Sunseed Farm

We love farming.  We started Sunseed Farm in the Fall of 2009 and started our CSA in May of 2010.  We came by this land through our friends and CSA members, Chip and Kathleen Letts.  Chip and Kathleen own the land and live in the great big barn up the road.  We're in the process of working with Chip, Kathleen and the Ann Arbor Greenbelt to place a conservation easement on the property which would preserve it as farmland forever.  We see this as an important step in conserving farmland near our city, and it will be instrumental in enabling us to purchase the land.

I'm Tomm Becker.  I love farming because it brings me joy. My rewards are faith in seeding, giving of water, surrender to the weather, hard work, a plentiful harvest and a healthy community.  When I started farming it came from my desire for adventure.  I loved it from the moment I began.  While I studied to earn my degree in English Literature from MSU, I worked at the MSU Student Organic Farm and at Owosso Organics, Pooh Stevenson's farm in Owosso, MI.  After I graduated, I began working as the Production Manager at the Student Organic Farm.  It was through growing in all seasons for that CSA, training and guiding the student farmers, and teaching three cohorts of students in the Organic Farming Certificate Program, that I gained the skills and confidence I need to endure as a farmer.  Now I've begun working with other beginning farmers through my role on the Steering Team of the Tilian Farm Development Center, and working to preserve our local farmland on the Ann Arbor Township Farmland and Open Space Preservation Board.  Trilby and I are settled here in Ann Arbor, are ready to bring the strength we have together to this enterprise, and are thrilled at the extraordinary opportunity we have.

I'm Trilby.  I was born and raised in New York City, half a block from Central Park.  The park was my refuge growing up.  I would often "run away" for the day, only to be found lying in a field or reading in a tree somewhere.  Perhaps because nature is at such a premium in the city I always felt that it was something precious and fragile that needed defending.  I gladly took up the cause.  I have had several careers but my work has usually had an environmental component, be it interning in the Office on Environmental Policy for Al Gore, making social issues documentaries or working for the Center for International Forestry Research in Brazil.  After five years in the Amazon, I moved to the Midwest to get a Masters in geography with a concentration in gender, justice and environmental change, thinking that I would eventually go back to work for an international NGo that funded programs in South America.  And then something truly remarkable happened.  Tomm Becker smiled at me at a potluck and we've been together ever since.  I always wanted love and a garden, and now I am joyfully embarking on the greatest love and the biggest garden I ever dreamed of.  As a farmer, I can combine my commitment to sustainable lifeways with creative expression and public outreach.  I look forward to a greater intimacy with the earth than I've ever known as a student, a filmmaker or an activist.  I hope you'll join Tomm and me on this wonderful journey!

Hey I'm Jae Gerhart.  I'm a farmer because I LOVE being outside.  I grew up in the ballet and modern dance world, but as soon as I discovered that I could do something that was good for my community, good for my body (minus the occasional sunburn), good for my soul and good for the earth, I was hooked.  I made the switch from life in a rehearsal studio to life in the row-crops when I was on a bicycle tour from Portland to Los Angeles.  I stopped at a vegetable CSA farm in Northern California and ended up staying for two months.  Upon coming back to Michigan I did everything I could do to find out what sort of farming was going on here, and low and behold I discovered so much!  I worked on farms in the Traverse City area and then in the Ann Arbor area.  In an eager attempt to know more, I spent the 2010 growing season at the Student Organic Farm's "Organic Farming Training Program."  The information I learned and the people I interacted with were extremely influential in shaping how I think about plants and our ecosystem and our role in it.  I'm stoked to be able to work with Tomm and Trilby this season and am looking forward to meeting all of you.

Hi, my name is Eric and I am a lover of the outdoors.  And in a very roundabout way I believe this is what led me to farming.  I was born in Boulder, Colorado but my family moved to Michigan when I was young to take care of my Grandmother's farm.  Growing up in the country, I'm sure, helped foster my love of being outside.  I studied Classical Guitar Performance in college but soon after graduating found myself more and more drawn to activities that involved being active and again, not inside.  In May of last year I quit my job teaching music lessons and went to Maine to participate in a farm apprenticeship program.  It was a powerful and challenging experience being a full time, live-on farmer for nine months with little access to the outside world or basic amenities but, none the less, I was hooked.  I am very excited to be here at Sunseed and am eagerly awaiting our future together on this beautiful farm.