Ahoy!

To note:
Stockbridge Farm Members: No pick up this week. 

We will be in Shed five (inside!) at Eastern Market. We are still new there and getting moved around. Please look for us. We may be by the doors on the North Side of the building- that is a good place to start looking.

Recipe:
Japanese Sweet Potatoes! White on the inside, with a nutty flavor, they are a little more dry than the classic orange fleshed sweet potato. They make GREAT chips. I recently got a mandoline from a second hand store and have been toasting up a batch in the oven every chance I get. They make a great crispy addition sprinkled on top of any meal or just a crunchy, healthy munchies to fill that indulgence slot. 

Sweet potato chips: Scrub them up and slice them thin. I have been using a mandoline but you could use the slicer on the side of your cheese grater or a regular ole knife. Coat the slices with the oil of your choice and season to taste with salt, pepper, and any other flavor you desire. Spread them onto a baking tray. They do not have to be completely single layer.  Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees, give them a scrape and flip, and then bake for another 20-30 minutes. Remove them from the oven and give them an additional stir. Allow them to stay on the pan while they cool to add on some additional crispy-ness. Enjoy!
Thoughts and rambles:
We are moving from a dusting of snow to a real snow and along with that, a real dip into the winter cold. By Sunday we will experience this year's first dip into the single digits, and a potential for a drop into the negatives. We are bracing for it by adding additional covers to the crops in the hoophouses and crossing our fingers. Hopefully our impressive plants will bear with us.
We are also working on completing our seed order. We aim to have the bulk of our seed orders placed by January 25th. This involves looking at all that we grew and sold this past year, predicting how much markets will expand or contract and making adjustments, nixing crops that didn't pan out or firming our resolve and trying again, and resisting the temptation to add too many new types of crops. There is so much data in a diverse vegetable business like this, organization is key. This is where excel becomes an actual member of our team, taking on human form and advising our decisions.  Thank you human-excel, for holding all this information for us. Just next month we will be starting our first seeds for the season. It amazes me yet again how easily time passes.
But never fear, we aren't letting this time slip by unnoticed. We took a dip in the winter woods and saw some beautiful ice crystals. They look like leaves! This is known as hoarfrost and happens when temperatures are cold enough and there is ample water vapor around. We saw more hoarfrost in the forest where the frozen soil heaved up. Between the cracks, leaflets of beautiful ice crystals were exposed! 
I hope you can make some time to get out in the world and observe some beauty! Looking forward to seeing you at market.
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 3 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. 

Fresh From the Field!

Greens: (Limited):Arugula
Head lettuce
Herbs: 
Thyme
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Cabbage
Kohlrabi- beautiful meal sized kohlrabi and tender petite 
Onions
Sweet potatoes! White and orange fleshed!
Radishes: Classic (with greens! May be limited), White Daikon, Green Daikon, and Watermelon radish
Turnips: Purple top and golden roasting turnips
Turnabaga- Turnip-Rutabaga cross! Delicious, sweet and crisp!

​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

Ahoy! 
​
See the greens that I promise exist pictured about. They are coming! In the meantime, roots, roots, roots.

To note:
Stockbridge Farm Members: We will be sending out an order form to be used. Orders should be placed by Sunday night for pick-up Tuesday evening at Positively Chiropractic (thank you ladies!) between 4:00 and 6:45 pm. More details in the order sheet.

We will be in Shed five (inside!) at Eastern Market tomorrow. We are still new there and getting moved around. Please look for us. We may be by the doors on the North Side of the building- that is a good place to start looking.
Recipe:
I know you have seen these pointy, lime green cabbage at market! Did you know they are tender and sweet? They carry a meal! Here is a unique way to enjoy them.

Roasted Arrowhead Cabbage: Cut the cabbage into wedges, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme. Roast for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees. A dusting of parmesan cheese just before finishing is optional. 

