Consult

Do you want a restoration agriculture type system installed on your site but need some level of assistance?  Brines Farm LLC offers consultation services in the areas of Restoration Agriculture, Woody Perennial Polycultures, and AgroForestry.  Brines Farm takes pride in having been "ahead of the curve" in Michigan with year-round produce harvests when the farm was officially established in 2004.  Since then we again take pride in being "ahead of the curve" when it comes to Restoration Agriculture type systems.  We have on the ground experience in planning, laying out, and installing "keyline" type water management systems.  We have on the ground experience in planning, laying out, and installing perennial tree, vine, bramble, and plant crop systems.  All of which complements nicely with many years of professional land use analysis, GIS, remote sensing, and GPS field data collection experience.

Our baseline consultation service offers a site visit and restoration agriculture evaluation, basic field data collection, comprehensive GIS site evaluation including GIS overlay of any collected field data, and a suggested installation plan (both water management and crops).  At this time a site visit is essential - we do not offer any remote consultation because we believe the on site "ground truthing" of each location is necessary.  Many years of working with digital maps and landscape data have taught us we cannot solely rely on them.  Additional services can include: a) laying out and marking on the ground with a rotating laser level the main components of a suggested water management "keyline" type system; b) physical installation of the water management plan (or training you how to do it yourself); c) physical installation of perennial crop systems (or training you how to do it yourself); d) identification and inventory of existing flora (woody plants) on site (and management plan if desired); and more.

Each client and site and location is unique so each estimation of work and quote is unique.  Travel and lodging costs may apply.  At this time we only accept work within the State of Michigan or within a 3 hour drive of Whitmore Lake, Michigan (if outside of Michigan).  All materials (perennial crops, crop protection, etc.) are generally purchased by the client i.e. not included with our service but we provide a plan and suggestions on where to purchase them.  Please Note: while we have been influenced by, met, had discussions, and taken on-the-ground training workshops with many "famous folks in this field" - including Mark Shepard who literally wrote the book on Restoration Agriculture - please be well aware that we should not be considered a replacement for their expert consultation services.  We bring our own fusion of ideas, skills, experience, and professional network to the field.  If you really want Mark Shepard to design your farm, you should figure out a way to get Mark Shepard to your farm to do so.

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Image from SavannaInstitute.org

We have worked with and installed a long list of perennial crops including on our own farm: chinese (japanese and korean) chestnut, hazelnut, northern pecan, hickory-pecan, english walnut, black walnut, butternut, american beech, shagbark hickory, white oak, persimmon, hackberry, paper birch, sugar maple, black maple, korean nut pine, paw paw, apple, crabapple, pear, asian pear, various cherry, peach, hawthorn, apricot, various plum, almond, serviceberry/saskatoons, elderberry, mulberry, chokeberry, honeyberry, seaberry, nannyberry, high-bush cranberry, cedar, spicebush, ninebark, dogwood, black gum/tupelo, winterberry, grapes, hops, blueberries, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, rhubarb, sunchokes, to name a few!

Please contact Shannon directly or fill out this form if you would like to hear more about our consultation services.

Links you may find interesting/relevant:
What is GIS? | GIS from National Geographic | GIS wikipedia entry
Savanna Institute
Restoration Agriculture Development | Restoration Agriculture book
Inhabit, the film






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