Ahoy!
​
The ordering is going more smoothly. While the ordering platform has been a little buggy on occasion, I am generally satisfied with it. It has allowed us to continue doing the work we need to do to ensure that there will be vegetables available to you. 

Important Notes:

• Stockbridge- Pick-ups will be at market on Fridays during market hours (4 pm to 7 pm)  It will be so for all pick-ups moving forward. 
• Eastern- We may be in a new location at market this Saturday. Please check our website's homepage before heading to market to find out where we will be!
• We are now opening the ordering to both farm members and market customers on Tuesday evenings, instead of staggering order opening. We are doing this for a few important reasons:
  • It reduces the amount of computer work we have to do and allows us to dedicate our time to cultivating the vegetables. This will ensure that we have the vegetables for us to sell and you to eat, and that is really the important part. 
  • We haven't been selling out, except for the extremely limited items. That means, this is unlikely to effect whether your order is filled or not. 
  • Don't worry about not getting your favorites. Doing it this way will increase the availability of your favorites, not just for you but for everyone. 
  • This is similar to how we have always handled it at market. 
  • This will increase the window for sales for all our customers and increase the amount of overall sales. It is important, especially this time of year and under these strange circumstances that we sell as many of our vegetables as we can.
• If you haven't been able to order though Local Line please send us an email so we can help you get set up.

Ordering:
If you have already registered with Local Line, just log in and use your account to order. If you haven't already done it, please make sure your account name is in the format Lastname.Firs as in Chandler.Hele or Neumann.Jim. This isn't required but it helps us when we are entering data, packing, and handling pick ups. 

If you still need to register with Local Line, follow these instructions. To avoid difficulty, PLEASE READ THROUGH THESE INSTRUCTIONS:
How to create a Local Line Account

1. Head to the link at the bottom of these steps.
2. Register using the green button to the right.
3. You will be asked to enter a bunch of information and there are a two things that are very important
   1. Be sure to use the email address that this email went to. If you don't, you may be asked to pay using a credit card.
   2. Please use the Lastname.Firs for the Account name. (Your last name follow by a period followed by the first four letters of your first name, with no spaces. For example Chandler.Hele)
4. You will then need to verify your email address by going to your email inbox and responding to the email that comes from Local Line.
5. At last! You can order!
6. Here is the link to use to create your Local Line account: https://www.localline.ca/lakedividefarm

If you have trouble with any of this, Jim will be available to help you all day Wednesday and Thursday. Please send an email and we will walk you through it, either via email or over the phone. We know this is strange and weird but it is what the world is asking of all of us right now. 

Here find some notes on the farm. Below this, find some notes on pick-ups.

We have had a windfall of applicants to work on the farm. The crew is really filling out and I am so grateful. It has been a few years since I worked this many consecutive days in April. It is something I look forward to not doing again. 

Since I last wrote we have planted almost an acre of vegetables, hired 4 people, begun the process of flipping one of our hoop houses to summer vegetables, brought equipment out of hibernation, dusted off the irrigation and continued the ebb and flow of the greenhouse (seeding flats, taking flats out to be planted, seeding flats, harvesting flats...)

I don't have much more to say because, before the big rain over the next coupe days, I am hoping to get a little more tractor work done. This means I have to get out of the office and into the field. 

Best of the best,
Helen
: 



Notes on Pick-ups:
Important:

• Stockbridge- Pick-ups will be at market on Fridays during market hours (4 pm to 7 pm)  It will be so for all pick-ups moving forward. 
• Eastern- We may be in a new location this Saturday. Please keep an eye out for an email with pick-up locations. 
• We have left the windows broad but would appreciate it if you come as early as you can. 
• If you are picking up in Ann Arbor, Whitney Farmstead, Tiani Body Care, and Raterman Bread have a pre-order set-up going on as well. This is not included in your CSA but they have great products. https://whitneyfarmstead.square.site/ 

If your account balance is low:

• If you want to continue on as one of our members and your balance does not cover your current order
  • Order what you want
  • Add money into your account either by
    • Putting a check or cash in your trunk/backseat Saturday for pick-up and emailing to let me know
    • Mailing a check
    • Using the online store
• If you just want to add more to your account, go for it! Use any of the methods listed above.
• If you no longer want to be a farm member
  • We ask that you do not go over your balance.  

