Producer Profile: Abby Schilling

Abby Schilling is a third-generation fruit and vegetable grower in Saint Joseph, Michigan. Abby’s father, Mick Klug, expanded the farm he grew up on from 40 to 120 acres and returned the production to the diversified agriculture he saw as a child. Abby farms over 150 acres, providing fresh fruits and vegetables directly to consumers via a CSA program and farmers’ markets presence.

Abra Berens: I wanted to talk with you, not only because you grow incredible fruit, but because you sell on the fresh market directly to consumers. Can you explain a bit about what that means and how it affects your business?

Abby Schilling: Yes, you can kind of separate fruit sales into three different markets. One, the commodity market, where fruit is grown in huge quantities and sold to a processor who turns it into a product: dried cherries, cherry juice concentrate, cocktail cherries, etc. Two, the fresh fruit wholesale market, where fruit is sold to a distributor to be consumed fresh by customers—the fruit that is in grocery stores, for example. Three, what I do, which is primarily the fresh retail market. I sell directly to consumers at farmers’ markets or to chefs at restaurants—and a little bit to distributors.