Blatherings:
We got a dusting of snow! I miss the snow of last year. It was thick and quieting. I don't really miss the super cold we had, but the snow. And the prospect of ice skating on whatever lake I wanted. 
The warm weather this past week has been really enjoyable. And the sun. In the gray times of Michigan's winter, slivers of sunshine and string lights are the only way through. We can control the influx of string lights (you should see our kitchen!) but the sun is on its own schedule. As we knew, the warm weather couldn't last forever. It will be cold cold by the end of the week.
This weather change that we are experiencing is bringing a lot of wind. As the air warms and rises, it leaves a low pressure area begging to be filled. In comes the cold air. Wind with a farm is stressful. Before the farm, wind was a portal. I could feel the big systems that we are a small part of. It was like getting a glimpse of the big magic. While that is still true, and could still be visible, it is often overshadowed by the threat of destruction. Our structures seem flimsy when up against the all powerful wind.
Our caterpillar tunnels, the ones with the greens you see pictured, are such structures. Especially with the rain softening the ground that their stakes are holding on to. We had an even last week when the plastic, loosened by the warmer weather, slipped off to the side. Kindly, it was still belted in with cord, but it was an effort to pull it back on. This week, we were more ready. We have been maintaining our caterpillar tunnels diligently, checking rebar and tightening plastic. We have found that on windy days, regular checks are imperative. It takes a lot less time to maintain than it does to recover.
We are going to dramatically extrapolate that theme into our lives. Maintain rather than rush and rebuild. 
Onward and upward!

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 3 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. 

Fresh From the Field!

Greens: (Limited):ARUGULA!!
Herbs: 
Thyme
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Cabbage
Kohlrabi- beautiful meal sized kohlrabi and tender petite 
Onions
Sweet potatoes!
Radishes: Classic (with greens! May be limited), White Daikon, Green Daikon, and Watermelon radish
Turnips: Purple top and golden roasting turnips
Turnabaga- Turnip-Rutabaga cross! Delicious, sweet and crisp!
Markets, always rain or shine!All good things come to an end: The Wednesday Ann Arbor Farmers' market and the Saturday Chelsea market will return in May after a winter haitus. 

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

AHOY!!
​
I hope that you had a wonderful holiday season and enjoyed celebrating the arrival of the new year. Although the days are getting longer and the plants feel it, I barely do. It seems the days are as short as ever. Whelp! It will only seem like that until I notice it is still light out at 9 pm! Honestly, I can't wait for that!

To note:
The Wednesday Ann Arbor market and the Saturday Chelsesa market are on break until May.

For our local Stockbridge folks, that means quite trek. Never fear, we are planning on bi-weekly pickups in Stockbridge beginning the week of the 14th (likely on a Tuesday). Expect more details in next weeks email.

We will be in Shed five (inside!) at Eastern Market tomorrow.
Recipe:
This is the season that is light on greens. It is the time to get in touch with storage crops, eating them in all sorts of original ways. This is currently my favorite every day eat.

Shredded kolrabi and carrots with onions! It is as easy as it sounds. Shred the kohlrabi and carrots, mince the onions. Stir together with a generous amount of lemon juice, olive oil, mustard and caraway seeds plus salt to taste! It goes down easy so make a lot!
Blatherings:
The plants we placed in the hoops so late are slowly growing and appreciating the increasing sunlight ever so much. It is hard to remember now, the frantic pace of the summer. Why was it that we didn't get them planted? Oh, it is coming back to me. The tie-rod on the tractor needed to be replaced. Can't steer? Can't use the tractor.  Anyway. They plants are coming along. And with no help from us this last week and a half. 
It was the first time I can remember that I was able to completely disconnect with the farm. We made rules. We didn't talk about equipment we are planning on building. We didn't talk about plant varieties. We didn't discuss modifications of systems to increase efficiency. We ate food. We were quiet. We were loud. I slept and slept. On the mental back-burner, ethos clarified, materializing some of our goals as a family farm business. Without prodding, they leapt from our minds. Schedules, boundaries, defining emergency, personal space. These are all things people find themselves talk about when they talk about other people. This system we are working with, it has a life of its own. It has its own needs and wants. Within that, we must claim what we need otherwise we will have no room. Also, the realization that our farm foundation is almost laid. We are almost to the place where we get to build upon it and instill it with our dreams and hopes. 
This, of course, is all very vague and undeveloped, proof that I did in fact, stick the pact. Armed with almost two weeks of mental freedom, I will tease the gold out. For now, I am grateful to have had some space to just exist. The "decoupling", as the break has come to be called, will become an annual ritual. The coherence that precipitates from unfocused repose is invaluable. 
And now we are back, a little sharper than before. The sun for the past few days has been glorious. We are joyous to get our backs back into it. We are preparing to get the greenhouse back online, the first round of seeds include micro greens, pea shoots, and some head lettuce and bok choy transplants.
We can't wait to see you back at market this week!
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 3 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. 

