There are typically three MNFGA meetings held each year.
The Spring Meeting is typically at MSU in East Lansing. The Summer and Fall Meetings are typically at member or business farms/orchards/homes.
2024 Meetings and Events
March 14 – 17: Lansing Home & Garden Show Booth, MSU campus in the Pavilion, 4301 Farm Lane. This is a chance for MNFGA to enlist new members. Our booth will show photos of fruits and nuts that grow in Michigan. We will also have nuts to crack and taste. 1st time new members will get a seedling, American persimmon tree if they sign up at the show. If you are planning to be at the show, please stop by the booth and say “Hi!” Next door will be Nash Nursery and not far away will be the Eaton County Soil Conservation booth. Lots of good growing information and support along our aisle. If you are already an MNFGA member and are willing to help staff the booth, please reach out to the MNFGA President for details.
May 11: Spring Meeting, MSU Farrall Hall, 524 S Shaw Lane, East Lansing, MI 48824. It will start with coffee and chit chat anytime you arrive between 9 and 10 a.m. The business meeting gets underway at 10:00. At about 11:00 we will have a speaker telling us about using mycorrhizal fungi and the benefits thereof. At about 11:30 or next speaker will give highlights of their trip to Spain for the big chestnut symposium held there. The potluck is at noon (lots of yummy delights from fruits, to nuts and many things made with them). In the afternoon, we will have our fundraising auction of items donated by members and guests: often included are trees, plants, tools, and other great fruit and nut related items. There will be a scion exchange available throughout the day. Starting about 2:00 p.m. will be the grafting class. There will be a $20 fee for the grafting class (the rest of the day is free admission and free parking). If you have a favorite apple or pear tree that you would like to clone, please bring some scions for grafting. If you want to chose from the selection of scions that people bring for the scion exchange, that works too. Each student will go home with at least one apple and one pear tree that the student has grafted. All grafting supplies are provided, except for a grafting knife. If you want to sign up or have questions, please leave an email at MichiganNutGrower@gmail.com or call/text the MNFGA President. We require registration in advance but you can pay at the door. We expect to be done about 5 p.m.
June 15: Summer Meeting, Nash Nursery, Owosso, MI. Officially starts at noon with the potluck lunch, but you are welcome to come early to wander around their gorgeous nursery. Bonus is that Nash Nursery if offering a 20% discount to those members who attend if you pre-order with Dennis Strahle (MNFGA President) prior to May 24th (do NOT contact Nash Nursery with your order). Payment and pickup will be at the June 15 Summer Meeting. We will have a short business meeting, a fundraising auction and intend to spend most of the time touring the nursery. There are a lot of acres and thousands of trees to see. Thank you, Nash Nursery, for hosting! The address is: 4975 W Grand River Rd, Owosso, MI 48867.
September 28: Fall Meeting, at member Terry Calhoun’s orchard and disc golf farm at 5171 Waters Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48103. Terry has been planting many trees amidst his disc golf course and is going to show us around. We will start at noon with the potluck meal (we like to eat!). There will be a short business meeting, the fundraiser auction and then the farm tour. Thank you, Terry, for hosting us!
MNFGA 2023 Schedule
There are presently 5 events scheduled for 2023:
- Lansing Home & Garden Show on March 16-19, 2023. MNFGA booth 2013 will display photos of fruits and some nuts to crack and enjoy. It will be staffed by MNFGA members.
- Spring Meeting and Scion Exchange: April 15, 2023 at MSU’s Farrall Hall, 10:00AM start. Featuring pomegranate growing and integrated pest management speakers, business meeting, grafting demonstration, auction and scion exchange
- Grafting Class on April 29, 2023, MSU Farrall Hall, 10:00AM start with discussion and then grafting by participants on apple and pear rootstock (pre-registration and fee are required)
- Summer Meeting and plant purchase at Hartmann’s Plant Nursery on July 22, 2023. All members are eligible for great prices on a large variety of fruit-bearing plants to be picked up that day. Pre-ordering is required: please leave an email at MichiganNutGrower@gmail.com. Noon start with potluck luncheon, business meeting, auction, plant pick up and greenhouse tour.
- Fall Meeting on October 14, 2023 at the Levi Clark Family’s “Old Brick Orchard” near Gregory, Michigan. Noon start with a cornucopia of fruits and nuts fresh off member’s plants and trees, business meeting, auction and farm tour.
