(Chelsea Update would like to thank Mary Jo Frank for the information in this story.)
On March 15, Richard Andres and Deb Lentz, owners of Tantré Farm, one of Michigan’s largest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) organic farms, will talk about the importance of locally grown food to communities at the Chelsea Area Garden Club’s annual public lecture 7–8:30 p.m. in the McKune Room of the Chelsea District Library. The Chelsea District Library is co-sponsoring the program, and everyone is invited.
Tantré Farm, 2510 Hayes Road, Chelsea, grows strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, pears, melons, 80 to 100 varieties of vegetables, as well as herbs and flowers. Its mission is “to produce and distribute fresh, organic produce, while serving as an educational, sustainable and social network for our surrounding community.”
Andres purchased the original 40-acre Tantré Farm in 1993 and achieved organic certification that year.
A carpenter and philosopher, he turned to full-time farming in 2001 when he and Lentz, his wife, transitioned Tantré Farm into a CSA farm with 30 members. The farm has grown to 115 acres and has more than 300 CSA members. It also supplies high quality, organic produce to more than a dozen restaurants and grocery stores as well as farmers markets in Ann Arbor and Chelsea.
Lentz, an educator and organizer, is a board member of The Agrarian Adventure, a nonprofit that partners with K-12 schools to enrich students’ understanding of the connection between what they eat and health. She also serves on the Chelsea Farmers Market advisory board.
Each year, the Chelsea Area Garden Club sponsors a public lecture to promote gardening in the Chelsea area.
To register, call the library at 734-475-8732 or go to www.chelseadistrictlibrary.org and click on the calendar tab or stop by the library information desk.