Fresh From the Field!

Greens: (Limited):Tatsoi
Herbs: 
Thyme
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Cabbage
Kohlrabi- beautiful meal sized kohlrabi and tender petite 
Onions
Sweet potatoes!
Radishes: Classic, White Daikon, Green Daikon, and Watermelon radish
Rutabaga
Turnips: Purple top and golden roasting turnips
Turnabaga- Turnip-Rutabaga cross! Delicious, sweet and crisp!
Your balance is: 0Markets, always rain or shine!All good things come to an end: The Wednesday Ann Arbor Farmers' market and the Saturday Chelsea market will return in May after a winter haitus. 

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

Annnnd we're back at the Ann Arbor Wednesday market for one more week! Lizz brought the goods and it is a warm day! Head on down! This will be our last Ann Arbor Wednesday market until it starts back up in May. This will also be our final week of markets for the year of 2018! We are taking a vacation! We will be back at Ann Arbor Saturday and Eastern Market January 5th.
But before our hiatus, I want to make sure to tell you, we are doing exciting things here at Lake Divide Farm and there are lots of ways to be a part of it. There are two things I want to be sure you know:

• This is a great time of year to sign-up or renew your farm 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 3 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. 

Now, about our vacation. This vacation is a little more than a state of mind-style of the summer. We won't be going anywhere and we won't be completelyrelieved of duty. but we will have mental space to read all day, go on walks, be mindful in our meal preparation, and indulge in some hygge (pronounced hooga- the Danish and Norwegian word for a mood of coziness with undertones of wellness!) We are going bring a tree in from out side, adorn it with decoration, string excessive lights inside and out, and set some candles ablaze. We will make crock pots full of soup and heat up cider. We will write letters of gratitude- whether they end up delivered or not- to all the people that have supported us and brought joy, and comfort to us over the last year. We will bundle up and venture outside to observe our quiet but not sleeping, colder world. And we will celebrate the returning of the light. 

The shortest day of the year is upon us again; the great dip in the great light. This winter solstice falls on the coming Friday and coincidentally, the full moon will be gathering about that day as well. For us, the darkest night of the year, represents the beginning of the next growing season. From here on out, daylight hours will accumulate with each trip around the sun. Towards the end of January, our plants will begin to pick up the pace again, packing on biomass for our consumption. For now, we will enjoy the full moon and we hope you do too. Thank you so much for all your support this year. We couldn't do what we do without you.Enjoy any time you get to spend with family and friends and let us all head into the new year together with high hopes and bright faces!
To the FUTURE!

Helen writing for the Lake Dividers
Fresh From the Field!

Greens: (Limited)Arugula
Baby Bok Choi
Mustard
Tatsoi
Kale: flat leaf, green curly, and red curly
Herbs: 
Rosemary
Thyme
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Cabbage
Celery root- limited
Fennel: Crispy bulbs.
Garlic
Kohlrabi- beautiful meal sized kohlrabi and tender petite 
Onions
Sweet potatoes!
Radishes: Classic, White Daikon, Green Daikon, and Watermelon radish
Rutabaga
Turnips: Purple top and golden roasting turnips
Turnabaga- Turnip-Rutabaga cross! Delicious, sweet and crisp!
​Markets, always rain or shine!NO Wednesday Market this week: Ann Arbor
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.

