everything from homicides to hostas.