TAWAS CITY – A local blueberry farm was part of the Class of 2025 for the Fruit and Vegetable 40 Under Forty awards, in which honorees nationwide are chosen by the publications Fruit Growers News and Vegetable Growers News.
The Payne family have been the owners of Tawas Blueberry Farm, located at 838 Leggett Rd. in Tawas City, since they purchased it in 2019. Nathan Payne is a first-generation farmer, growing up in Indiana without a farming background; instead having a wildlife and landscape background. After college, he was a wildlife biologist in Wyoming and Montana, in addition to doing forestry work on the east coast, before moving to Tawas City when his wife, Cindi, got a job in the area.
According to Payne, as well as an article from Fruit Growers News, the farm – originally known as Czaika’s Blueberry Farm – dates back to 1951 when Joe Czaika, Sr. bought the plot and planted the first field, with the second being done in 1953. These fields are still at the farm today, producing blueberries with their original bushes.
When he passed away in 2003, his son, Joe Czaika, Jr. and Joe’s wife, Sharon, took over the farm. But as time went on and they got older, they put it up for sale, hoping to keep it as a blueberry farm.
The Paynes’ son, Wyatt, has cerebral palsy, and he was just 2 years old at the time the family decided to purchase the farm in 2019.
“We were under the guise that I was probably going to have to stay home with him,” Payne said. “With my background, it was kind of one of those things where maybe this is a way for me to have a job but still have my own schedule and dictate my own whereabouts, maybe as a way to pursue both.”
As for the 40 Under Forty awards, the program chooses 40 individuals in the fruit and vegetable industry under 40 years old, who are proved to have made a positive impact on the industry. Tawas Blueberry Farm was picked for the Class of 2025 and, while Payne doesn’t know who nominated the farm, he is certain that it came from people that are higher up in the Farm Bureau of Michigan or from those in the Michigan Blueberry Advisory Committee.
“You don’t know you’re nominated at all, and you don’t know until you actually receive the award,” Payne explained. “So I did not know I was nominated until I was told that I had received it.”
Every year, the Great Lakes Vegetable & Farm Market Expo takes place in Grand Rapids, and that is where the 40 Under Forty award recipients are celebrated. Payne recalled his past experiences at these expos, saying that they are educational events and they give an opportunity for others in the industry to network with one another.
While at the 2020 expo, he attended the blueberry commission meeting, which is where he met fellow blueberry farmer, Chad Reenders, who is from Holland. They had chatted and exchanged phone numbers and, a few months later, Payne called him, asking for more on what he could learn about blueberry farming.
“I talked to Chad for hours that day,” Payne stated. “I gained so much from that, which really sprung me into changing some things or updating some practices that really help the farm.”
Payne goes on to say that from that conversation, he and Reenders got to know each other better. Since then, Payne has gotten to know other growers that Reenders knows, who have also helped him with the farm.
“Some of these guys have since come up to my farm, driven all the way up here to see it, to talk and to help me,” he said.
Payne continued to show up to meetings and other events, such as the one he went to in 2020, so he could meet others in the industry and, from there, he was asked to join the Michigan Blueberry Advisory Committee – for which he is now the vice president. He is also now the local Farm Bureau president, as well as a chairperson for the Iosco County Conservation District.
“It all really started from showing up to that expo that day and shaking hands with people, being there to learn something,” he shared.
To Payne, the award shows that other people in the industry have recognized that he is passionate about the farm, cares about it and cares outside of the six acres of blueberries.
“It’s nice to know that we’re not doing all of this for nothing and that it is making a difference and that it is recognized,” he expressed.
“We do a lot of hard work, we do care, and we want fruit to keep going. We’re in a hard time right now where prices haven’t changed in 10 years and there’s farms selling and closing by the minute,” Payne pointed out. “So, if we don’t have people like myself and Chad that truly care outside of self-serving, then we’re not going to go anywhere good. It’s nice to see that there’s some people that are there to help and not just for themselves and not for the glory.”
Payne is always trying to do the next little thing for Tawas Blueberry Farm, whether that be making something new with blueberries to sell, adding more to the farm itself or advertising more to the public.
“We’re doing what we can to make it better,” he said. “We want to keep a lot of what it is, but we also keep it moving forward at the same time.”
As for when the farm will be open for the 2026 season, Payne explained that this usually occurs at the end of July or beginning of August, depending on the weather and what the crops will be like.
For more information on Tawas Blueberry Farm, visit their website at tawasblueberries.com and their Facebook page at facebook.com/tawasblueberryfarm. To learn more about the 40 Under Forty awards, and to view the rest of the 2025 honorees, go to fruitgrowersnews.com/40under40.