Saturday: Ann Arbor, Chelsea, 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 Chelsea Farmers' Market is located in the lower library lot along Park St. It runs May thru October from 8 am to 1 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

ALERT, ALERT! We will NOT be attending the Ann Arbor Wednesday market this week, but we WILL be at all our regularly scheduled Saturday markets. 
And at these regularly scheduled Saturday markets, in addition to delicious produce, you can find gift cards! They area great way to get friends and family out to the farmers' market and eating fresh. If you have any questions about them, shoot us an email, or better yet, come visit us at market this Saturday. The weather will even grace us with ABOVE FREEZING TEMPERATURES! It may be downright balmy!
That said, it's been another routine winter week at the farm. Harvest, clean and divide produce, go to markets, office work, meetings. It may not sound like the spiciest material to write about, and in fact I am finding it difficult to weave a compelling story about the budget meeting... maybe if I interwove excerpts from the Harvest Log Excel sheet debate?! Now that sounds like entertainment! This is not the flashiest time of year to be a farmer, but this is when all the magic happens. In the winter we make all our plans for the coming season. We do our best to predict income, expenditures, problems of all shapes and colors, and we try to figure out how we should handle each one: when you encounter round purple problems, you push through, but when you find a yellow and white polka dot spherical triangle problem, you buy it a coffee, make friends. As we have.
It is nice that this year, we are rounding the bend on some of the planning work a little earlier than last. A notable improvement in our lives can be observed as a result. 

Until next week!


Jim (+mini additions by Helen) writing for the Lake Dividers
Fresh From the Field!

Greens: (Limited)Arugula
Baby Bok Choi
Mustard
Tatsoi
Kale: flat leaf, green curly, and red curly
Herbs: 
Rosemary
Thyme
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Cabbage
Celery root- limited
Fennel: Crispy bulbs.
Garlic
Kohlrabi- beautiful meal sized kohlrabi and tender petite 
Onions
Sweet potatoes!
Radishes: Classic, White Daikon, Green Daikon, and Watermelon radish
Rutabaga
Turnips: Purple top and golden roasting turnips
Turnabaga- Turnip-Rutabaga cross! Delicious, sweet and crisp!
Your balance is: 0Markets, always rain or shine!NO Wednesday Market this week: Ann Arbor
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.

Saturday: Ann Arbor, Chelsea, 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 Chelsea Farmers' Market is located in the lower library lot along Park St. It runs May thru October from 8 am to 1 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

Ahoy!!
​Rest. Like long days catch up, short ones do too. Last week in a blur of distress, I expressed the feeling that there would be no relief. Jim assured me we were there, firmly planted in the opportunity to take a breath. I slept a lot and I can I feel it now, the settling of time around me. And with the time afforded to us, what will we do? 
We have created a gift card that can be used just like one of our CSA accounts. Choose any starting balance and get one for your family and friends giving them the gift of good food, friendly faces, and community. We are at the Ann Arbor and Eastern Markets all winter and the Chelsea market through the end of December! Alternatively, gift card holders could wait to use their balances until their favorite farm fresh vegetables arise from the earth! But why wait, I say, you could be missing out on the favorite vegetable you didn't know existed! Pick one up at market starting Saturday!
In the field, our greens, under their mere fabric cover, have survived still! I am blown away by their resilience. Our hoop house greens are behind as expected, which makes me all the more grateful that our field greens stubbornly refuse to die. If all goes well, the hoop greens will step up to shoulder our consumptive needs just in time. And as the field work slows, we populate our winter to do list. We just purchased our ginger and turmeric seed for next year. It was a sad crop loss this year, but one that we are not prepared to repeat. We are signing up for our seed CSA! Just like you (may) sign up to be a member of our farm, we sign up to be a member of a seed farm. It is a great way to let farms feel your support throughout the year. These steps are just the beginning of looking forward into the details of next year. We are gathering our grit and preparing to populate our winter to do list. This winter, one of the top items will be resting and finding some enjoyment in the world!
And as we look forward, we must also look back. We are lucky enough to have google's updated map from this year. It is so cool to actually be able to look at some of what we did. In the picture below, you will see ground prepared for fall crops, spring crops going to seed, acres of cover crop establishing, fields of actively harvested crops, and even a truck in the field. Someone is out there, putting their shoulder into it. The shapes of the fields, while not as squared up as in my drawings, look remarkably similar to what I have on paper. Last spring, I tromped around the field with Lizz, Brianna, and Tony alike, trying to mete out some sense of the land. Now there it lies, one more thing we don't have to do next year. It will be nice to use this a reference when planning for the coming season.
This is just one more way our farm is building context, making our path more clear. It is wonderful to take a moment to appreciate how far we have come in these past two years. Our farm has grown and is growing still with increasing momentum. Jim had an interesting conversation with a market friend about how ideas become reality. The short version is this: Where before, it felt like we had to manifest all ideas through shear will, there is less resistance. Now we ease the path, like sweepers in curling. It is a relief to transition into support staff to our dream as it takes on a life of its own.


