The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Now I'm a farmer
Fusilier Farm fills the need for vegetables, fruits and flowers
By Edward Freundl, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: July 3, 2008
The workers are out in the field, pounding stakes along the rows and rows of tomatoes under the watchful eye of Kathy Fusilier.
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"Staking tomatoes today is our big thing," Kathy says, explaining that the stakes hold the plants upright and off the ground to help keep diseases and bugs away.
Tomatoes are just one of the numerous produce crops grown at Fusilier Family Farm and Greenhouse, 16400 Herman Road in Manchester Township.
They bring their produce to several farmers markets, not only in Washtenaw County but as far as suburban Detroit.
But they are not limited by traditional growing seasons; the greenhouse allows them to run a year-round operation.
At this time of year, they're just entering their busy season.
"We're just finishing up the end of the flowers, and trying to get into our produce operation," Kathy said.
"It's the end of one, the beginning of another."
The greenhouses are kept full nearly constantly with flats of flowers, bedding plants and hanging baskets during the spring, and with vegetable seedlings at other times.
Besides a half-dozen or so varieties of tomatoes, the Fusiliers also grow sweet corn, green beans, pumpkins, squash, peppers, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, melons, raspberries, blueberries, beets, radishes, and onions; all on plots of 2 to 5 to 10 acres.
The small plots make it easier for their workers to do their jobs, which is heavy on manual labor and light on mechanical devices.
"We have eight hired workers plus our four kids," Kathy said, and she and Mike put in long hours as well.
To market, to market
Almost all of what the Fusiliers grow goes out to farmers markets up to 75 miles away.
"We're loading and unloading trucks every day, because we go to markets every day," Kathy said.
"We go to Jackson three times a week, and Ann Arbor twice a week, but the others - Manchester, Northville, Livonia, Farmington, and Birmingham - are just open once a week," she said.
The Chelsea Farmers Market was once a destination, but no longer.
"We did the one in Chelsea years ago, but we didn't have enough people and vehicles to make it work," Kathy said.
The just-opened Garden City and Dearborn markets are new to the Fusiliers - "We'll see how that goes," Kathy noted - and they are also considering markets in Dexter and Ypsilanti.
The Fusiliers follow a strategy of diversification to ensure that they get a fair return on their investment.
"If you do a lot of markets you spread your risk out," she said. "You could have a good day at one but not so good at another."
Kathy's husband of 22 years, Mike Fusilier, said he knows of few farmers who spend so much time and energy on farm markets.
"We're a small operation but it's all retail," he said.
"Probably not many do as many farmers markets as we do."
The markets are overseen mainly by the children - Matthew, 20; Brittany, 18; Travis, 17; and Chad, 13 - and Mike's parents.
"I do two markets a week, Mike does one, the kids and Mike's parents do the rest, and we have friends who help us," Kathy said.
The Fusiliers go to markets every day but Monday.
"That's my off day, if there is such a thing," Kathy said.
That's when she takes care of the house, does the laundry and so on, she said.
"It comes out to about 80 hours a week, but we don't look at it that way," she said.
"It's more of a lifestyle than a job. For the most part we enjoy it; you have to have a passion for it."
The Fusiliers added the greenhouse in the mid-1990s to supplement their income in an operation that already included raising hogs and crops.
"We've had the greenhouse since 1996, but we've been farming our whole lives," Kathy said.
"We farrowed sows, and at our peak we had probably 300 sows and 1,500 acres of row crops."
The hog markets were going poorly and the couple made the decision to get out before things got even worse.
"We had an auction in '98 and sold it all, now all we do is fruits and vegetables," Kathy said.
"We got out of the hog business five months before the prices fell to 5 cents a pound.
"This took off for us, but there's still risk," she said.
Mike said that even though the new venture was a "total reversal" for them, it was appealing.
"We look forward to it, we like planning for what's next; we like the challenge," he said.
"The biggest thing is the mindset - knowing we could sell everything we grew with the sows and corn, then going to a market, not knowing what will sell."
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