The cogs of the farm are really starting to go now! Jim is busy finishing up the tractor repair and then on to the next task! The seed potatoes came in, as did the seed ginger. The fennel has sprouted and joined the army of lives that we are cultivating. With the warm weather and unexpected sunshine, it is hard not to float straight up into the air with joy.

To note:
Stockbridge Farm Members: No Pick up the week.

Ann Arbor and Eastern Market this week. There is a chance this will be our last market until the end of April so come on out and see us!

Still accepting CSAs!
​
Recipe:
Choi and Kale Flowers! The sisters of broccoli, these buds are every bit as tasty. Some say they are even better. The stems and flowers are edible and are great raw in salad, sauteed, or even grilled. Experiment and tell me what you like best. 

Sauteed Choi flowers with garlic: 
Simple Simple: Mince some garlic and chop the choi blossoms. Heat oil (any kind!) and sautee garlic for about thirty seconds, being careful not to burn it. Add choi blossoms and cook until wilted! That is it! If you have some lemon juice on hand, that can add a nice zing zang! These can be eaten alone, over rice, as a side dish, on some good bread with mozzarella-- there really so many ways to enjoy them!
​
Food for thought:
This past week, we really started feeling the pull of a warmer life. We got the first round of seeds in the soil and are feeling joyous about it! It is go go go! So much so that I will be a little brief! I hope to see you at market this week and I hope that you are as excited about all these vegetables as we are!
Helen writing for the Lake Dividers

• Looking to join our CSA or renew your membership? Find more details here. The basics? Open an account with us, get a bonus, and use your account to purchase produce with us at any of our markets. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask. 
• We are hiring! We have 2 part-time position open for the 2019 season. You can find details about the jobs on our website here. If you or anyone you know may be interested, please send us an email or pass along the information. 
• We are accepting workshares both on the farm and at market. Please email for details.

Fresh From the Field!

Greens: (Limited):Choi-Tatsoi blossoms!
Baby kale and chard mix
Microgreens: Spicy!
Pea Shoots
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Sweet potatoes! White and orange fleshed
Radishes: White Daikon, Green Daikon

​This weeks MarketsSaturday: Ann Arbor and Detroit's Eastern Market

The Ann Arbor Market is located in the Kerrytown District at 315 Detroit St, Ann Arbor, MI. The market runs from May thru December, 7 am to 3 pm and January thru April from 8 am to 3 pm.

The Eastern Market in Detroit is located about a mile northeast of downtown. It covers about 43 acres, bounded by I-75 on the West and Gratiot Avenue on the South. It runs year round from  6am – 4pm

Lake Divide Farm Newsletter:
A window into the production path of your food.
The turkey vultures are back too! Here to join the joy of spring. The vernal equinox rolled past this Wednesday, along with a glorious super moon. It was the last full moon of winter and the first full moon of spring. The slide into increased daylight and warmer temperatures is inevitable, as always, and at this time, undeniable. 

To note:
Stockbridge Farm Members: No Pick up the week.

NO ANN ARBOR THIS WEEK. You can still find us at Eastern Market though!

Still accepting CSAs!
Recipe:
Sweet potatoes! You can do so much with them! Here below is a recipe for sweet potato pancakes, but it isn't what you would expect. I think, shredded, latka style. This? Roasted, mashed and griddled. Someone at market told me about them and my jaw dropped. A new, and amazing sounding, way to consume sweet potatoes. And with some greens on top? Yogurt on top? Applesauce on top? What could be better Really, what?

Sweet Potato Pancakes: 
Roast and cool the sweet potatoes (1 medium potato for every serving desired). You can even do this ahead of time. Remove the peel, and mash/whisk the potato with 2 eggs. Add any spices you desire (cinnamon, nutmeg, cayenne, pepper, salt- all, none, or some). You may consider adding some honey too. Heat a skillet with a fat (butter/bacon grease/oil of choice). Scoop a 1/4 cup of batter in and cook for 5-7 minutes, until the cake can be flipped. Cook another 3-5 minutes on the other side. EAT THEM! Add a topping, snack on the solo. Either way, don't fight the smile that overtakes your face.
Here is a link to googled recipe.
Food for thought:
The greenhouse is a really desirable place to be now. When the sun peaks out, the temperatures rise to a tropical range. I have been spending afternoons out there, working on starting plants, while soaking in some sun. And so many plants there are! We already had to take down the partition, used decrease the square footage we heat during colder months, so we could fit more greenhouse benches in! And we are filling these benches with plants! This week we are starting another round of lettuce, tomatoes, the kohlrabi, peppers, eggplant, and more! Our seed potatoes came in, so we are making room to green sprout those, and the ginger should be coming in within the week. The good times are indeed about to roll.
I can't believe that we will be planting in the field soon. With all this sun and warm weather, the soil is warming up. I have a bag of seed packed, reading and waiting for the perfect conditions to sow them into the soil. It seems like the winter has sped by, even with the lingering cold. I am trying to keep time with the world, and warm up along side it, but it feels my sleepy winter self is clinging to the sheets. I swear, I am waking up.