Helen writing for the Lake Dividers

Fresh From the Field!

Greens:Arugula
Baby Bok Choi
Head lettuce!
Mizuna
Mustard
Tatsoi
Kale: flat leaf, green curly, and red curly
Herbs: 
Rosemary
Sage
Thyme
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Cabbage
Celery root- small but fantastic!
Fennel: Crispy bulbs.
Garlic
Kohlrabi- beautiful meal sized kohlrabi and tender petite 
Onions
Potatoes limited
Sweet potatoes!
Radishes: Classic, White Daikon, Green Daikon, and Watermelonradish
Rutabaga
Turnips: Purple top and golden roasting turnips
Turnabaga- Turnip-Rutabaga cross! Delicious, sweet and crisp!
Markets, always rain or shine!Wednesday: Ann Arbor
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.

Saturday: Ann Arbor, Chelsea, 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 Chelsea Farmers' Market is located in the lower library lot along Park St. It runs May thru October from 8 am to 1 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

Fall in Michigan is unpredictable. But I think I am beginning to get the idea. We can count on it being unpredictable and preparations that allow us to succeed regardless of the conditions are the best ones. Is that true for all of life? Am I on the verge of becoming a prepper? Anyway, I wasn't expecting the temperatures to lope into the cool teens as early as they did (thank goodness for the extended weather forecast). I wasn't expecting inches upon inches of snow. 
We are shoveling the snow off of the frost blankets before harvest. We are waiting through days of below freezing temperatures for a moment above 32 before we collect greens from their chilly beds. We are rolling up hoses so ice doesn't clog the passage of water. More than anything, we are impressed with the plants. We have arugula that has survived the brutal cold under a mere thin woven fabric! They have survived through consecutive days of below freezing temperatures and we will see if they survive the next round. After the next three days of frigid temps, we will know if bok choy, among others, can withstand this type of treatment! What great data! The crops in our tunnels are not quite ready, although they are looking great.
Next year, for ultimate preparedness, we will have more caterpillar tunnels allowing warmer, non-freezing temps for harvest and growth in the tunnels. This way, we can plant our fall greens and move cover to them to bridge the gap between fall and winter without as much snow shoveling and fast-slow-weather-watching-sprint-harvest-action.
I hope all of you had time to see family and eat food and appreciate the beautiful world. My friend Jill and I cooked a giant feast for my dear family. It was my first turkey. We got it from our friends at Two Track Acres. It was beautiful and delicious. On Friday, we ate leftovers and cooked what was left of the bird into a soup, laughing in the kitchen into the night. Saturday we ate soup while playing board games. Well fed through and through- stomach and soul. There were four dogs at the gathering and they all got along and provided endless entertainment: dog-in-a-cone, all-snuggles-welcome-dog, old-man-dog, insane-puppy. Let the insanity ensue!  
Come refill your fridges at market this week. See Lizz at Ann Arbor's Wednesday and Saturday market, Helen back at Eastern on Saturday, and Jim in Chelsea! 
Helen writing for the Lake Dividers
Fresh From the Field!

