News

4,000 for breakfast on Michigan Thumb farm

A Midwest farmer says he wants the public to know how their food is grown so he’s inviting them over for breakfast.

Dave Rupprecht with Zwerk & Sons Farm in Vassar grows 7,500 acres of sugarbeets, corn, wheat and dry beans with his two cousins throughout Michigan’s Thumb. He tells Brownfield a breakfast for 4,000 in four hours took more than a year of planning.  “Every day we’re out working in the fields and people drive past—I know everybody that lives in a rural neighborhood maybe understands a little bit what’s going on, but we’re hoping to get people out here from the city and urban areas where they’re not quite as knowledgeable.”

Rupprecht says the farm was settled by his grandfather in the 1940s and has grown with the family along with a grain storage facility and commercial ag trucking business.

The farm is one of two this year that are hosting Breakfast on the Farm, coordinated by Michigan State University Extension.

Rupprecht says visitors this Saturday will learn about how crops are grown, how food is safe and will have several hands-on activities showcasing agricultural equipment, crop plots and livestock.

AUDIO: Interview with Dave Rupprecht