Farm-to-kitchen-to-brewery-to-table and so much more, this Michigan enterprise is an "agricultural project at its core."
Farm Club is a restaurant, bakery, brewery, mill, pasta maker, and marketplace on Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula. This multifaceted enterprise is tied to Loma Farm, a vegetable operation that started in 2011. Farm Club opened in July 2020 to spotlight the foods of Loma and neighboring farms.
“We wanted to build a gathering place that would enhance, protect, and share all that we love about where we live,” said Nic Theisen, part of a four-person team that steers this ambitious local food ship. Nic and Sara, his wife, partnered with friends Allison and Gary Jonas in 2017, and together they launched Farm Club.
Nic and Sara met in Colorado, where Nic worked on a farm outside Fort Collins that introduced him to regional grains through baking naturally-leavened breads in a wood-fired oven. Later, while traveling in Mexico, he developed a love of corn, and started growing small patches and learning the process of nixtamalization, milling masa, and making tortillas. Farm Club mills all the grains they use for baking and pasta production, and received a value-added processing grant from Michigan’s Department of Agriculture to help them expand these efforts, along with a zero-interest loan from their electrical co-op. The new building will house their pasta making, a new tortilla line, a larger flour mill, and a sifter.
The restaurant, market, and farm are in a tourist area, which means that during peak season the staff can swell up to 85. Year round, between 50 and 60 people make everything happen, from farming through brewing. Staff includes one full-time and one part-time preservationist, who work in the kitchen and on the farm, lacto-fermenting, drying, freezing, canning, and pickling.
“Produce-wise, 90% of the food we cook on our menu comes from the farm 12 months a year, and most of our caloric sustenance comes from preservation and fresh crop storage,” said Nic. While they have high tunnels to keep the menu herbaceous and salad-y, the end of the growing season means 30,000 pounds of vegetables packed in totes and tucked in their barn with straw bales for insulation—stored gold.
All of their food is made from scratch. Take the pozole, for example. Farm Club’s version of the traditional Mexican stew, made with their own chilis and nixtamalized corn, is only served on Thursdays, to keep it special. This care for food, however, doesn’t mean the place is exclusive or fancy. The setting is casual. You don't need a reservation, you can show up in your shorts and sun hat, or ski up in winter.
“We are proud of our farming practices, and work to take care of the soil. Farm Club's entire ethos starts at the farm,” Nic said. “We are an agricultural project, and that permeates every aspect of the business.” Farm Club and Loma Farm are involved in all aspects of grains. They mill heirloom whole wheat, semolina, rye, buckwheat, spelt, three varieties of corn, and occasionally emmer and einkorn; these flours are for the bakery and kitchen, for retail sales in their market, and a small amount of wholesale to local restaurants. They grow Nothstine Dent and Abenaki heirloom corn for pozole, masa bread, and tortillas.
"From the beginning it has been important to us that Farm Club is an agricultural project at its core - not just a restaurant or brewery. In order to deepen the connection to the food they are cooking and serving, we ask that all staff work a 3-hour farm shift each week during the growing season. While this isn't realistic for everyone, we do have very high participation. In addition to an hourly wage when they work a farm shift, staff also earns a vegetable credit redeemable in our market. It is incredible to see servers, bartenders, dishwashers, market staff - folks from all areas of the company working on the farm. They participate in the special moments of growing vegetables and the mundane; deepening their connection to the land, the farm, each other and to this big project called Farm Club!"
—Sara Theisen
Beyond that, their grain comes from fellow AGC members including Granor Farm, Sheridan Acres, Great Lakes Garlic Farm, and Janie's Farm. Nearby Great Lakes Malting provides some malt for the brewery, and they’ve also made small batch beers by malting their own corn. Local malt, however, is a fraction of what they use and need.
“The amount of grain the brewery consumes is far more than any other component of what we do,” Nic said, noting that he’s eager to work with AGC for many reasons, but especially to help change the way that brewing ‘drinks’ local grains, and they’re eager to use more as malting infrastructure for regional grains expands.
Farm Club began connecting with AGC a couple of years ago, and their head brewer participated in a webinar about malting in summer 2023. Nic attended a milling class with other AGC members and millers/bakers from around the country in Fargo last week, offered by the Northern Crops Institute and featuring instruction from Andrew Heyn of New American Stone Mills. (They’re offering another course in June.)
Farm Club’s baking crew is starting to attend meetings of the AGC Bakers Working Group. They’re planning on utilizing the group for knowledge, including insights on equipment decisions as they begin expanding the bakery, mill, pasta, and tortilla programs.
“Currently we are a very small mill, milling about 10,000 pounds of grain per year. With the expansion we will increase our retail sales to other grocers in the region and to additional wholesale accounts,” said Nic, estimating that in the next five years they expect to mill 40,000 to 50,000 pounds each year. Farm Club is also working on a brewery expansion, which will fuel an increase in the next five years from the current 500 barrels they produce annually to 2,000.
“We look forward to digging in deeper and helping to strengthen the regional grainshed,” Nic said. AGC is equally excited to have the participation of such eager, dedicated members who represent multiple grain chain roles!
