Four Generations of The Everett Family Still Help Run the Family Farm

By Melissa Hart - Special to Agri-View
Friday, November 3, 2006 4:20 PM CST

Everett Family

Keeping the family on the farm these days is challenging to say the least.

But Mike Everett of Hanover, Mich., has found a way to keep his young family involved in his grandfather's family farm.

Mike's Great Grandfather, Winthrop Everett, purchased the 90-acre Everett Farm located in Mason, Mich., in 1912. Two years later, Charles Everett was born at the farmstead and at age 92 still lives there today. "My grandpa is as spry as a bug and gets along very well for a man his age," commented Mike.

In the late 30's Charles bought the farm from Winthrop and farmed part-time while working in Lansing at R.E. Olds. He worked for Oldsmobile before, during and after the war and started to farm full-time in the 1950's. During this time Charles had a son, Leon, and when Leon graduated from high school he headed for the ag school just a few miles up the road to study poultry science at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich.

Charles kept farming full-time, but felt the need for some added income so he went into the poultry business. With 10,000-20,000 laying hens, the egg business added some regular income to keep the farm going during the lean years.

While the 1960s was a decade of change for the country as a whole, it was also a decade of change for the Everett family as Leon graduated from MSU in 1964 and Charles went to work for the State of Michigan in the Department of Natural Resources.

With Leon out on his own working in the animal feed industry managing feed mills around the state, Charles was farming alone and also working off the farm. In 1980 Charles let the land go idle and enrolled it in a conservation program.

While Leon was building his career in the animal industry and Charles was heading for retirement, Mike was entering into the world of academia and his transportation was a football scholarship to Olivet College. After just three years, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Math.

Following in his father's footsteps Mike headed to MSU where he earned his master's degree in crop and soil science. "I was really into precision agriculture at this point and enjoyed it."

He worked for a number of places after graduation. He worked as a potato specialist, ran a sprayer for Mason Elevator in Mason, Mich., and was the GPS specialist for the Andersons working out of several of their branch stores.

Meanwhile, the family farm had stood idle for 16 years until Mike and his wife Jill decided to transform the old farmstead into something profitable. Because the farm was located just a few miles from the capitol city of Lansing, they had a perfect location for a road-side market.

"We started with about 10 acres of sweet corn and two to four acres of pumpkins our first year and with the rest of the tillable land we grew hay," said Mike.

They slowly expanded and rotated crops from year to year to keep disease out of their vegetables. Mike continued, "We are now growing about 20 acres of sweet corn and six to eight acres of pumpkins."

Shortly after Mike and Jill began their venture into a farm market, one of his college advisors stopped by the farm to get some sweet corn. He explained, "Dr. Kirk Heinze of Michigan State stopped by the stand and started asking me if I had ever thought about becoming a teacher. I told him I hadn't and then he began explaining that there was a shortage of FFA teachers in Michigan and that I should consider becoming one."

After looking over the list of schools that needed FFA teachers, Mike picked one, interviewed for the job and in the fall of 1998, found himself teaching agricultural science and advising the North Adams FFA chapter.

"I had been in FFA in high school but it wasn't something I lived for, I was more into football at that point in my life," explained Mike. His brother Scott was responsible for leading him down the FFA road that found him on the parliamentary procedure team, the ag issues team and the livestock judging team.

Because of his teaching position, Mike's summers are free and he and his family are able to concentrate on the farm market at the farmstead. He explained, "We start selling sweet corn in mid-July and don't usually run out of corn until the end of August. We pick early in the morning and are sold out by dusk when we close." He added, "There are days when we run out early and have to repick in the middle of the afternoon. That usually happens on the weekends."

Mike, his wife and two children, Parker, 7; and Aubrey, 4; stay right at the farm in a camper. Mike stated, "We stay there and go home to our house about once a week just to check on things and mow the lawn. Otherwise we stay right there and run the stand."

Mike said he values this time because his kids are able to stay most of the summer at their grandfather's farm and have a good time. He added, "They just have a great time trippin' around the farm and they love it."

When school begins and Mike has to head back to his teaching responsibilities, they spend weekends at the farm. "We set things up so after the sweet corn is over, we just have it as self serve so we don't have to be there during the week," explained Mike.

When fall arrives, things keep hopping at the market with pumpkin sales. "We've got all kinds of pumpkins and gourds. We've got fairytale pumpkins that come in red, green, white, brown and of course orange. And we've also got six varieties of edible squash," said Mike.

Along with all the decorating pumpkins, they also sell ornamental gourds, apple gourds and bunches of corn stalks. This year they grew giant pumpkins for the first time. Mike explained, "We grew these giant pumpkins and some of them were 300 to 400 pounds."

Selling out of the same building as this grandfather sold eggs, Mike keeps the corn in a walk-in cooler to keep it fresh for the customers. "We have a lot of people who come out from the city and just like to hang out and visit with us," Mike continued, "There are a lot of regulars that come, some might come every day, others come every weekend, they just like to be out on the farm and experience a bit of the farming atmosphere."

In addition to the store they also have some small animals that visitors can enjoy. Mike stated, "We have some potbellied pigs and some chickens, just some small stuff so people can see animals when they come out."

With the growing industry of agritoursim, the Everett Farm would be a likely place for farm tours. "We just don't want the liability of all of that, we just want to stay small and enjoy what we're doing," explained Mike.

When it comes down to the bottom line this small farm market makes a profit but they rarely see it. Mike commented, "All the proceeds from the corn goes to pay for the expenses and the rest is profit. Most of it goes back into the farming operation for the next year."

When asked about future plans for the farm, Mike concluded, "We really don't know what's going to happen down the road when grandpa passes on, we're just taking this thing one day at a time and enjoying what we have right now."

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