Email MichiganNutGrower@gmail.com for details about any of these events. Guests are welcome, but please note that some of these events require prepayment and registration.
FALL MEETING 2022 is on October 22, 2022
Rogers Reserve: 8072 S. Jackson Road, Jackson, MI 49201
Noon Start with Potluck Lunch
Come join the Michigan Nut & Fruit Growers Association for the annual fall meeting. This event is often highlighted by in season, fresh nuts & fruits from guest and member farms/orchards/back yards/potted plants.
We will enjoy if you can bring a dish to pass for the potluck. If you are uncomfortable bringing a dish to pass, for whatever reason, PLEASE do not let that hinder your attendance. You are most welcome to bring your own lunch or even arrive about an hour late to be in time for the short business meeting, a fund-raising auction and then the farm tour. And, of course, if you have a fruit or nut-related item, you are most welcome to bring it for the auction. It is common to have plants, trees, vines and/or bushes in the auction. HOWEVER, due that there are issues with the Asian Chestnut Gall Wasp (ACGW, Dryocosumus kuriphilus Yasumatsu) and the newly discovered-in-Michigan Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD, Drosophila suzukii), DO NOT bring vegetation or fruits if you are in an area that is in or near a known infected area. We need to limit their spread as best we can.
About Rogers Reserve
From an MSU website: “The Rogers Reserve was donated by Ernie and Mabel Rogers to Michigan State University in 1990. The Rogers were a prominent couple in the Jackson community, concerned with natural resources and food production. In 2002, at the bequest of the Rogers, an endowment was established to support the farm. Funds have been spent improving the farm and constructing Phase I and II building projects with the MSU Office of Land Management. Phase I, consisting of a steel pole building to house equipment, including a chestnut peeling line, was completed in 2005. Phase II was completed in April 2010 and consists of a wet lab, analytical lab, office and restrooms. The chestnut peeling line was purchased from Italy by the Midwest Nut Producers Council, supported by funding from the USDA Rural Development program. It is the only commercial chestnut peeling line in the western hemisphere.”
There is also a fruit separator that has been used very successfully on paw paws and other fruits that need to be separated from their seeds and skins. The building is very well kept and is interesting to see. There is a good selection of tree plantings and studies in the orchard.
Members, guests of members and anyone interested in learning more about growing fruits and nuts in Michigan is welcome to attend, without obligation. However, we believe that you will like what you see and want to join! Afterall, membership is a modest $8.00 per year.
If you have any questions, please leave a message at the “about” tab on this website.
We hope you can attend!
2022 Spring Meeting
MNFGA had an in-person Spring Meeting on April 23, 2022. It was in East Lansing, MI on the MSU campus in Farrall Hall.
The Meeting began at 9:30am with a business Meeting.
Our first presenter after the business was completed was Bill Nash of Nash Nursery in Owosso. Bill gave an excellent PowerPoint presentation that noted and described a surprisingly long list of fruits and nuts that grow well in Michigan.
After the potluck lunch, there was a grafting demonstration, fundraising auction and a scion exchange.
We enjoyed meeting in Farrall Hall again. This was our first Meeting on campus since Spring 2019.
2021 Summer Meeting…See the “Recent Updates” section to read a review of the Smith Farm Event
August 14, 2021, Saturday, Noon
Bruce Smith Farm, 10886 Mason Drive, Grant, MI 49327
We will start at noon, August 14, 2021, with a potluck meal. Please plan to bring a dish to pass, personal tableware and your own chair (and a folding table if you do not wish to eat from your lap). MNFGA will furnish coffee and water. We will have a short business meeting and then on to the farm tour. There will NOT be an auction. The tour will involve walking around the orchards, so please bring comfortable, weather-appropriate apparel. Our host is a successful chestnut grower. He also has an interesting method to repel deer.
If the weather is wet looking, we will have a tent and we will still trod though the rain to see the farm, only a downpour or serious lightening will stop us!
If you are uncomfortable with the potluck meal from a virus or allergy standpoint, please plan to bring your own sack lunch…no one will mind and we will be happy to have you there.
COVID-19 rules? PLEASE, if you do not feel well that week or that morning, DO NOT attend. Error on the side of caution for your sake and that of your fellow MNFGA members.
More information will be in the upcoming MNFGA News.
We are looking forward to seeing all of you, and your guests, who can attend!
Michigan Nut and Fruit Growers Association (MNFGA) 