In the countryside of Williamsburg, a family shares their vision of sustainable farming with their community at Up North Heritage Farm.
This article first appeared in Traverse Northern Michigan. Find this story and more when you explore our magazine library. Want Traverse delivered to your door or inbox monthly? View our print subscription and digital subscription options.
The sounds of cattle break the stillness of a spring night.
Overhead, the aurora borealis dances in the sky and the faint yips of coyotes carry through distant fields. On this night, the Wierema family stands in their pasture, looking up to the sky after a long day working on the farm. Like they do at the end of most days, the family is feeling tired, but also lucky: They’ve created their dream life here, nestled in the quiet hills of Northern Michigan.
Up North Heritage Farm, run by Justin and Melissa Wierema with their children Lily and Gavin, produces grass-fed and pasture-raised livestock—cattle, pigs and chickens. The farm’s 42 acres are split by Tobeco Creek; when it floods, it creates a wetland filled with cattails and birds. To the north of the creek, the family’s beef cattle and Fiona, a dedicated dairy cow, make their home, grazing on tall grasses and resting according to their own schedule. To the west, Mangalitsa pigs forage and play in the shade of a five-acre apple orchard, and hens scurry around the property, consuming insects.
Most mornings at the farm begin with a hearty meal. Melissa sips coffee while the family enjoys breakfast sandwiches made with eggs and sausage from their animals, and then the kids get ready for school. “There’s that whole ‘farmers getting up at the crack of dawn’ stereotype, but we are the opposite of that,” Melissa laughs.
Photo by Beth Price
Photo by Beth Price
Photo by Beth Price
After the kids leave, Justin walks out to the milking station in the barn. While he brushes Fiona, her young calf waits in the distance, curiously gazing at them. With Fiona’s milk, the Wieremas make butter, cheese and ice cream for family and friends.
In the afternoon, Justin checks in on the cattle, unrolling a barrel of hay for them. He then heads to the orchard to make sure the pigs have enough bedding and food and that the fencing is secure.
While Justin tends to the animals, Melissa takes online orders and packs frozen meat for the 70-plus full-time members of their meat club. Steaks, pork chops, chicken breasts, ground beef, organ meat, sausages and seasonal specialties like chuck roasts and pork shoulders go out daily. Requests come in for personalized home deliveries including calls from private chefs. After school, Gavin runs an order of bacon over to the neighbor’s house and brings a stray chicken back home in the process. Another day on the farm and so much more work to be done.
Their younger selves probably wouldn’t have imagined taking this path. “We grew up on fast food and candies, sugar and ultra-processed foods, everything super-sized and cheap,” Justin says. “A lot of people, especially our parents’ generation, viewed meat as meat and they’d ask us, ‘What’s wrong with a two-dollar steak?’”
Photo by Beth Price
Photo by Beth Price
Photo by Beth Price
But in their mid-20s, the couple began to see things differently. “We got into environmentally friendly things—non-toxic, eco-friendly,” Melissa explains. This interest eventually led them to shop at sustainable farms and connect with farmers who thought of food as a way to heal their bodies.
In 2011, while living in the western suburbs of Chicago, Justin and Melissa bought their first house, which sat on four acres. After the birth of their daughter that same year, the couple got their first chickens. They started with laying hens and, a year later, acquired meat birds, learning how to do their own slaughtering and butchering. The experience changed the family’s outlook on eating and brought them intimately close to their food and environment.
With their growing skills, the Wierema family felt a calling to leave the city and make farming a full-time venture. They scouted a few locations in Northern Michigan before buying the Williamsburg property in 2017. The animals came the next year, starting with three sows and a boar. They planned to raise the animals organically, soy-free and free-range and to sell to customers directly—but establishing a farm culture that would fit their location would require some in-depth research.
For example, instead of breeds like the furry, Instagram-worthy Highland cattle, they chose American Aberdeen, smaller Angus cattle that can live happily on 100 percent–grass diets and a rotational grazing system. And when it came time to add dogs to help protect their animals from predators like bobcats, coyotes and hawks that make regular appearances at the farm, they picked Great Pyrenees pups.
