Community Care
We’re don’t just dream—we do. Learn how we’re turning our community values into action.
Mentorship Employment
Good farming includes how people are treated. We pay a living wage, share food from the farm, and treat every person who works here with respect and dignity. The farm is a workplace and a place to learn. Employees become friends, collaborators, and mentees—learning the daily work of small-scale regenerative farming to organic standards.
We don’t believe hard-earned knowledge should be guarded. We believe it should be passed on. We are not here to compete. We are here to grow together—for plants, people, and planet.
The Dish Interview Series
Claire organizes, conducts, edits, and writes an interview series on the food, family, and fare of Upper Peninsula farmers, foodies, and chefs.
From The Dish website:
“A fresh, local food movement is happening in the Upper Peninsula. Farmers, foodies, and chefs are connecting with their community through their agricultural and culinary works. Every unique palette and flavor, is a chance to experience a new dimension of food. Beyond every bite is a whole story — and a person — worth celebrating.
The Dish explores what informs and inspires our local farmers, foodies, and chefs, tracing how this magical moment in food came to be. Join us as we discover the diverse experiences, passions, and dreams that contribute to our flourishing local food scene. We ask tailored questions and edit minimally to realize the raw, wonderfully unique character of each interviewee.”
Mutual Aid
Mutual aid is part of the work. Through monetary and in-kind food donations, we support local and national organizations similarly working to strengthen communities, protect nature, and help people flourish.
Our local mutual aid supports groups including Calumet Free Fridge, MTU Husky Food Pantry, Keweenaw Roller Derby, Houghton Elementary School, Copper Shores Meals on Wheels, From the Ground Farmers Market Collective, and Keweenaw Against the Oligarchy.
We also support national and Chicago area organizations whose work reflects our values, including Court Appointed Special Advocates (changing the lives of abused and neglected children by advocating for their best interests), Outdoor Afro (celebrating and inspiring Black connections and leadership in nature), the National Wildlife Federation (ensuring wildlife thrive in a rapidly changing world), and Southside Blooms in Chicago (creating jobs for vulnerable Chicago youth in the floral industry by growing and arranging sustainable flowers).
We give because good work deserves support—and because a healthier future is something we build together.
Educational Outreach
We believe knowledge is meant to be shared. That’s why we visit local institutions and organizations to share what we’re learning through regenerative farming, environmental stewardship, and community-centered food work.
Community Compost Program
We’re turning food scraps into something useful again. Community members can drop off compostable food scraps, which we process on the farm into compost used to fertilize pollinator food sources in our Certified Wildlife Habitat.
To make it easier, we lend free 5-gallon collection buckets and provide bokashi pre-compost to help keep the system contained and odor-free.
It’s a simple system built on a shared idea: reduce waste, build soil, and keep resources cycling locally.
Troemner Trail
Troemner Trail is a 0.6-mile path that winds through our Certified Wildlife Habitat, offering a place to slow down and experience the living systems we’re working to support. Along the trail, native plantings, grasses, trees, and wetland areas provide food, water, and cover for birds, pollinators, and other wildlife. It’s a space where farming and habitat meet—(not quite yet) open to the community and shaped by a simple goal: care for the land in a way that leaves room for more life to thrive.
Youth Foster & Respite Care
We have always wanted to be parents, and we believe family isn’t defined by biology. As licensed foster parents in the state of Michigan, we feel called to care for children who are already here and in need of support.
Foster care provides a safe, temporary home for children during times when they cannot remain safely with their own families. Respite care is shorter-term support, often giving foster families, kinship caregivers, or parents a safe place for children to stay for a brief period of rest, transition, or added support.
In both roles, our goal is the same: to offer safety, stability, affection, consistency, and nurturing. Children enter foster care for many different reasons, including family crisis, parental illness, substance abuse, abandonment, abuse, neglect, or when their basic needs cannot be met.
If you’re considering parenthood, we cannot recommend these unconventional paths enough. Feel free to reach out—we’re happy to share what we’ve learned and offer insight into the process. To protect the privacy and dignity of the children in our care, we do not discuss private details about them, and we kindly ask that, if you see us in person, that you refer to them as children under our care rather than “foster kids.”
HONOR NATIVE LAND
Troemner Farm is located in Atlantic Mine in the Keweenaw Peninsula of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We acknowledge this place as the ancestral and contemporary homeland of Indigenous Anishinaabe neighbors: Gakiiwe’onaning (Keweenaw Bay), Gete-gitgaaning (Lac Vieux Desert), Mashkii-ziibing (Bad River), and Miskwaabikong (Red Cliff). We are committed to caring for this Great Lakes region in a spirit of respect, reciprocity, and good relationship with our Indigenous neighbors.