Come see me at the Eastern market and cheers spring with me!
Helen writing for the Lake Dividers

• Looking to join our CSA or renew your membership? Find more details here. The basics? Open an account with us, get a bonus, and use your account to purchase produce with us at any of our markets. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask. 
• We are hiring! We have 2 part-time position open for the 2019 season. You can find details about the jobs on our website here. If you or anyone you know may be interested, please send us an email or pass along the information. 
• We are accepting workshares both on the farm and at market. Please email for details. 

Fresh From the Field!

Greens: (Limited):Arugula
Baby kale and chard mix
Microgreens: Spicy and mild mix! 
Pea Shoots
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Sweet potatoes! White and orange fleshed
Radishes: White Daikon, Green Daikon
Turnabaga- a cross between a crunchy sweet turnip and a rutabaga​
​
​This weeks Markets
​Saturday: Detroit's Eastern Market

The Eastern Market in Detroit is located about a mile northeast of downtown. It covers about 43 acres, bounded by I-75 on the West and Gratiot Avenue on the South. It runs year round from  6am – 4pm

Lake Divide Farm Newsletter:
A window into the production path of your food.
I heard the trill of one red wing black bird. The next day, I heard an abundance. I saw some today. Look out into the tall standing wetland grasses and reeds and you can see them too.

To note:
Stockbridge Farm Members: Pick-up March 12th! I will get the order form out tonight!

Find us at Eastern Market and Ann Arbor's Kerrytown Market!

Still accepting CSAs!
Recipe:
Microgreens are the tasty baby leaves of the plant, harvested while small, tender, and packed with flavor and nutrients. What to do with them? Eat them atop your breakfast. Add them to your sandwiches. Sprinkle them on your hot dishes (baked potatoes/sweet potatoes/roasted vegetables). You can even toss them in some olive oil, add some salt and enjoy them on their own. They really bring some green delight to the table, especially this time of year.
 
Food for thought:
Along with help from our neighbor up the road, Jim has begun the repairs on our Farmall 140. It is our main cultivation tractor, the one we use for weeding, hilling potatoes, spreading cover crop seed, and forming beds, and it is indispensable.  Jim has been reading and watching youtube videos, learning how to approach this repair and finally the time has come. It is exciting to increase our mechanical knowledge.
We are keeping busy and busy as busy busy. 
See you tomorrow!
Helen writing for the Lake Dividers

• Looking to join our CSA or renew your membership? Find more details here. The basics? Open an account with us, get a bonus, and use your account to purchase produce with us at any of our markets. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask. 
• We are hiring! We have 1 part-time position open for the 2019 season. You can find details about the jobs on our website here. If you or anyone you know may be interested, please send us an email or pass along the information. 
• We are accepting workshares both on the farm and at market. Please email for details. 

Fresh From the Field!

Greens: (Limited):Microgreens: Spicy and mild mix! 
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Sweet potatoes! White and orange fleshed
Radishes: White Daikon, Green Daikon
Turnabaga- a cross between a crunchy sweet turnip and a rutabaga​

​Markets, always rain or shine!Saturday: Ann Arbor and Detroit's Eastern Market

The Ann Arbor Market is located in the Kerrytown District at 315 Detroit St, Ann Arbor, MI. The market runs from May thru December, 7 am to 3 pm and January thru April from 8 am to 3 pm.

The Eastern Market in Detroit is located about a mile northeast of downtown. It covers about 43 acres, bounded by I-75 on the West and Gratiot Avenue on the South. It runs year round from  6am – 4pm

Lake Divide Farm Newsletter:
A window into the production path of your food.

Oh the sunshine! It is real and dear to our hearts! The onions are officially germinating! It won't be long until the greenhouse is a sea of green. All good things are rising our way!
I hope that all of you have gotten outside and gulped down a few good helpings of fresh air. 

To note:
CSA MEMBERS: All balances updated and accurate! Please find them at the bottom of the email once again!

Stockbridge Farm Members: Pick-up March 12th! I will get the order form out tonight!

BACK AT MARKETS! Come see us Lake Dividers at Eastern Market and Ann Arbor!

