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Thursday, July 16, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MULTIMEDIA

Champion Farm: A family farm’s response to COVID-19

There’s an ambient humming 

noise 
inside 
the 
barn, 
an 

industrial sized fan circulating the 
sweltering heat and establishing a 
light breeze that moved through 
the straw covering the ground. 
Lindsay Champion enters the barn, 
breaking up the group of Jersey 
Cows gathered in front of the 
breeze. She leads the girls one by 
one to the opposite end of the room, 
tying them to the wall and spraying 
their legs with fly spray. Lindsay 
wheels in the milking equipment 
and sets up next to the first cow, 
who waits patiently throughout 
the process. Beginning with an 
iodine disinfectant solution and 
initial milking by hand, Lindsay 
connects the milking device once 
any bacteria has been cleared. 
The closed system makes the milk 
cleaner and safer for distribution 
to members of the herd share who 
receive milk from the Champion 
Family Farm. 

When the milking process is 

complete, Lindsay leads the cows 
out to pasture. The girls and the 
two calves follow her in a single-
file line to their designated area. 
The grass is tall in comparison 
to the plot next to it that was cut 
down by yesterday’s grazing. The 
silent solitude of the open field 
is disrupted by huffing, snorting, 
and tearing noises of grass being 
ripped from the ground as the 
cows spread out, chomping across 
the plot. They’ll stay here for the 
majority of the day, returning to 
the barn for the night when it is 
time for their second milking of 
the day at 11 p.m.

With the cows and milking 

taken care of, everyone’s attention 
is turned to preparing for the 
Community Supported Agriculture 
(CSA) member pick-up happening 
in just a few hours. The Champion 
Family 
Farm’s 
CSA 
program 

allows community members to 
make an upfront investment in the 
farm in exchange for a bi-weekly 
share of the vegetables produced 
at the farm. Each member receives 
a crop box filled with in season, 
freshly harvested produce that 
varies with each pick-up. Today’s 
box includes a fragrant assortment 
of garlic scapes, green onions, 
shallots, kale, chard, strawberries, 
and lettuce mix. CSA share days 
are busy, as harvesting, dividing 

and distributing the produce are 
all tasks that must be completed in 
addition to the other daily chores. 
Kevin and Lindsay Champion have 
been working since dawn, but 
time is still of the essence. Empty 
crop-boxes are lined up in the pole 
barn while Lindsay, with the help 
of employee Mark Abrams, work 
quickly to divide and prepare the 
vegetables for the crop boxes. 

There are more CSA members at 

the farm this year, an increase that 
the Champion family attributes 
to changes related to the COVID-
19 pandemic. After seeing empty 
shelves in grocery stores amid 
panicked food shopping, many 
community 
members 
turned 

to local CSA programs as an 
alternative to big-box stores and 
unreliable 
commercial 
supply 

chains. The temporary closure of 
farmers markets and restaurants 
resulted in many small farms, 
including the Champion Family 
Farm, 
being 
forced 
to 
find 

alternative ways to distribute their 
produce. For many, this meant 
increasing the number of CSA 
memberships to make-up for what 
would normally be distributed 
at markets and restaurants. This 
pivot was successful for the 
Champion family, but according to 
Jae Gerhart, an MSU Food Systems 
Coordinator 
for 
Washtenaw 

County, was a struggle for others. 
“A lot of farms have sold too many 
shares and are struggling to supply 
all the members,” Gerhart said. 
“They just got excited by all the 
increased demand.”

Meanwhile, large scale farms 

have had their own struggles 
in relation to the pandemic, 
their size preventing them from 
adapting quickly to changes in 
supply chains. “They couldn’t 
shift as fast,” Gerhart said. “The 
system righted itself within two 
weeks, which is pretty fast, but it 
took all hands on deck.” Gerhart 
mentioned that some farms were 
forced to dump milk and overturn 
crops like onions and potatoes. 
Lindsay interjected in shock, “Oh, 
no! Storage crops!” The idea of 
turning over a storage crop like 
onions, that can cure in the field, 
is horrific to Lindsay, but the chaos 
that took place at industrial farms 
differed from the struggles of 
smaller, organic farms like hers. 
With her infant son strapped to 
her chest and her toddler kicking 

up dust in the driveway, Lindsay 
described some of the trouble 
they’ve had with pests and weather 
at the farm. The unpredictable 
challenges bring a certain level of 
risk for share members, as some 
pick-ups can be lighter than others 
as a result. Lindsay worries about 
ensuring produce distribution, but 
it is a risk that members are willing 
to take in exchange for fresh, in 
season vegetables. 

As 3 p.m. approaches, Kevin 

joins Lindsay in the pole barn with 
their teenage son and Mark to 
complete the distribution process. 
Hands are busy cutting down 
the ends of the green onions and 
counting out sweetpeas, while the 
toddler, Solstice, quality checks 
the strawberries by sampling a 
berry from each box. The team 
finishes just in time, the crop-
boxes packed and lined up neatly 
as cars start to pull up in front of 
the pole barn. The Champions 
take 
a 
well 
deserved 
break, 

sitting and greeting the members 
as they arrive for their share. 
Members make light conversation 
beneath their face masks, talking 
to Lindsay about the contents of 
this week’s box, recipe ideas and 
goings on at the farm. Some stay 
longer than others, chatting with 
each other and enjo ying the views 
of open fields and rows of crops in 
the distance. Lindsay explains to 
one of the members that she has 
the choice between kale and chard, 
since some boxes have one or the 
other. The woman is happy to take 
either, and ends up selecting the 
box with chard to try something 
new. 

The rush of the morning chores, 

preparation and initial pick ups 
slows as the day progresses. A 
late afternoon lull seems to have 
set in, but work continues despite 
the slower pace. Lindsay leaves 
the pole barn with the baby on 
her hip. She sits down on the edge 
of a crop field and starts weeding 
the outermost row. A member 
that has just arrives comes to join 
her, chatting and sitting down to 
help with the task. Kevin is busy 
cleaning out the pole barn to make 
room for the freshly baled hay to 
be stored. There are a few more 
shares waiting to be picked-up, 
but there’s no rush. The evening 
chores still loom, but no one seems 
to be thinking of those now as they 
enjoy the relief and temporary 
relaxation of another successfully 
completed share day. 

ALEXIS RANKIN

Staff Photographer

PHOTO ESSAY

