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A Night Amongst the Flowers at Uncle Chuck's Funny Farms
Gwinn, MI
I didn’t think I’d find myself at a garden glamping Airbnb / weed farm / regular farm this season, but alas, when you ride the Marquette wave, sometimes that’s where she takes you.
When I arrived, a quiet garden beckoned me with bloom and mystery. Inside the tent, I found a wooden bed frame, mattress with crisp white sheets, and small tables and rocking chairs handmade by the farmers who tended the space and the land around it. On them sat a jar of flower and a complimentary bong. Written on it in Sharpie: “Enjoy.”
I don’t usually partake, but, when in Rome.
An Airbnb, a food farm, and a cannabis growing operation all in one, Stoney Moose began, as Brad tells it, with a little bit of delightful chaos.
For clarity, here are the names of all the projects Brad and Kristel Delveaux are leading:
- Stoney Moose Air Bud and Breakfast (on-farm rustic garden AirBnb/agritourism experience)
- Uncle Chuck's Funny Farms (vegetable, plant start, and livestock farm)
- Northern Frost Genetics (cannabis breeding)
“When we bought the farm, no kids, me and Kristel were like, yeah, we’re gonna start a homestead in the UP! So in 2013 we started the farm. No kids, we were living in a shack. We had a tent in there. We’re actually gonna tear it down soon. When we got pregnant, we were like, oh, shit, we barely had anything. We didn’t know if it was gonna work! Our first greenhouse was a lot smaller.
“When her mom met me, you know, this random weed farmer, they were like, you gotta get a real job! You can’t live like this! It’s fuckin’ August, and the baby’s due in February. They were like, no way you’re gonna get nothin’ done.”
Standing now, thirteen years later on the Gwinn acreage are four blooming hoophouses, a vegetable field, flower garden and Air BnB, pig farm and goose/chicken coops, and shipping containers-turned-work spaces.
“After our first season we were able to put a down payment on a house and upgrade from a tent."
The Delveauxs live in Marquette proper within walking distance from Blackrocks Brewery, enjoying the best of both worlds in the central UP. The operation is soon to expand further, but thirteen years ago, things didn't exactly expand overnight.
“Never a dull moment, that’s for sure. This took so long. I joke with people, especially younger people, it’s like dude, I thought the farm was gonna look like this after year one. I was ready to tackle the world. But we spent all of our money on the land, so we didn’t have money for, like, tools. I didn’t have a tree saw until year two. We were hand-cutting trees for the greenhouse. It was crazy. It was a wild start.
“But you can buy a farm that’s already built and spend the rest of your life trying to pay it off. Or you can build a farm, and work slowly, piece it together. When you die, you’ll have your dream. There’s only two ways to go about it. So either way you’re hustlin’.
“Young people talk to me, like oh I wanna do this. I’m like, just do it. Just buy land. You’re gonna be beat up... The first year I wasn’t brought to tears was probably year three. I kept thinking something was going to go wrong at harvest time. Thought I was going to get arrested. I was like, the well pump didn’t go out. So what’s going to go wrong? The first year it’s like okay, how does a well pump even operate. So you’re sitting there Googling shit. You don’t have any money to pay someone to come fix this. You just try to troubleshoot life.”
"Year two, we finally had dry trimmers. I was like, we made it! I didn’t know we would get to this point! This has been fuckin’ wild! I quit! Not really, but you know.”
Brad has also delved into the “rabbit hole” world of homegrown tobacco leaves, growing all-purpose, grindable tobacco leaf on the farm.
Now the Stoney Moose operation is scaling up, with expanded acreage purchased in Deerton, Michigan, for a lodge and curated landscape intended for weddings and more.
Big dreams behind them, and big dreams ahead.
Co-conspirator Kristel names and caresses each flower, pointing out plants with the familiarity of someone introducing you to old friends, as we walk through the gardens. Her life goal, she tells me, is to make the botanical gardens of Marquette. The garden is also part of Brad’s answer to an identity he didn’t want the farm to be boxed into.
“I built this beautiful garden just to show that I can do more than just cannabis.”
The also farm raises hogs, chickens and geese for meat and eggs; grows vegetables of all kinds; and treats farmers market patrons to their own plant starts, from flowers to ornamentals.
There’s also the very normal gang of aggressive geese, which keep things interesting.
“Well, we had buddies that do cows, pigs," said Brad. "I was like, no one’s doin’ geese. Let’s be geese people. I’m French. So I was like, let’s do these fancy French geese."
“But I didn’t really Google it enough. I didn’t realize how aggressive and mean they were. And how long they live. They wake up and choose violence every day. I think they’re like Pinky and the Brain. They wake up and are like, how can we kill this farmer?”
“One day I was like, babe, Google when these fuckers die! She was like, fifteen to twenty-five years. I was like, what? I was like, oh my God, Ryan Gosling’s gonna be with me for the majority of my life.”
Brad’s cannabis farm features agritourism and its very own home goose. Juicey lives away from the flock, preferring a fragrant home underneath Brad's cannabis work station.
As for what sets Stoney Moose apart in the cannabis arena, that's easy: “We don’t remediate so we have really healthy soil. We grow giant, healthy plants. If you grow big plants, they kind of do their own thing. They have their own IPM. They’re hardier and more resilient. So no synthetic fertilizer or chemicals that the recreational industry uses.”
The farm leans heavily into agritourism as opposed to the traditional retail store experience. People come for a rustic stay, farm tour, and bud tastings in the fall. Brad describes the experience as being a little more like a winery.
The more I walked around Stoney Moose and the Funny Farm, the more I understood the experience that that Brad and Kristel worked to create. Not only with their unassuming and hilarious personalities, where each person that enters is treated like a friend, but behind the land, a life built piece by piece is evident, with a nose on the grindstone, working towards what felt like freedom, joy, and home.
There are pumpkins and pigs and baby chickens. There are greenhouses and gardens. And there’s a tent tucked beside it all, waiting for strangers to come spend a night.
These past couple years, trying to pull me away from my home sanctuary (and ever-present work to do) has been like pulling teeth. The outside world is where the problems come from!
But an evening immersed in rain and plant life turned out to be exactly what I needed. I had a good night amongst the dew-covered petals, inhaling the fresh petrichor around me. Silence except for crickets under string lights. Fresh flower scents, rain on the tent, and silly dreams amongst the cosmos.
Uncle Chuck's Funny Farm - Instagram
Brad Delveaux / Northern Frost Genetics - Instagram
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