Pick-up locations and instructions:

Ann Arbor- Whitney Farmstead 11 am - 2 pm
PICK UP INSTRUCTIONS for Whitney Farmstead:
Bring a piece of paper with your first and last name written upon it.
Drive to 4165-3601 Farrell Rd, Dexter, MI 48130 (The farm drive is on the South side of Farrell between these two addresses.)
Turn down farm drive and Look for our van/sign. 
Pull into car line and stay in your car with your windows up.
When you are at the front the line Kyla will come to you. Hold up your paper or say your name.
Either pop your trunk/rear door/unlock your backdoor to allow Kyla to place your order in your backseat.

Note: We are being hosted by the lovely Whitney Farmstead. They have all of their amazing products (Maple Syrup, Eggs, Meats), along with the Tiani Body Care's Soaps, and Raterman's Breads. They have an online store for pre-ordering as well. 

Royal Oak- At the Market! 7 am - 11 am – We will be parked in the last spot before the circle. 
PICK UP INSTRUCTIONS for the Royal Oak Market
Bring a piece of paper with your first and last name written upon it.
Drive to the Royal Oak Farmers' Market. We will be on the East Side of the building.
Look for our sign, van, and me or Kathryn. We will be parked in the last spot along the building side, just before the circle
Upon arrival, get into the car line (we are hoping to use the circle for a car line) and stay in your car with your windows up.
When you are at the front the line we will come over. Hold up your paper or if you don't have a paper, say your Last name. Keep your windows up!
Either pop your trunk/rear door, or unlock your backseat door to allow Kathryn to place your order in your backseat.
If you are shopping at the market and would like to pick your order up on foot, please respect the 6’ social distancing measures.  


Eastern Market- Shed TBD -  7 am - 11:30 am 
PICK UP INSTRUCTIONS for Eastern Market
Please look for an email later this week with the pick-up details.

Stockbridge- FRIDAY at market (on the square at South Clinton St & West Main St) 4 pm to 7 pm

PICK UP INSTRUCTIONS:
You may choose to walk up to the the table 
--or--
Low contact option
Bring a piece of paper with your first and last name written on it. 
Pull up along close to our stand at market.
Give a beep 
Hold up your paper or say your name.
Either pop your trunk/rear door/unlock your backdoor
We will bring your order out and put it in your trunk.


Good for the Earth, Good for the Farmers, Good for the People. The Trifecta of sustainability. Good for the earth: Taking care of the natural world is a important, after all, it takes care of us; Good for the farmer: We believe farmers should have livable hours and livable wages; Good for the people: We believe in food equality and bringing our produce to market at an affordable price and keeping it accessible is important to us.

We were swept away in a current adjustment. That being the case, we haven't shared our newsletters on our website for a touch. Without further ado, here is the most recent one. Hopefully we will be back on track on it henceforth!

Ahoy!!
What a whirlwind. Hopefully this is the only email that I send to you tonight, unlike the triploid email trend we have all been enjoying/suffering through. Time will tell. Last week I really bungled up the explanation of how to use Local Line. Hopefully this week it is easier (for everyone!) 

Ordering:
If you have already registered with Local Line, just log in and use your account to order. If you haven't already done it, please make sure your account name is in the format Lastname.Firs as in Chandler.Hele or Neumann.Jim. This isn't required but it helps us when we are entering data, packing, and handling pick ups. 

