Hello WWOOFers!
We are on a journey to re-wild, regenerate, and revive a farm that has been home to our family for 134 years. Using ecological, regenerative, and permaculture principles we plan to create a resilient, diverse, and mostly self sustaining agrisystem. Our goals are to grow food in harmony with nature, and make that food accessible and affordable to our community, re-wild our land, and become a hub for community building in our area. We are in our first few years of this project, so it’s an exciting time to get involved! In 2026, we’ve got a lot going on! We will be expanding our small ruminant herd with baby goats arriving in the spring, expanding our annuals gardens, food forests, crop gardens, and orchards, hosting community events (concerts, our famous “coffee breaks”, farm camp for kids, and more), building a new small farm store, and establishing a U-pick “grocery garden”. We will also be digging a wildlife pond and building a cob shelter for sheep arriving in 2027. This will also be our first season milking our goats and making products such as soap, cheese, butter, and yogurt.
Special skills we are looking for: construction (especially sustainable building including construction with cob)
Music: we will be hosting concerts this summer. If you’re a musician, we would love to have you and would pay you to perform as a separate agreement from WWOOF.
Accommodation is a private tiny house on the farm. Includes kitchen, bathroom, and outdoor shower with hot water.
Van/trailer/RV camping is also more than welcome.
Our farm schedule is from 7am - 1pm, 5 days per week. WWOOFers join us for breakfast and coffee at 7am, where we discuss the planned projects and activities for the day, and then we get started at 8am. At 1pm, we offer a community lunch and then WWOOFers have the rest of the day to explore the farm, relax, or enjoy Leelanau County and the surrounding towns! WWOOFers can expect a community dinner in the evening where we can share the day's trials, joys, and harvests with one another. Saturdays and Sundays will include the same community meals but there will be no farm projects or activities for WWOOFers. Attendance at meals is never mandatory.
Activities include sustainable building projects (animal housing, terrace gardens, barn restoration), germination and caring for seedlings, gardening tasks such as weeding, harvesting, mulching, planting bushes/trees, building permanent raised beds, watering, and sowing, and some animal care tasks such as feeding, cleaning barns, moving our mobile chicken coop, potentially milking goats/bottle feeding babies, and leading goats to grazing areas/setting up temporary fencing.
We would be excited to share regenerative farming and permaculture knowledge, some herbal medicine and foraging knowledge, cooking, baking, and preserving, English or Spanish Language, some building skills, and yoga and spirituality with WWOOFers.
We have 3 dogs on the farm: 2 almost 2 year old Australian shepherds named Fern and Charlie who will herd our small ruminants someday, and a big fluffy great pyrenees named Todd. All are very friendly (although Fern is very wary of strangers, true to Aussie nature!) and quite lovable if I do say so myself. WWOOFers must be comfortable around dogs, including large dogs. We also have 2 indoor/outdoor kitties, named Bobbie and Chuki. They don’t have to enter the tiny house if you have allergies.
Using produce from The Farm and other local farms we will provide 3 community style meals per day. Leelanau county boasts an array of culinary products all summer long. We take advantage of this and eat deliciously in the summertime. WWOOFers are welcome to help cook or learn cooking skills in the process of making these meals.
WWOOFers will be welcome to use facilities in the farmhouse on an invitation basis.
We are a 5th generation family farm, so there is multigenerational family around! My partner and I, my sister, and my parents and grandparents live on the farm. All are lovely and excited to host volunteers. My grandmother, who has lived on the farm her whole life, is very knowledgable about perennial flower gardening and has an astonishing garden with some perennials that are around 100 years old.
When I am not working in the garden or caring for and spending time with the animals, I enjoy walks around the property, cooking and enjoying a meal from the garden, self-sufficiency crafts, and yoga and spirituality practices. My partner enjoys music and guitar, and is interested in building and woodwork. He is also a great lover of swimming and will gladly accompany you to some of the best swimming spots in the county.
WWOOFers will have the opportunity to explore beautiful Leelanau county, which includes numerous natural areas, beaches, and hikes, a national park, historical sites, 5 quaint and unique villages, and dozens of critically acclaimed wineries. Leelanau county (and the farm!) also produce delectable fruits, veggies, and culinary products all summer long. WWOOFers can attend events like the Cherry Festival, Polka Fest, town-wide wine and cheese events, and art/street markets that happen periodically in the summertime. We are neighbors with 3 lovely wineries and a cidery, are 1.5 miles from a boat launch on Suttons Bay where volunteers are welcome to put our paddleboards in the water, and are a short drive away from numerous beautiful beaches, hikes, and natural areas. We are about half a mile away from a very well kept walking and bike trail that leads to Traverse City (about 10 miles from the farm) and other attractions, and are located 30 miles from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. WWOOFers are welcome to accompany us on trips to the beach, hiking trails, and nearby towns if they wish, but a car is recommended to experience the area more fully! It's really something you don't want to miss and that nearly a million people pay a lot of money for each summer.
In uncertain times, we are an ally, a friend, and a safe place to the LGBTQ+ community, people of any gender identity, immigrants, and people of color.
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Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Fruit or nut farming
Sheep or goat farming
Dairy farming
Aromatic or medicinal plants, teas
Seed saving or production
Cheesemaking
Vegetable or fruit preservation
Bakery
Food justice / sovereignty
Methods or systems
Biological pest control
Fukuoka farming
Holistic management
No-till farming
Permaculture
Regenerative agriculture
Rotational grazing
Mentoring opportunities
Woman-operated
BIPOC-operated
Host type
Production farm
6.5
Hectares
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16
Acres
Accommodation