Greens:Arugula
Baby Bok Choi!
Mizuna
Tatsoi
Tokyo Bekana- Bok Choi lettuce!
Kale: flat leaf, green curly, and red curly
Herbs: 
Rosemary
Parsley: The stems of the curly parsley are incredibly sweet!
Sage
Thyme
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Broccoli- limited
Cabbage
Celery
Fennel: Fresh licorice-y fronds with crispy bulbs.
Garlic
Kohlrabi- beautiful meal sized kohlrabi and tender petite 
Onions
Potatoes limited
Sweet potatoes!
Radishes: Classic, White Daikon, Green Daikon, and Watermelon\radish
Rutabaga
Turnips: Sweet white turnips and purple top roasting turnips
Turnabaga- Turnip-Rutabaga cross! Delicious, sweet and crisp!

*End of the season for starred crops so stock up while you can!
​Markets, always rain or shine!Wednesday: Ann Arbor
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.

Saturday: Ann Arbor, Chelsea, 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 Chelsea Farmers' Market is located in the lower library lot along Park St. It runs May thru October from 8 am to 1 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

We're having a very thankful thanksgiving at Lake Divide Farm. Most notably and relevant, we will not be attending Saturday Markets this week! You can still find us in Ann Arbor Wednesday this week for any of your last minute vegetable shopping needs. We will return to our regular market schedule next week following a few days of catching up with family and friends over the holiday. Speaking of catching up, how about a good ol' holiday catch up chat!? It's been a series of long weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, and they've been filled with many things to be thankful for. I'm gonna go get a piping hot cup of coffee and then I can fill you in... 
Okay, I got my hot coffee, let's talk! 
When we began farming, the winter was a time to rest, plan and reconnect with friends and family that you were unable to see through the chaos of the main season. It was great! It really made it a lot easier to justify the long hours the farm demanded through Spring, Summer and Fall. As our farm developed, we became interested in trying to make fresh produce available to people year round. That has been the chief cause of the erosion of our yearly workflow cool down cycle. We routed a lot of energy and resources to off season production over the years. Some years those allocations would translate to immediate results, sometimes... not. Fast forwarding to now: We have 3 caterpillar tunnels and 3 hoop houses planted with cold hearty crops, and a giant walk in cooler stockpiled with dedicated storage crops grown in the late Fall. To pull that off though, you really end up with a lot of work to do at the tail end of the main season. All your storage crops have to be harvested and tucked away before the first serious frost comes through, hoop houses have to be cleaned up and planted with winter crops and caterpillars need to get moved/built in preparation of planting. Our late Fall work load has done a slow 180 over the years. Don't get me wrong, it's been great! The work flow shift has been rather organic, and it coincided with a perspective shift: It's not work, it's life. So, now that I've given you some background, here's what happened the past couple weeks! (I tried to keep things in order, but assume a healthy amount of overlap of the various events)
1. Our 2017 tax extension came due and we had to slug our way through over a week of designing and employing our new accounting set up. 
2. We moved 2 caterpillar tunnels and built a new one
3. Clean and planted hoop houses
4. Upgraded hoops and caterpillars with a set of additional smaller inner hoops and blankets (operation: Winter Shield) 
5. We had to let the staff go a little earlier than expected :( Miss you guys!
6. Frost hit! We had to make a mad dash to get the literal tons of produce out of the field and squirreled away for winter
7. We got accepted to the Eastern Market and began attending a third Saturday market!
8. Low temps have forced us to relocate our wash station
All these items came together and really pushed us to the limit the past few weeks. It's been exhausting, but incredibly rewarding. We have lots of produce in storage for the winter and hoop house crops are looking better than ever thanks to operation Winter Shield. Yeah, a strong and prolonged cold snap might still thwart some of our plans, but we did everything we could, and didn't leave anything on the table. Of course, we didn't do this alone...
This all happened amidst a planned visit of my parents from NJ. Here's about how that played out.
Dad: "Jim, are sure it's a good time for us to come out?"
Me: "Yeah, this is as good as gets. Things SHOULD be pretty quiet that week"
Dad: "Great, we'll see you then"
Upon their arrival we had just been accepted to the Eastern market and a hard frost had set it's cross hairs on Lake Divide's storage crops. It would not be the restful visit I had advertised (sorry guys!) Without a complaint, they sprung into action, helping us save our carrots, beets, herbs, winterizing our infrastructure, cooking, cleaning, dividing for markets, you name it! Special thanks to them for the long hours they put in to set up Lake Divide for a bountiful winter! We even had some time left over to tackle some drywall in the house! Nice to be rid of that 6'x8' hole in the ceiling! I better send this email out soon or I'm gonna end up in hot water. I can't close out this Thanksgiving email without sending thanks to all of you for making it out the markets each week and for being part of our weird farming adventure. I hope you all get to spend some time gathered around a loaded dinner table with loved ones.
One final special thanks to the Lake Dividers for hanging tough through the end of the season. Frigid temps, icy wash station water and utter exhaustion weren't enough to stop ya. Bravo team! 
Helen will be making a guest appearance at the Ann Arbor market this Wednesday (today), she missed her A2 people too much to stay away! Catch up with her for some last minute produce for Thanksgiving, or a chat, or a song. Apparently she sings to customers sometimes?! Looks like Lizz and I will have to start taking singing lessons... or at least I will.


