TRAVERSE CITY -- Under gloomy late November skies with snow on the ground, Jenny Tutlis and Jon Watts are still harvesting crisp spinach, a rainbow of chard and mixed Asian greens.
Two hoop houses extend the growing season for the owners of Meadowlark Farm, a community-supported agriculture (CSA) operation in Lake Leelanau. In addition to offering summer shares, since they built the first hoop house five years ago the farm has offered fall/winter and spring shares to members.
Tutlis and Watts built their second hoop house this year and each unit -- built of two-ply plastic stretched over a steel frame -- measures 20- by 90-feet. Fans inside help even out temperatures and a drip irrigation system stretches between rows of greens.
Benefits of the structures extend beyond lengthened productivity: the hoop houses strengthen their connections with the CSA's 187 member families.
"We feel like it's helped us cultivate our community more strongly," said Tutlis, noting that the fall/winter shares go to about 57 members and spring to about 50. "People who purchase extended shares of food from us we're giving them food 10 months of the year."
A free, all-day workshop on the design, creation and use of these unheated, (relatively) inexpensive greenhouses will be held Wednesday at Black Star Farms in Suttons Bay. Adam Montri, an outreach specialist with Michigan State University's Student Organic Farm and Michigan Food and Farming Systems, will conduct the workshop.
The event is part of the Michigan Land Use Institute's ongoing Get Farming project. The project is a service of Taste the Local Difference, which is geared to promoting local agriculture for the benefit of both growers and consumers. Get Farming is in the second year of a grant from United States Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency.
"Part of our goal is to bring people into farming and facilitate new growers, beginning farmers," said Jim Sluyter, Get Farming project coordinator for the Michigan Land Use Institute. "Part of our role is to help existing growers stay in business and become more profitable."
Interest in hoop houses is growing around the state and nation. It makes economic sense for all involved to extend the growing season in northern climates to provide fresh, local produce both later in the fall and earlier in the spring. By creating a southern climate calendar on northern Michigan farms, owners can offer vine-ripened tomatoes in April and fresh greens in January.
"They're sprouting up all around," Sluyter said of hoop houses. "Adam has been taking on this training role statewide and these workshops are being held fairly frequently in various parts of the state and almost always filling up full."
The first step in promoting hoop houses is to get past the "what the heck is that?" reaction by laying out the basics of materials, cost, design and use.
"There is some need for people to understand that they are basically greenhouses, hoop shaped," Sluyter said.
After five seasons with their hoop house and with two now up and running, Tutlis and Watts have found the structures are not a one-size-fits-all easy solution. They continue to search for an optimal schedule and year-round mix of produce as they learn the ropes of managing the hoop houses. But the challenge is engaging and part of the fluid, ever-changing process of farming.
"A hoop house is a somewhat controlled environment but it's still totally humbling and amazing to us," said Tutlis, noting the farm is stepping away from the traditional model of hoop house usage. "It still throws us loops, [there's] still more learning how it works for us."
The hoop house workshop will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday at Black Star Farms, located 3.5 miles south of Suttons Bay off of M-22. Required reservations may be made by calling the Michigan Land Use Institute at 941-6584. For information on the seminar, call Jim Sluyter at (231) 889-0199.
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