Our 131st Real Farmer Care recipient is Alexander Ball of Old City Acres @oldcityacres in Belleville, MI.
Alexander writes, “I am a first generation farmer about 30 minutes south of Detroit. I started my farm when I was 18 with just a shovel and the idea of growing food for my local community. After 5 years of renting land and just scraping by, I was able to purchase my own piece of land in 2018 in an area with a long history of Black market farmers who settled here after moving North to work at the Ford auto plants during the turn of the century.
My farm, Old City Acres, is on 0.15 acre of drained muck land and it grows veggies primarily for a 75 member four season CSA as well as a local farmers market during the main summer months. I use a combination of high tunnels, hoophouses, and low tunnels to push not only through the winter months but through the fairly wet spring and fall seasons that are common in Michigan. It took only four years to go from forest to full time productive farm, and I’m hiring my first employee this season.
I'm known locally as the "Happy Farmer", and I proudly wear that crown because it’s hard to be upset when surrounded by the beauty of organic local farming.”
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