Betsy Bloom / Daily News photos ASHLEY STEINBRECHER MAKES “Barnyard Meaty” pizzas – they have pepperoni, Italian sausage, bacon and ham – Thursday in the commercial kitchen of the family farm in Slagle in Felch Township. Thursdays are used to prepare foods such as pizza and sausage for sale in freezers.
TOWNSHIP OF FELCH – A new commercial kitchen has created a number of new opportunities for the Slagle family farm.
Homemade pizzas and sausages. Meals on order on Wednesdays and Saturdays. A range of soaps, lip balms and other new products made on site by Jennifer Slagle, who runs the farm with her husband, Jason.
“We are diversified” Jennifer Slagle said, rather than relying too much on one area of ​​production.
The 2,800 square foot commercial kitchen and other renovations helped convert the former Steinbrecher Potato Warehouse on N7705 Metropolitan Road in Felch Township into a restaurant, gift shop, store. personalized meats and fresh seasonal products.
In 2017, the Slagles got a Rural Development Fund grant of $ 84,110 from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development which, with their own investment, allowed them to redo a building that once housed cattle in a workspace that can be used all year round.
A DISPLAY of the many varieties of Mama Bear’s Cocoa Butter Soap that Jennifer Slagle makes at the Slagle Family Farm. The N7705 Metropolitan Road building in Felch Township has a merchandise area showcasing soap and other items the Slagles make on site.
The Commercial Kitchen expands what the Slagles can do: process meat – including making sausages and meats for lunch – and fruits and vegetables; canned salsas and sauces, pickles, jams and other products made from fruits and vegetables grown on site.
They also now have a takeout menu of prime rib burgers, chicken and fish sandwiches, wraps, and even a basket of shrimp that they cook on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Most Saturdays they’ll add a special element, often something made in the smoker, like last week’s beef brisket or pulled pork.
The farm is also open on Thursdays but devoted to preparing items for storing freezers or making custom orders. Some weeks, it’s pizzas, with a sauce made from tomatoes grown on the farm. On others it’s throwing sausages and “Yoop” and the kids with cheddar and jalapenos.
Thursday, the kitchen team – Jennifer Slagle; his daughter Lauren; and Ashley and Mollie Steinbrecher – assembled pizzas ranging from “Backyard meat” at “Greenhouse vegetable”, available on a thin or hand tossed crust or gluten free cauliflower crust.
They’ll bake around 30 pizzas in one prep session, all of which will sell reliably, Jennifer Slagle said.
At this time, they are not allowed to process meats, so do not produce their own bacon, ham or pepperoni.
But they have a number of farmed meats – beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey – some from their own stock.
They currently keep around 40 pigs, as well as chickens, ducks, geese and seven head of cattle. They had sheep, but they ended that in January, although they still have lamb and even gyro meat in the freezer.
The shift to more kitchen work required adjustment to other parts of the operation. The Slagles decided this summer not to participate in the regional farmer’s markets, which had been a staple of their business in the past. The time it took to pack and set up the stands in Marquette or Escanaba turned out to be too long, Slagle said.
Customers now seem willing to come to them. “We get to know enough people in the area to make it a nice little drive,” she said.
She also coordinates by email the delivery of pizza or other orders to Iron Mountain when she has another reason to be in town.
Although they also cut what they planted in the field in half, they still grow around 6 acres of vegetables and fruits. So they should have plenty of fresh produce to offer when they’re ready, with the exception of strawberries, which were choked by the late cold snap. They are still waiting to see if their 400 blueberries will bear fruit this summer.
They finally got the last of the plants she started – her favorite part of farm life, she said – in the ground last weekend.
The kitchen building also features an exhibit of Jennifer Slagle’s Mama Bear products, made on site. Cocoa butter soaps are available in over 100 flavors; it also offers an unscented version that contains goat’s milk, as well as glycerin and liquid soaps, aftershave, shaving sticks and lip balm.
They had hoped this year to add a new greenhouse to sell plants on site, but this did not happen in time, although the framework was in place. They expect him to be ready for next year.
The Slagle’s family farm building located on Metropolitan Road N7705 in Felch Township is open from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. To order or for any other information, call 906-221-5937.
Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 240, or [email protected].