If you still need to register with Local Line, follow these instructions. To avoid difficulty, PLEASE READ THROUGH THESE INSTRUCTIONS:
How to create a Local Line Account

1. Head to the link at the bottom of these steps.
2. Register using the green button to the right.
3. You will be asked to enter a bunch of information. The only things that is important to us is that you please use the Lastname.Firs for the Account name. (Your last name follow by a period followed by the first four letters of your first name, with no spaces. For example Chandler.Hele)
4. You will then need to verify your email address by going to your email inbox and responding to the email that comes from Local Line.
5. At last! You can order!
6. Here is the link to use to create your Local Line account: https://www.localline.ca/lakedividefarm

If you have trouble with any of this, Jim will be available to help you all day Wednesday and Thursday. Please send an email and we will walk you through it, either via email or over the phone. We know this is strange and weird but it is what the world is asking of all of us right now. 

Here find some notes on the farm. Below this, find some notes on pick-ups.
Most nights, the dogs and I walk the fenceline. I look for interesting life- crawfish holes (I will get a picture), birds nests, ant hills, you know, the usual. Meanwhile, the dogs look for animal burrows. More accurately Boomer looks for animals and Exie looks into my eyes begging for cookies and I feed them to her secretly when Boomer isn't looking. If we don't take these walks, I think we would all lose our minds. I would never decouple from the troubles of trying to finish a puzzle with missing pieces. The dogs would explode from lack of romping. 

What are the missing puzzle pieces? I mean, we all know, COVID-19, right? The uncertainty about the future. The way this pandemic has highlighted some societal deficiencies. All the worry about what it really is, what it really looks like, how should we behave, how to be responsible now, how to get the information that we need. It boils up quickly. It is hard to look away.

But what does that look like here? What does the pandemic version of Lake Divide Farm look like?  Really, it looks like us working really hard with less resources and more variables. How has this manifested on the farm? 

For one thing, we have dramatically less people working with us than we anticipated. This is for both COVID related reasons (being a caretaker, being responsible with exposure and quarantine , being fearful of switching to a lower paying job in uncertain times etc) and not covid reasons (taking another job and moving on from the farm, deciding not to work on the farm this year). This set us up to struggle this spring.

On top of that, switching to online ordering left us with less time during a critical moment in the season- the prep time. I still believe that pre-ordering and low contact is and continues to be the thing to do (for how long, we are still considering). Regardless of how right it is, it has taken a toll. Packing orders takes a long time. Learning a new system takes time. And that time is something we don't have a lot of. We fell behind on planting, seeding, building, planning. We fell behind. 

We lost some of the early seeded crops- those greens I seeded at the beginning of March that we were all so looking forward to. But if we can get them weeded, we will have early carrots.

Add to that, the intense learning required to be a responsible essential business during a pandemic and we are swamped!

It was so thick over here, I couldn't even talk about it. I haven't been able to write about it because we had no time and little mental space for flourish. All we could do was keep doing the next right thing. And that is what we are doing. Putting one foot in front of the other. Taking the steps that we know will ensure food. Managing the most urgent situations. 

Luckily, this is something that farming has taught us to do- address the most urgent concern. And so we have stayed afloat. And we are starting to catch up. We have two new hires- both for part-time, and a few prospects. We have just over an acre prepped and will get plants in the ground this week. We have another 2 acres of ground plowed and ready for finishing touches. We figured out the online ordering thing (for the most part). We started the most time sensitive seeds. 

Things are seeming a little more possible. I am taking some deeper breaths. We aren't out of the woods yet, but we have more support than we did two weeks ago, and more is on the way. I really want you to know that we are working our hardest. I have no idea what it looks like from the outside, but from the inside it looks like we are riding a molten tidal wave. It has been terrifying. 

I just wanted you to know that this isn't just "farming as usual". These aren't the regular spring concerns. I know we will persevere. We have an excellent core team, good land, solid experience, dedication. But it is hard. It is hard for all of us in all different ways. So let's stick together.

