Get Out is your monthly guide to what's great in the great outdoors, written by columnist Allison Kay Bannister.
The funny thing about summer feeling like it’s winding down, is that in some ways it’s just hitting its peak. This is true at the many farmers markets and produce stands around town where we can finally get locally grown goods. In West Michigan, it takes as long as it takes, and it’s worth the wait! We were at Fulton Street Farmers Market a few Saturdays ago, braving the crowds to get our hands on our favorite flowers, fruits, and veggies from our preferred growers, and decided to stop at Crane Dance Farm’s stall to chat.
A staple at the market for decades, they tend to a different kind of agriculture that many of us may not have front of mind: livestock and poultry. Over the span of our adult lives, our household has thought a lot about the to-do or not-to-do of eating meat, and have fluctuated between vegetarian, less meat, and full-on carnivorous bacchanalia. I know we’re going to have readers from all dietary walks and myriad opinions on the subject. The truth is, meat happens. And, with that in mind, the overarching philosophy here should be around how to make it the best version of itself.
That’s exactly what Crane Dance Farm is doing and has been for more than 20 years. Located in Middleville, they’re an environmentally regenerative, pasture-based farm that uses sustainable practices, eschews chemicals, and provides their animals with a humane existence. They’re also GMO free, as well as certified grassfed and animal welfare approved by A Greener World (AGW). They even grind their own GMO-free corn and soybeans for feed.
Co-owners Mary and Jill, along with a wily, hardworking team, raise a diverse range of animals, including sheep, cows, pigs, chickens (and chicken eggs), turkeys, geese, and bees on about 200 acres of land that they own or manage. The massive property they and their animals reside on allows for regeneration—an approach to farming that focuses on soil health, biodiversity, managed grazing, composting, crop rotation, and whole lot more.
I know all of this not only because of that convo at the market awhile back, and tons of online research, but because I got to tour the farm, accompanied by a couple of curious friends.
After several GPS-directed turns, we arrived at Crane Dance on a sweltering Friday afternoon, clad in comfortable clothes, doused in sunscreen, armed with water bottles, and wearing shoes that we wouldn’t mind the possibility of getting poop on. Mary, who just celebrated a monumental birthday—a w-eighty one, you might say!—led the tour, taking us through chicken roosting barns, beside pastures with resting sheep, over rocky terrain, and across a busy road to see the larger areas where many of the animals make their homes.
We saw pregnant sows, nursing piglets, a Red Devon bull and his many mistresses, Cornish Cross chickens, roosters and laying hens, and plenty of rolling, green, open space. All of this on which creatures graze and roam casually, yet strategically. Talk about the great outdoors!
I thought I might leave the farm feeling attached to the animals and rethinking my meat consumption, but, if anything, (for me) it reinforced the notion of pursuing options that are better for our bodies, better for the land, and better for the earth. It was easy to connect to the wisdom and realize that this process is a more conscious way to be a meat consumer.
And, just in case you’re wondering, the animals are raised on the farm, but are processed in a USDA-certified facility. Yes, the inevitable happens upon leaving Crane Dance farms, but under conditions in which these wards live happily, healthily, and gently.
If this appeals to you, know that you don’t have to drive all the way out to Middleville to shop. You can buy on their website and pick up at Fulton Street Farmers Market on Saturdays. In addition to meats, they sell eggs, honey, bone broth, tallow, and pet food, as well as Fertrell organic fertilizer. And, they’re currently ramping up for Thanksgiving turkey season. The best way to stay on top of what is happening when is to visit cranedancefarm.com or follow them on Facebook.
