WITH VIDEO: St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor returns to its farming roots by using hospital land to grow produce

St. Joe has become one of the first — if not the only — hospitals in America to hire someone as a "farm manager." Dan Bair, the bearer of that title, patrols St. Joe's campus not in scrubs or a white coat, but in shorts and a T-shirt, out in the field, where he's transforming at least a portion of the hospital's 354 acres back to its farming roots.

"This was just a big grassy field until we tilled it and started to build up the soil," Bair said on a recent 90-degree afternoon.

St. Joe is in the midst of Phase 1 of a project to farm up to 30 acres of its campus. The hospital began planting produce — things like tomatoes and peppers — in April, and is beginning to harvest it for sale to staff, patients and the general public. St. Joe has applied for several grants to help cover the $20,000 cost, and has used mostly volunteer labor to manage the farm.

The hospital held its first farmers market in July, and sold out of its produce in less than a half-hour, disappointing many staffers who expected it be open for seven hours.

St. Joe will continue to hold a farmers market at 11 a.m. each Wednesday, but it is no longer promising an end time. "Now, it's 11 a.m. until we sell out," said Lisa McDowell, manager of clinical nutrition for St. Joe.

If the notion of a hospital farming and selling its own produce sounds jarring, it's meant to. St. Joe's farmers market represents what CEO Rob Casalou hopes is a paradigm shift, not only for his hospital, but also for the health care sector at large.

"When people think of St. Joe's, they're thinking of the hospital and sick care," Casalou said. "But we're really a health provider. So we decided to take a significant part of our land and turn it into production for health and wellness."

"Organic food is one of those basic staples of a healthy diet and healthy eating. It provides a resource to the patients, as well as to the community. This is part of an overall theme for the campus."

St. Joe's Chelsea hospital also has launched a farmers market, but it doesn't sell its own produce. St. Joe's Ann Arbor hospital is the only one Casalou is aware of that handles produce from planting to sales.

While St. Joe exists in a self-contained campus, not easily accessible to the public, it isn't operating the farm on an island. St. Joe plans to encourage consumption of fresh produce — theirs and that of other local farmers — to combat obesity in the community. St. Joe also purchases goods from the Ann Arbor Farmers Market and manages a honey bee hive for the Ypsilanti Food Co-Op.

St. Joe considers the farm a way to give back — literally — a portion of itself to the community.

"We don't want to spend money cutting grass," said David Raymond, a project resource leader for St. Joe. "We'd much rather put it into food production that we could share with the community. That's what we're doing."

St. Joe has begun by converting 15 acres of its campus to farm land, including a hoop house — a versatile, environmentally friendly greenhouse that makes it possible to grow out-of-season produce. St. Joe also plans to plant in an exposed field and add an additional hoop house, expanding its growing capabilities to include things like flowers and pumpkins.

St. Joe anticipates large harvests in the fall that will provide a boost for its farmers market.

"We did have a good share of visitors (who) came by, but because we sold out in 20 minutes, we didn't make a dent in the demand," McDowell said.

That should become less of a problem. The plan next year is to develop an additional 15 acres of land for a total of 30. As the hospital harvests an increasing amount of produce — and purchases more from the Ann Arbor Farmers Market — the plan is to offer it to patients.

"It's been a dream we've had," Raymond said, "to see how we could use the property for community education, as well as our staff education and in helping treat our patients."

So far, the only setback has been hungry deer — St. Joe has set up an electric fence to keep them from mauling the crops. Perhaps St. Joe's initiation into the fraternity of farmers is now complete.

Casalou hopes so.

"We want to support the area farmers," he said. "We're not suggesting for one minute that our hoop houses are going to produce all the produce we need for the hospital or the community. We want to encourage people to use our area farmers."