Hoop House Pilot Project

Sunrise The Marquette Food Co-op (MFC)is working in partnership with Northern Initiatives (NI) and Northern Michigan University (NMU) to educate small farmers and community on sustainable growing methods using a Hoop House.

History

NI applied for, and received, a grant to help local farmers learn the value of using Hoop Houses to extend their growing season in the spring of 2009. A 22' x 48' double-walled Hoop House was purchased from Rimol Greenhouses soon after. NMU has provided a location on campus near the Jacobetti Center to construct it, as well as funding for a student intern to help with the project. The MFC entered the partnership to provide onsite management of the day to day operations and supervision of an NMU Intern.

Goals of the Project

The purpose of the project is to educate local farmers, potential farmers and the community on season extension methods using hoop houses and sustainable growing methods. Data is being recorded on everything we do and will be available to the public as the project progresses.

Several of the local farmers have toured the hoop house and offered suggestions on what they have done, as well as what they would like to see the project accomplish. We will continue to work with them to ensure we are providing information that will benefit their farms.

We will be offering educational workshops on topics related to growing food using sustainable methods. To learn more about these opportunities sign up for the Hoop House Herald newsletter, a monthly online newsletter. Click on the "Email Sign-ups" tab on the menu to the right.

Partnerships

Produce

The food that is produced in the hoop house will be donated to the Culinary Arts Department (under the Hospitality Management Program). We will work closely with Deb Pearce and her students to educate them on where the food they are using comes from. There will be lots of opportunities for the students to get their hands in the dirt to complete the food circle - from seed to seedling to food to compost. We will also work on a business model to help farmers create contracts with institutions for their products.

ConstructionCrew

Construction

The NMU student constructors (right) volunteered their time to build the structure. This took place over the course of several weeks in October. They surveyed the area and worked together to assemble all of the materials. They did a great job, even though none of them had experience building something like this before.

Thanks to Daryl Kobie and his students!

Storage

For storage, another group of students in the construction program at NMU (below) built a 10' x 8' storage shed for a class project led by Daryl Delongchamp. They built the structure to our specifications and offered suggestions for what would be beneficial based on our useage of the shed.

Rick Perrier and Harvey Scherer on the Grounds Staff at NMU place the tool shed near the hoop house

If you would like to stay up to date with this project sign up to receive the Hoop House Herald, our monthly newsletter using the "E-mail Signups" tab on the menu to the right, or contact Kelly Cantway, the Hoop House Manager at services@marquettefood.coop or 906-225-0671 ext.26