CSA Y'all- We accept members on a rolling basis through the season. However! This is the time that signing up to be a member of our farm has the greatest positive effect on your farmers!CSA's help share the burden of cashflow variability and seasonal unpredictability with the farmer. For us, it makes a huge difference to know that people are committed to eating our vegetables and the early investments take some of the stress out of all the early season improvements that we are making. So what is the CSA? In short, members open an account with us, receive a bonus for their commitment, and then use their accounts at market just like cash. You can find more details here. And let me say, if this is something you are considering, now is the time! We won't let you down!
Recipe:
I have heard the term braise before, but felt I didn't really know what it was. Here is Wikipedia's definition: Braising (from the French word braiser) is a combination-cooking method that uses both wet and dry heats: typically, the food is first sautéed or seared at a high temperature, then finished in a covered pot at a lower temperature while sitting in some (variable) amount of liquid (which may also add flavor).
Turns out, I have been doing it all along! So here is how I braise greens. The ones we are bringing this week are ideal candidates

Braised Greens with (optional) sweet potatoes:
Chop greens coarsely, stems and all. At high heat, add some oil/butter/fat of choice to a pan along with the greens, garlic and pepper (cayenne for me!) Stir 'em about until the greens start to soften. Add some lemon juice /red wine/apple cider vinegar/water, and allow simmer while the liquid cooks down. If you want the sauce to thicken up, you can always mince up an apple and put it in there (apples are rich in pectin). If you want a more hearty dish, roast some sweet potatoes in advance and toss them in when you add the liquid. The sweet potatoes add to the sauce. I like to eat it with some eggs, rice, pearl couscous or other delicious starchy-carb.
Food for thought:
We are now entering the time of increasing to do lists.  All the preparations for the season must be completed because soon, there will only be time for hustle. We are solidifying our nutrient management plan, slotting out time for some minor construction projects (crew break room and a partition for our cooler come to mind), finishing equipment repairs, finalizing spreadsheets, and more!
Exciting enough, we are also rounding the bend on hiring. We have filled all of the full time positions, as well as two of the part time positions. I am really looking forward to introducing you to our stellar 2019 crew. 
And Lizz and I are looking forward to seeing all of you at market tomorrow. May the sun be on our side!
Helen writing for the Lake Dividers

• Looking to join our CSA or renew your membership? Find more details here. The basics? Open an account with us, get a bonus, and use your account to purchase produce with us at any of our markets. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask. 
• We are hiring! We have 1 part-time position open for the 2019 season. You can find details about the jobs on our website here. If you or anyone you know may be interested, please send us an email or pass along the information. 
• We are accepting workshares both on the farm and at market. Please email for details. 

​Fresh From the Field!

Greens: (Limited):Baby Kale and Chard mix
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Sweet potatoes! White and orange fleshed
Radishes: White Daikon, Green Daikon, and Watermelon radish (last week until fall)
Turnips: Purple tops (last week until fall)
Turnabaga- a cross between a crunchy sweet turnip and a rutabaga

​Markets, always rain or shine!

​Saturday: Ann Arbor and Detroit's Eastern Market

The Ann Arbor Market is located in the Kerrytown District at 315 Detroit St, Ann Arbor, MI. The market runs from May thru December, 7 am to 3 pm and January thru April from 8 am to 3 pm.

The Eastern Market in Detroit is located about a mile northeast of downtown. It covers about 43 acres, bounded by I-75 on the West and Gratiot Avenue on the South. It runs year round from  6am – 4pm

The team is reunited! The windstorm didn't blow us, or our infrastructure, away! The greenhouse is up and going! It is happening! It is happening! Read more below. 

To note:
CSA MEMBERS: You may notice that there is no balance at the bottom of the email this week. We have one final update to perform on the spread sheet and then those balances will be consistently present. Thanks for your patience. In the meantime, if you need to know your balance, send us an email and we will gladly pass it along. 

Stockbridge Farm Members: No pick up this week! The next pick-up will likely be March 12th.

NO MARKETS THIS WEEKEND. We are sorry to say that we are farmward-bound this weekend. Expect to see us back next weekend at both Ann Arbor and Eastern.

New Members and returning members! Thank you for signing up to be a farm member and welcome (back) to the farm! In every email you receive henceforth, you can scroll to the bottom to find your balance.