Best of the best,
Helen and Jim plus the core crew of Lake Dividers (Lizz, Malcolm, and Kyla!)
: 



Notes on Pick-ups:
Important:

• Second week of new Hours at Eastern (7 am to 11:30 am), Royal Oak (7 am to 11 am), and Whitney Farm (11 am to 2 pm)
• We have left the windows broad but would appreciate it if you come as early as you can. 
• If you are picking up in Ann Arbor, Whitney Farmstead, Tiani Body Care, and Raterman Bread have a pre-order set-up going on as well. This is not included in your CSA but they have great products. https://whitneyfarmstead.square.site/ 

Pick-up locations and instructions:

Ann Arbor- Whitney Farmstead 11 am - 2 pm
PICK UP INSTRUCTIONS for Whitney Farmstead:
Bring a piece of paper with your first and last name written upon it.
Drive to 4165-3601 Farrell Rd, Dexter, MI 48130 (The farm drive is on the South side of Farrell between these two addresses.)
Turn down farm drive and Look for our van/sign. 
Pull into car line and stay in your car with your windows up.
When you are at the front the line Kyla will come to you. Hold up your paper or say your name.
Either pop your trunk/rear door/unlock your backdoor to allow Kyla to place your order in your backseat.

Note: We are being hosted by the lovely Whitney Farmstead. They have all of their amazing products (Maple Syrup, Eggs, Meats), along with the Tiani Body Care's Soaps, and Raterman's Breads. They have an online store for pre-ordering as well. 

Royal Oak- At the Market! 7 am - 11 am – We will be parked in the last spot before the circle. 
PICK UP INSTRUCTIONS for the Royal Oak Market
Bring a piece of paper with your first and last name written upon it.
Drive to the Royal Oak Farmers' Market. We will be on the East Side of the building.
Look for our sign, van, and me or Kathryn. We will be parked in the last spot along the building side, just before the circle
Upon arrival, get into the car line (we are hoping to use the circle for a car line) and stay in your car with your windows up.
When you are at the front the line we will come over. Hold up your paper or if you don't have a paper, say your Last name. Keep your windows up!
Either pop your trunk/rear door, or unlock your backseat door to allow Kathryn to place your order in your backseat.
If you are shopping at the market and would like to pick your order up on foot, please respect the 6’ social distancing measures.  


Eastern Market- In Shed Four! 7 am - 11:30 am 
PICK UP INSTRUCTIONS for Eastern Market
Bring a piece of paper with your first and last name written on it. 
Head to 2934 Russell St, Detroit, Shed 4.  (It is the long narrow shed between the two indoor sheds 3 and 5)  
Turn onto Division street from Russell Street.
You will see our Lake Divide Farm Sign and Shana.
Pull into car line and stay in your car with your windows up.
When you are at the front the line Shana will come to you. Hold up your paper or say your name.
Either pop your trunk/rear door/unlock your backdoor to allow Shana to place your order in your backseat.

Stockbridge- Roadside on the farm 12 pm to 2 pm
PICK UP INSTRUCTIONS:
Bring a piece of paper with your first and last name written on it. 
Drive to the address listed on your receipt. Our farm is located just North of Stephen Road on the dirt road part of Mount Hope (Moechel)
Pull up along the roadside in front of the big barn on the East side of the road.
Give a beep if no one is present but stay in your car and keep your windows up.
Hold up your paper or say your name.
Either pop your trunk/rear door/unlock your backdoor
We will bring your order out and put it in your trunk.

Please do not stroll the farm. We are working hard to keep our work environment safe for us to work and produce food. We hope to have a potluck this spring if various conditions permit!

Good for the Earth, Good for the Farmers, Good for the People. The Trifecta of sustainability. Good for the earth: Taking care of the natural world is a important, after all, it takes care of us; Good for the farmer: We believe farmers should have livable hours and livable wages; Good for the people: We believe in food equality and bringing our produce to market at an affordable price and keeping it accessible is important to us.