Bare Knuckle Farm is a small farm owned and lovingly tended by Jess Piskor and Abra Berens. We are dedicated to small-scale agriculture that supplies a healthful, delicious, beautiful and diverse array of vegetables to our friends and neighbors. Our farm is located in Northport, Michigan on land owned by Jess’s grandpa, Jack Fiebing. In 2009, Jess and Abra turned soil for the first time between two tart cherry groves. Beginning with a few frost-nipped radishes and sandy spinach in the early spring, we managed to somehow grow enough food to fill our old pickup truck full of produce twice a week. The farm is borne of Grandpa Jack’s generosity and sustained by the help of family, friends and the community around us. 2011 is Bare Knuckle Farm’s third season. Last year we built a second hoop house and are looking forward to an ever-increasing bounty coming out of our garden. This year we will be adding a small herd of goats to our farm as well as expanding our herd of hogs and flock of ducks. We will again be selling at farmers’ markets on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Northport, Suttons Bay and Lake Leelanau respectively. This year, at the market you will be able to buy not only produce but also a selection of prepared foods and farm-roasted coffee. Get a fresh-brewed cup or have a pound roasted for you while you shop. In addition to selling at the market, we are proud to be continuing and growing our CSA—both in weekly shares and our Bare Knuckle Bucks Program. Both ways to invest will ensure that you get to taste lots of this year’s focus crops: squash, peppers, onions and garlic! And if you can’t be bothered to do any cooking, we want to do it for you with more Farm Dinners and Catered Events. Despite the long winter, we’re looking forward to the best season yet.
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If there is one thing Jess likes better than farming, it is living back in Northern Michigan. Born and raised here, Jess spent eight years living in Ann Arbor, where he graduated college and then worked at Zingerman's Deli. After living in London and New York and traveling around the world, he feels lucky at 28 years old to return to Michigan and is proud to call Northport home. Finding it so welcoming, interesting and beautiful is a treat. Jess grew up growing things. His mom has an amazing garden, and he remembers pretending to weed at a very young age. He was mostly just playing with his Tonka bulldozer -- never suspecting he’d pilot a real bulldozer in 2009 to push over dead cherry trees to clear the way for an apple orchard at the farm. In high school Jess worked for Steve Christensen at Suttons Pointe Farms and later, after college, kept an enthusiasm for growing -- even planting veggies in 50 five-gallon buckets along his driveway in Ann Arbor. Jess really got serious about farming while working at Cornman Farm outside of Ann Arbor. Cornman Farm is owned by James Beard Award-Nominated Chef Alex Young and operated under the guidance of head farmer Mark Baerwolf. They are working to link Alex's restaurant directly to his farm. Jess worked for Mark on the farm and there learned a lot of the small-scale organic methods that make Bare Knuckle Farm successful. In addition to farming, Jess is passionate about the discussion of ideas, a good cup of tea, history, home brews of all sorts and can tie a knot 20 different ways. |
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Abra strives to make simple, delicious food. She believes that the meals we eat should change with the seasons and that their ingredients should come from nearby. She chooses sustainably-grown fruits and vegetables and responsibly-farmed animals to create rustic and purposeful plates.
Abra grew up amongst the agrarian culture of western Michigan, developing a deep respect for the relationship between the land and the people who care for it. She then moved to Ann Arbor and to the University of Michigan to study history and English, and before long she was working at Zingerman's Deli. What started as a part-time job developed into a full-blown love affair with food and its production. From Zingerman's, Abra moved on to train under Darina Allen at the Ballymaloe Cookery School, located in the middle of its own 100-acre organic farm in County Cork, Ireland. There she learned that if you want to cook with the best ingredients, what better place for them to have come from than your own backyard? The school's commitment to supplying its own highest-quality ingredients, as well as its beautiful pastoral setting, helped shape Abra's own approach to food and cooking. Since leaving Ballymaloe, Abra has found herself working and learning under a slew of notable chefs, including Skye Gyngell of Petersham Nurseries in Richmond, England; Roger Bowser of Zingerman's Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Sandra Holl of Floriole Bakery; and, most recently, Paul Virant of Vie Restaurant in Western Springs, Illinois. These chefs have been Abra's mentors, having influenced her style of food and reinforced the commitment to honesty of ingredients and quality in final products. She has also cooked in the kitchens of several other Chicago restaurants, including Avec, Mado, Nightwood, and 312 Chicago. When not farming in northern Michigan, Abra can be found making jam and pickles. And if she's not in the dirt or in the kitchen, she's probably traveling to new places, taking in a concert or avidly discussing the similarities between Aaron Burr, Abraham Lincoln and FDR. |