1991*–Present

*Although the first forty acres was purchased by the Congregation in 1854, the current farm project began in 1991.

Soon after its founding in 1851, the Congregation of Franciscan Sisters in Oldenburg, Indiana acquired forty acres of farmland to provide food for the Sisters and the orphans under their care. By 1930, the farm had expanded to more than 400 acres and supplied water, meat, eggs, fruit, and vegetables for the community, which included Sisters, orphans, and students. Farm production slowed in the second half of the century, and in 1970 the Sisters sold 120 acres of orchard and cropland to a neighboring family. During the farm crisis of the late 1980s, the Congregation decided that the farm was no longer economically viable and leased some of the remaining acreage. Awareness of environmental degradation was growing within the Congregation and, following a resource audit conducted by Father Al Fritsch and the Resource Auditing Service in 1990, the Congregation decided to revitalize the farm as a model of stewardship. After a communal commitment to revitalization was made, an administrator was appointed in 1992. The farm was renamed after one of the initial members of the Congregation and the first garden manager, Sister Michaela Lindemann. The long-range land management plan adopted in 1995 articulated a comprehensive revitalization effort, including organic gardening, composting, reforestation, permaculture design, and building restoration, all of which have occupied the farm staff since the 1990s. In 1992 and again in 1996, Michaela Farm received national recognition from Renew America for its restoration efforts. More recently, a county and state award for conservation practices added to the farm’s growing local recognition. The first issue of the Farm’s newsletter was published in 1994. In the first half of the 1990s, Michaela Farm sponsored several bioregional congresses, permaculture workshops, ecology and wholistic living classes, earth celebrations, and environmental conferences. As the decade wore on, sustainable agriculture became the primary focus. In 1997, the informal farm internship program that began in 1994 was transformed into a formal program that combined an academic curriculum with hands-on learning. The decade closed with the inauguration of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program in 1999.