Vernalruminations

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 w...