Jim writing for the Lake Dividers
Fresh From the Field!

Greens:Arugula
Baby Bok Choi!
Mizuna
Mustard
Tatsoi
Tokyo Bekana- Bok Choi lettuce!
Kale: flat leaf, green curly, and red curly
Herbs: 
Oregano
Parsley: The stems of the curly parsley are incredibly sweet!
Sage
Thyme
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Celery
Fennel: Fresh licorice-y fronds with crispy bulbs.
Garlic
Kohlrabi- beautiful meal sized kohlrabi and tender petite 
Onions
Potatoes will be back in a couple weeks once the rest of the crops are safe from the frost
Sweet potatoes!
*Hot peppers: Hungarian hot wax, cayenne, jalepeno, serrano, and poblano- try pickling!
Radishes: Classic, White Daikon, Green Daikon, and Watermelon- Try making steamed radish
Turnips: Sweet white turnips and purple top roasting turnips
*End of the season for starred crops so stock up while you can!
​Markets, always rain or shine!Wednesday: Ann Arbor
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.

Saturday: Ann Arbor, Chelsea, 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 Chelsea Farmers' Market is located in the lower library lot along Park St. It runs May thru October from 8 am to 1 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

We are back at Ann Arbor Wednesday this week so come see Lizz and get your delicious chilled vegetables! Thanks for understanding our absence last week. We really had to hustle to meet the cold that is upon us now. At the beginning of last week Lizz said we were going to fill up our cavernous cooler with produce. I didn't believe her. Now, there is barely room to turn around! Carrots, beets, kohlrabi, cabbage, turnips and radishes (all the things that I have been listing and listing), are packed in quantity into storage. The last big haul harvest that we have on the docket is potatoes. We were getting serious about it for Tuesday but SNOW! A real amount of snow and temperatures not rising above freezing thwarted our plans. With the snow insulating the ground, our potatoes are hopefully resting comfortably awaiting their rise. We will be able to get to them Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. 

In the meantime, we are arranging our protocols around the winter weather. These temperatures are within reason for this time of year but they are consistently below average, both for the daytime highs and the nighttime lows. This causes a lot of problems. Vegetables freeze on the table at market! You may have noticed our modified winter set-up. Heat lamps over vegetables, coolers to contain crops that won't tolerate the cold, and a heated space under the table to keep crops comfortable while they wait to go to their forever homes. The set up needs a little work- an insulated back board? A tent with walls? A biodome? A friendly dragon? You know, whatever is within reason. 

We are still adapting on the farm too. We are moving the wash station to the greenhouse so our hands can stay warm while we primp and prep the vegetables. This is something that for some reason we didn't do last year. I thought, well, the cold is fine by me! But when it becomes hard to bend at the knee from frozen  fabric, one must reconsider! We are also finalizing some of our frost blanket set-ups in the hoop houses. Covering and uncovering the crops and opening and closing the hoops is just about a daily event, so anything that we can do to make it easier to accomplish, we will do. I will tell you all about that next week. 

