Our Story
A Chestnut Farm in Northern Michigan
Ox Heights integrates family, trees, and animals in an farm ecosystem (Silvopasture). We produce chestnuts, hazelnuts, English Walnuts, peaches, lamb, maple syrup, Christmas greenery, hardwood lumber, and northern white cedar.
North Star Chestnuts - Our Primary Crop
Our family planted 9 Chestnut trees in 2016. Now we have over 1,000 grafted European Chestnut trees. Our family has grown up in the orchard helping to care for our chestnut trees. Our family now picks up the nuts and ships them directly to you with 8,000 lbs of nuts picked during 2024.
Follow our Journey
We starting this Northern Michigan chestnut dream as an experiment and you can see our journey since 2017 on the Ox Heights Family Farm Blog. Explore our other crops and how we integrate sheep and interplanting to optimize our acreage and grow better food.
About Us
Mission
Sustainability
Our Start
Provide you the highest quality nuts, fruit, lamb, and forest products while teaching our youth a renewed Land and Farm Ethic for the 21st Century.
Our Start
Sustainability
Our Start
Abby grew up with a farm background and Nick brought a passion for trees to their relationship. From that combination, came Ox Heights Farm and North Star Chestnuts.
Sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability
We are committed to sustainable practices; reducing inputs by promoting natural systems through permaculture, interplanting and the use of livestock to cycle nutrients.
The Future
The Future
Sustainability
The Johnson family has 5 kids and having a viable and sustainable farm future for them is important to us.
Location
The Future
Location
We are located in Northern Michigan on Moltke Ridge near Rogers City. Our proximity to the Great Lakes, high elevation, high latitude, and loamy sand soils provides a unique microclimate for growing high quality nuts, fruit, and forests.
Oxen
The Future
Location
Our farm has been home to several different teams of oxen over the years. We have used the teams to harvest select cut timber from our 120 acres of northern hardwood. Currently we do not have any oxen on the farm.
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