TRAVERSE CITY -- Bob Brown eats fresh greens all winter long, greens that are locally grown.
"We don't have to go to the grocery store to buy greens from California all winter," he said.
Brown, of Buckley, belongs to a Community Supported Agriculture program, buying into a natural greenhouse food operation that keeps his dollars -- and diet -- local. He attended a workshop Friday morning about growing food year-round in hoophouses, or greenhouses -- one of the sessions at the seventh annual Great Lakes Bioneers Conference held at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City.
"I'm here because at Bioneers every year, you come in contact with people trying to solve problems. In this case, it's finding local food sources instead of eating food from 1,000 miles away," Brown said.
Michigan State University instructor Corie Pierce lectured to a standing- room-only crowd about the university's student organic farm and its CSA program that harvests crops for members 48 weeks a year. It's possible to extend the growing season in Michigan by harnessing the energy of the sun, she said.
Pierce is the farm manager and director of the MSU Organic Farming Certificate Program.
"If you learn a few basic techniques and are willing to jump in and try, it's not that challenging to grow your own food and not just a summer garden," she said.
Pierce talked about how to build greenhouses and take advantage of intermittent sunny days during Michigan's winter season to grow crops -- lettuce, beets, kale, collard greens, carrots, turnips, potatoes and more -- without any additional heating system. If growers choose the right crops, plant and harvest them at the right time and use the right weather protection, they can find success in hoophouses, she said.
An 8-by-8 foot greenhouse can provide plenty of fresh vegetables for a family all winter long, Pierce said.
Emily Hannewald, of Ann Arbor, was in the audience and said she intends to launch her own CSA farm in Grass Lake. She wants to plow away from her family's roots in conventional farming with its pesticides and herbicides, she said.
"I'm really organic and am super interested in biodynamic farming, incorporating a spiritual element to farming," Hannewald said.
That means growing in tune with lunar, solar and planetary movements in a way that's "almost pagan," she said.
The conference continues today and Sunday, with more local workshops and lectures via satellite feed from the main Bioneers event in California. More than 900 adults and students will attend the local conference making it the largest to date, said Sally Somsel, a conference organizer.
