SAVOR ENCORE
“It literally takes three of us on Saturday mornings to run the Texas Corners market,” Matt says. Bailey’s Meats also supplies shaved ham and bacon to Texas Corners Brewing Co., a restaurant and microbrewery. Located a jog down the road from the restaurant, Bailey’s Meats created a top-selling beer brat using the brewery’s Three Brothers IPA. The beer
brat is sold at Bailey’s Meats year ’round and appears on the Texas Corners Brewing Co.’s menu from Memorial Day to October.
Fourth-generation farm As for Bailey Terra Nova Farms, Matt and his brother, Darren Bailey, are the fourth generation of Baileys to work the Schoolcraft farm. Matt’s great-grandfather, Ward Bailey, started the family enterprise in 1916 when he relocated from southeastern Iowa to Michigan. He was a tenant farmer in Iowa until a banker recognized his potential and offered advice: Purchase your own farm.
22 | ENCORE MAY 2019
Clockwise from above: The Bailey farm encompasses nearly 2,000 acres; Ward Bailey, left, started the farm in 1916 and worked it with son Arthur; the fourth and fifth generations of Baileys to work the farm are, from left: Cole, Melissa, Warren, Darren, Karen, Curtis, Anna, Matt and Ashley; an antique scale and stamps that belonged to Karen’s father, Dennis House, who was a meat cutter.
“So he packed up, bought a little farm in Lawton for two years, and then found this place,” Matt says. What made Ward settle in Schoolcraft? Nobody knows. “He could have went another 10 miles that way,” Matt says, gesturing toward the east,