Michael DeRuiter is a tart cherry, apple, and peach farmer in Hart, Michigan. After getting his MBA – even though he originally planned on leaving after an associate’s degree – he returned home to farm with his family. He and his high school sweetheart are married, raising a son they adore, and dealing with the alternating stressors and joys that come with a farm.

He talks about:

• Harvesting and the manual labor required, including thinning peaches to make them the right size
• Truly appreciating that his parents made him work on the farm
• Questions he gets on organics and GMOs
• Being outside, camping, golfing, and snowmobiling
• Jokes about fruit farmers not working in the winter
• 2002 and 2012, the two years of total crop loss he’s farmed through
• How he’s glad when the workweek of 80-100 hours goes back to 46-60 hour weeks
• His son - the best stress reliever
• The relief of the last day of cherries

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Farm/DeRuiter-Farms-Inc-374340520590/

 

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