“They’re great with families, and I wanted more of a laid-back dog that can handle the weather,” Justin says. The family has two that patrol the farm—Yoda and Violet. Because of the dogs’ protective nature, the Wieremas don’t need to lock the chickens up at night. “We couldn’t do anything on this farm if it weren’t for our dogs,” Justin adds.
Photo by Beth Price
Photo by Beth Price
Photo by Beth Price
By far the most popular characters on the farm (and in the farm’s meat club shipments) are the Mangalitsa pigs. This Hungarian heritage breed is known for its wooly, sheep-like coat and exceptional meat. The pigs spend most days in the apple orchard, foraging for fallen fruit and tasty roots, rubbing against trees and socializing, as pigs do. Historically, Mangalitsa pigs were kept in apple orchards in Europe, and their thick coat makes them perfectly adapted to cold Michigan winters. A natural diet of foraged insects, fruits and grasses gives them rich-tasting dark meat that’s high in omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients. Many chefs and breeders market them as the “Kobe beef of pork.”
Though the retail price point of their products is often higher than you’ll find at the supermarket, the Wieremas justify those prices in two ways: cost and value. As happy as the animals are, raising them humanely and sustainably is costly. Organic and soy-free feed is more expensive than standard mixtures. “You have to consider how much it costs to produce meat,” Justin says. “Just to have a ham USDA processed is $2.50 per pound. So that five-pound ham requires more than $12 dollars in processing fees alone.”
But that expense is balanced out by their products’ true value. “You may pay more for meat from our farm, but it’s going to taste better—and it’s better for you,” Melissa says. Grass-fed beef, for example, contains more antioxidants and heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. She also points out that buying from local producers keeps money in the community, creating a positive economic cycle.
And while their products—and price points—may not be for everyone, Up North Heritage Farm has earned a loyal customer base made up of neighbors, community members, and businesses with similar values.
Photo by Beth Price
While the farm may seem like a romantic notion to some, living their dream has turned the Wieremas into realists. “Logistics, coordination, drop-offs; those would be my words of caution to anyone getting into farming. And you can never be gone for too long,” Justin says.
On top of managing a business, farmers are beholden to their animals—and weather is always a concern.
“Worrying about the weather is something we have to do. If the weather’s bad, Justin’s moving the huts or putting something on the top of them or angling them. During the last big storm, trees fell and we were worried about the animals running,” Melissa says.
When a huge storm hit in 2021, heavy wind and rain caused trees to crash into the neighbor’s kitchen roof. Acres of sunflower fields nearby were flattened by the wind. At the farm, the family scrambled to get their animals to safety. Sadly, dozens of chickens were lost.
And one spring, a young sow had her first litter end in disaster. “She was walking around the pasture having babies, dropping them all over and not caring where they were,” Justin says. The family tried to save them by bringing them into the house and nursing them back to health with food, warmth and care. In the end, it wasn’t enough. “We lost all of them, one by one. We were all very attached and working so hard. It was brutal.”
Even without the tragedies of losing animals, farming can be overwhelming. From long hours of physical labor to the pressure to make sales, the job has inherent stressors. However, it also offers many benefits, like time spent with nature. “For Justin, being outside and with animals has been incredible. And our son just thrives on being outdoors. I think getting outside is the answer to many things,” Melissa says.
Photo by Beth Price
For the Wieremas, farming is more than just a livelihood—it’s their life, with land and community at its core.
“People always ask, ‘Do you ship [your products]?’ And we say, ‘No. You should find a farm near you,’” Justin says. With this simple practice, consumers save on the cost of packaging, fossil fuels used for transportation and dry ice. Just as important, they develop a relationship with local farmers.
For people who choose to listen, food can tell a story. From a calf ’s birth to saying goodbye on an animal’s last day, there’s a connection between a farmer and the creatures in their care. When you buy from a local farm, you taste the land and the care put into an animal’s life. You waste less and appreciate more. You keep your money within your community. In the end, you’re experiencing life in Northern Michigan, straight from the green-grass pastures.