Abby Jacobson and Katrina Schumacher.

Westview Orchards has been a long-time partner with Michigan State University (MSU) on research projects. The most recent is an ag weather station — the only one in Macomb County affiliated with the Michigan Automated Weather Network (MAWN), a new program associated with the Generating Research and Extension to Meet Economic and Environmental Needs (GREEEN) initiative.

Harvey Bowerman got by selling his fruits and vegetables at Detroit’s Eastern Market in the 1920s and 1930s, until one morning, his truck already loaded with peaches to deliver, he received a phone call from the market telling him not to bother. They had an abundance of peaches and didn’t want any more.

But it didn’t take Harvey, a man of ingenuity, very long to come up with a solution. That very morning, he pulled his truck up to the corner of Earle Memorial Highway and the Detroit Urban Railroad trolley stop and set up shop, selling his fresh peaches straight to consumers. With that, Westview Orchards’ direct marketing operation was born.

Harvey was the fourth generation to run the family farm, which began in Romeo, MI, in 1813. Now in its sixth generation, sisters Abby Jacobson (a 2009 American/Western Fruit Grower Apple Grower of the Year nominee) and Katrina Schumacher, are taking the business to a new level. It’s no longer simply Westview Orchards; it’s Westview Orchards and Adventure Farm, a name change dictated by the array of agritourism offerings that have helped the business flourish over the last several years.

Creating A Destination

Schumacher and Jacobson have gone to great lengths to ensure customers have a reason to visit — and return to — the farm, including restoring an 1869 one-room schoolhouse on the property to be used as an educational component to school tours and field trips. “That was really the beginning of our agritourism in 1994,” Schumacher says. “Of course, you can’t have a school tour without donuts, so we started our bakery by converting our milkhouse building. It’s just kept growing from there.”

By 1996, the agritourism and bakery aspects of the business had grown so much that Westview had to add on to a building with a large bakery to keep up with customer demand. Schumacher says customers really began dictating the direction of the agritourism business by that point, saying they wanted even more activities to do on the farm. The folks at Westview listened, adding a corn maze and an illusion tunnel. They even invited 4-H to come to the farm and show their animals on the weekends.

“What started as something that was maybe a couple of acres has now expanded to 18 acres of on-farm activities and fun families can enjoy together,” Schumacher says. Now thousands of people visit the farm per day on weekends in October, as long as the weather cooperates, Schumacher says.

But getting to that point wasn’t easy. In addition to Westview’s agritourism offerings, the business sells the majority — upwards of 90% — of the produce it grows through its on-site farm market. The remaining 10% goes to a handful of other local markets. But until recently, the state of Michigan didn’t have any sort of board or commission that represented farm markets or agritourism in Michigan. As a founding board member of the Michigan Farm Market and Agritourism Association (MiFMAT), Jacobson helped change that.

MiFMAT was formed in 2006 to address challenges from restrictive agritourism ordinances proposed by local officials. Jacobson, along with five others, ran as a team to replace officials who weren’t making the right decisions for the township, not just in agritourism, but in other areas, too, Jacobson says. “We actually ousted by a two-to-one landslide a 30-year incumbent clerk, a 12-year incumbent supervisor, and all incumbents that were on the board, except for the treasurer,” Jacobson says. “That was one way to initiate the change we needed not just for agritourism, but for other issues here in our local township.”

And recently, MiFMAT has had one very important success, she adds. As a member of Michigan’s Agritourism Task Force, Jacobson has been working on Generally Accepted Agricultural Management Practices (GAAMPs) for farm markets under Michigan’s Right to Farm Act. “We worked for three years at the state level to get a set of GAAMPs for farm markets, and we were successful in December of 2009,” she says. “We were pretty thrilled with that, but we really need another step.”

The next step? Working on state legislation for agritourism, Jacobson says. “The Farm market GAAMPs only cover farm markets, and we have a whole spectrum of agritourism that’s a growing industry not just here in Michigan, but all over the U.S. It encompasses corn mazes, haunted houses, playgrounds, straw mountains, U-pick, and a whole variety of categories that go into agritourism,” she says. However, many of these value-added offerings are not permitted under local ordinances. “So that’s going to be our next step on the government subcommittee.”

In addition, MiFMAT is working to educate government representatives about agriculture and its issues ranging all the way from growing to marketing. In the three years since it was formed, the organization has grown to 270 members out of an estimated 400 farm markets in Michigan. “I’m hoping that will keep growing for us,” Jacobson says.

And for other growers faced with agritourism challenges on the local level, Jacobson has some valuable advice: First, get the local community informed and on your side. She notes that having the support of the community literally saved Westview Orchards in 2001, when facing a restrictive agritourism ordinance aimed at closing the farm down. “It was vital for us to have the local community support us, because once we let them know what was going on and we had some public hearings, they actually were there in support of our farm and other farms in the area that were doing agritourism,” Jacobson says. “Had we not done that, we would not be here today. That’s how strong the opposition was.”

It also helps to become a resource for your local municipality — and to pay attention to what is going on not just locally but even in your state that could either positively or negatively affect your operations, she adds. “As farmers, we can no longer just put our heads in the sand and just farm. And I know we’re all very busy and would like to just farm, but there are so few that understand agriculture or agritourism or farm marketing today. We really have to make ourselves available. At least get to know who’s representing you. Maybe even take an appointment on the planning commission to represent that aspect of your community to make sure it is represented and preserved. There have been a number of instances where if I had not sat on the township’s planning commission for those 22 years, that we would’ve been railroaded into some things that would not have easily been turned back.”

Looking To The Future

Jacobson’s and Schumacher’s dedication to their farm and community definitely has paid off, and the two are now looking to the future, excited about new endeavors and opportunities to provide even more activities for their customers. In fact, the two are taking the first steps to convert the loft in their cider barn to a wine-tasting room. If all goes as planned, Jacobson says she hopes to outgrow the loft one day and turn their old bank barn into a larger winery. “The winery is going to be a hoot-and-a-half,” Schumacher adds. “You can just see so many possibilities — (partnering with) Michigan cheese (producers). It’s all Michigan, and it keeps promoting what we have going on and growing here in Michigan.”