This is still true!!:
CSA Y'all! Thank you for excusing my relentless marketing but in case you missed it: This is the time that signing up to be a member of our farm has the greatest positive effect on your farmers!CSA's help share the burden of cashflow variability and seasonal unpredictability with the farmer. For us, it makes a huge difference to know that people are committed to eating our vegetables and the early investments take some of the stress out of all the early season improvements that we are making. So what is the CSA? In short, members open an account with us, receive a bonus for their commitment, and then use their accounts at market just like cash. You can find more details here. And let me say, if this is something you are considering, now is the time! We won't let you down!
Recipe: Roasted Turnips, Sweet potatoes, apples, and dried cranberries!
Here is a link to a recipe I recently discovered while trying to get creative with our remaining storage crops. It combines a nice assortment of seasonally available produce into a delicious dish! Changes to make? I recommend replacing the brown sugar with honey at a 1:1 ratio. Additionally, the granny smith apple can be replaced with whatever tart apple is is currently available (read: ask your farmer!) I also suggest using your oil of choice in leiu of cooking spray. If you are feeling fancy, you can always toast some walnuts to top this off. Yum Yum! 
Let me know how you like it!
Food for thought:
The excitement of the new farm season is palpable. All our bustling to prepare the greenhouse is really paying off. We have seeded our onions, packing our hopes and dreams for onion glory into each of the 128 tiny cells, in each of the 100 or so flats of onions that we have seeded. We have also rebooted microgreen and pea shoot production, started up some scallions and lettuce and have great plans to get tomatoes, beets and a wealth of herbs going before Monday rolls past us. In the same plant family as the onion (Amaryllidaceae) we are adding shallots this year.
We grew shallots a few seasons back but nixed them from the list while we simplified our lives  during our transition from New Jersey to Michigan. We think it is time to add them back into the mix and we are really looking forward to their rich flavor. I haven't done much cooking with them but they are a well-loved delicacy. Their gentle flavor- like a mild, sweet onion, without the bite, is one of the reasons. Another is that, as it turns out, they have more pectin in them than an onion. Pectin is the substance in plants that adds firmness to cell walls. As it breaks down during the cooking process, it adds body to the sauce, similar to the way gelatin would, and creates a stable gel at room temperature. Huh! Ya learn something new every day!
Last weekend, while I was still away at the MOSES conference (which was amazing and inspiring) wind raged through the farm. Jim was on it. The biggest factor in preventing ultimate destruction with a windstorm is dogged attention. Hourly, Jim braved the gusts, tapping in rebar, tucking down plastic, adding soil or weights. We came through it okay, thanks to him. 
And staying on the educational kick, this weekend, I am participating in a soil nutrient and fertility class up in Howell. Participants (that's us!) get to bring in their soil tests and review the results with the help of the "professionals". I am really looking forward to gaining a better understanding of what's going in our soil  and building a long term fertility plan for our farm.
Lately, my mind has been continuously drifting to long term planning and on more topics than just the tangible. My perspective zooms out and I find myself exploring whether we are on the path we think we are on. This brings us to consider whether we are meeting our goals of sustainability and wildlife habitat creation, if we are fulfilling our commitment to making food affordable and accessible, and whether we will be able to create good jobs.  This is typical of my mind, especially for this time of year, and this year is no exception. If anything, this phase of reckoning is more pronounced this year than others. I think these thoughts are coming up with such intensity this time around for a few reasons. At MOSES I ended up attending sessions that led me to think deeply about how our farm interacts with the environment and society. Simultaneously, we are participating in a year long class that helps us consider whether growing produce for a wholesale market is a worthwhile endeavor for us. This class has involved us working on rewriting our business plan, a process that merits introspection and reevaluation. Also, through all of our interviews, we are coming into contact with all kinds of people that are interested in growing food, having a relationship with their food source, and building community around it. Talking with them about what we are doing and where we are going has been thought-provoking and invigorating. And a final possibility, we have to also consider, as our business is growing, there is more room for deeper thought (yes!). At last the vice-grip of the beginning years is loosening a little.
This great annual zoom-out is typically paired with concern and existential crisis. What is enough and are we even capable of doing enough? There is so much to be done, we need help! And then, and thankfully this time, quickly, the reminder comes into focus, we are not in this alone, we are building community around these ideas, like many people around the country and the world are, etc etc. All told, I think that we are on the right path. Each year, as we learn more, meet more people, try more approaches, listen to more perspectives, our world grows and so does our capability.
All of this makes me very excited to be here, participating and doing my best. I really feel like this is the beginning of the 2019 season. I am ready! 
I will miss seeing all of you at market this weekend and am looking forward to getting back out there next Saturday. Eat well until then!
Helen writing for the Lake Dividers

• Looking to join our CSA or renew your membership? Find more details here. The basics? Open an account with us, get a bonus, and use your account to purchase produce with us at any of our markets. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask. 
• We are hiring! We have 3 full-time and 1 part-time positions opening up for the 2019 season. You can find details about the jobs on our website here. If you or anyone you know may be interested, please send us an email or pass along the information. 
• We are accepting workshares both on the farm and at market. Please email for details.