Nursery · fruit · flowers · Pennfield area, Michigan
We're planting a chestnut and fruit farm, with cut flowers alongside, on six acres of sandy Michigan ground. We're growing most of the trees for it ourselves.
It's early. Nothing is for sale yet. This page is where we'll share the farm as it takes root.
Why the name
Blue jays carry acorns and other nuts away from the tree and bury them to eat later. They don't come back for all of them. A single jay can cache thousands of acorns in one fall, and the ones it forgets can grow into the next generation of trees.
Robins, waxwings, and thrushes do the same work with fruit. They eat cherries, elderberries, and mulberries and drop the seeds far from the parent plant.
We want to farm the way that system works: nut trees, fruit trees, and berry shrubs growing together, feeding people and the birds that helped plant the landscape in the first place.
What we're growing
Anchor crop
Chestnuts suit our sandy, well-drained soil and can bear for generations. They're the backbone of the farm, and we're starting them from seed.
Orchard layer
Planted on the higher ground where cold air drains away in spring. The property already has old apple trees, and we plan to graft new trees from them.
Shrub layer
Elderberry, currants, gooseberries, and raspberries fill the space between trees and bear years before the trees do.
Nursery
We grow nut seedlings, fruit rootstock, and rooted cuttings in air-pruning beds, which grow dense, fibrous roots. Some of these will someday be for sale.
Flowers
Jennifer grows cut flowers for arrangements. Dahlias are her favorite, along with plenty of others. Her flowers will share the farm with the trees.
Young trees take years to fill their space, so there's room between the rows. Flowers bring pollinators to the orchard and bloom through the summer, long before the first nut harvest.
The land
Size
About 6.7 acres
Old field, brush, and woodland edge in southwest Michigan.
Soil
Loamy sand
Drains fast and warms early. Young trees need irrigation until they're established.
Lay of the land
Two upland knolls
The high spots stay clear of late frost, so the first plantings go there.
Already here
Walnut, cherry, oak & apple
Mature trees we're working to protect and learn from.
The hard part
Invasive brush
Autumn olive, Oriental bittersweet, and multiflora rose have to come out before much else can go in.
Water
Roof to tote
Rain collected off the barn roof into storage totes for the nursery beds.
Where we are
Fall 2026 · now
Filling air-pruning beds, sowing chestnut and other nut seed, and starting the cleanup of invasive brush.
Winter 2026–27
Cutting bittersweet vines off the walnut trees and collecting scionwood from the old apples for grafting.
Spring 2027
The first field planting, on the upper knoll.
The years after
More trees, berries, and flower beds each year. Eventually: young trees and shrubs for sale, fresh fruit, cut flowers, and small-batch preserves.
These are plans, and plans on a farm change with the weather.
Follow along
Favored by Birds is Jason and Jennifer. If you're a neighbor, a grower, a flower lover, or just curious about chestnuts in Michigan, we'd like to hear from you. We'll post updates here as the farm grows.
Write to us
hello@favoredbybirds.com