Community Garden Magazine Issue Eight April 2016 Community Garden Magazine Issue Eight April 2016 | Page 24

http://www.tiliancenter.org/
T I L I A N FA R M D E V E L O P M E N T
CENTER
facilitating year round farm development in Ann Arbor

In late 2010, Ann Arbor City resident Jeff McCabe appeared before the
FPB after receiving notice that his USDA proposal to establish a four
season farm incubator project had been funded through a Conservation
Innovation Grant (CIG). McCabe, who was originally planning to use a
small plot of land at Tessmer Farm, was seeking another location that
could be more stable and grow with the project. An agreement was
reached to site it at the Township Farm, using the 16 acre plot that
currently contains the incubator farms. McCabe signed a direct lease
with the Township for the Four Season Farmer Incubator Project (now
called the Tilian Farm Incubator Program), installing the first hoophouse
in April, 2011.
Concurrently, after lengthy discussions with the Township, FSEP and
Jeff McCabe, Tilian’s Steering Committee agreed that the Four Season
Farmer Development Program and previous efforts to create a similar
program with the Township at the 4400 Pontiac Trail property should be
merged into one effort. The Steering Committee–including local farmers
Shannon Brines and Dan Bair, landscape architect Jessica Neafsey,
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