Julia's story in Northern Harvest

Northern Harvest: Twenty Michigan Women in Food and Farming

JULIA BRABENEC

Before starting my book I didn’t know Julia, but when I was interviewing other women in the food world they told me to go talk with her. When I first met this beautiful woman it was shortly before her 90^th birthday. I was blown away. A home builder and a fruit grower, Julia is also a singer and a gifted poet. Also a believer in do-it-yourself!

She and her husband planted, by hand, 1100 fruit trees to produce peaches and apples. They built their own home. In fact, Julia told me, “We built all the homes we lived in.”

When they first settled in Leelanau County, “We lived pretty primitively for a while with kerosene lanterns. We had a well where we pumped our water for all the water needs. . . . We bought a little wind generator and attached it on the roof of our house . . . and we had some batteries which we bought used from the telephone company, and now we made our own power.”

To read more of Julia’s story and the stories of 19 other amazing women in the food industry you can order the book directly from Wayne State University Press or online from any of the independent bookstores now closed on account of the coronavirus, but taking online orders. Just give them my name and the title of the book, and enjoy meeting Julia and hearing her story.

https://www.waynesupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/northern-harvest

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