Before I go, let me mention that I, Helen, will no longer be at the Ann Arbor Saturday market. Lizz will be taking over my post since I am now heading to Detroit for the Eastern Market. I am going to miss all of my wonderful market friends but I know Lizz will take good care of you. Come the depths of winter, I expect to stop in at least occasionally. And let me say, Eastern Market went really well last week. It was the first time we attended three markets at once and I would call the extravaganza a success!  Surprisingly, I had never been to the market except once when I was much younger. It is huge! Despite the gigantic-ness, we are not lost in the chaos but rather noticed and welcomed. Many vendors came over to greet us, there was lots of foot traffic despite the cold, and many customers were excited to see a new organic vegetable farm. Although tiredness crested over my mind by the end of the day (and the end of a very long week and the beginning of another long week), we were satisfied and happy.

Helen signing out to slip and slide through another day at the farm!


Helen writing for the Lake Dividers

Fresh From the Field!

Greens:Arugula
Baby Bok Choi!
Mizuna
Mustard
Tatsoi
Tokyo Bekana- Bok Choi lettuce!
Kale: flat leaf, green curly, and red curly
Microgreens: Spicy and mild. -Limited
Shoots: Pea!- Limited
Herbs: 
Oregano
Parsley: The stems of the curly parsley are incredibly sweet!
Sage
Thyme
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Celery
Fennel: Fresh licorice-y fronds with crispy bulbs.
Garlic
Kohlrabi- beautiful meal sized kohlrabi and tender petite 
Onions
Potatoes will be back in a couple weeks once the rest of the crops are safe from the frost
Sweet potatoes!
*Hot peppers: Hungarian hot wax, cayenne, jalepeno, serrano, and poblano- try pickling!
Radishes: Classic, White Daikon, Green Daikon, and Watermelon- Try making steamed radish
Turnips: Sweet white turnips and purple top roasting turnips
*End of the season for starred crops so stock up while you can!

​Markets, always rain or shine!
Wednesday: Ann Arbor
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.

Saturday: Ann Arbor, Chelsea, 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 Chelsea Farmers' Market is located in the lower library lot along Park St. It runs May thru October from 8 am to 1 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

​First things first, we are not attending the Wednesday Ann Arbor market this week. Why? Fall is plunging into a winter preview and we need to make sure to get all the vegetables that won't tolerate it out of the field. Whatever stands a chance will stay out with additional frost blankets. If it was just one cold dip, we know many of the resilient plants we are pulling out of the field now, could take it. But it won't just be a toe in the water. The temperatures will drop to the mid-twenties and then to the low twenties, and carry on dropping and rising like so for a forecasted but unforeseen amount of time. One drop, fine, cell walls, within reason, expand and contract. Consistent drops into colder freezing temperatures are hard on plants. They freeze and thaw and, I imagine the elasticity of their cells declining until they break. (We have to check this hypothesis!) While we don't know exactly what the weather will do, and some of the plants may survive the coming trying times, we don't want to gamble with our winter food security! 

To that end, we have pulled in over 3,000 pounds of vegetables out of the field in the last three days! Cabbage, winter radish, turnips, celery root (not as stellar of a harvest as I wanted but still present), turnabaga, rutabaga, and kohlrabi! Today we are working on beets and turnips, perhaps we will get to potatoes too! It is a joy to have the storage container filling up. 

In other exciting news, we are now going to be attending Eastern Market on Saturdays! The idea of attending this historical Detroit market has been orbiting our plans but we didn't expect to begin attending so soon! We reached out last week when we realized what an abundance we have and luckily, they responded quickly! Yesterday, two of the markets team came and inspected the farm and invited us to begin this week! So, we're doing it! And very excited about it!

Off to haul vegetables with Lizz! 

Helen writing for the Lake Dividers
Fresh From the Field!

Greens:Arugula
Baby Bok Choi!
Head Lettuce- Limited
Mizuna
Mustard
Tatsoi
Tokyo Bekana- Bok Choi lettuce!
Kale: flat leaf, green curly, and red curly
Microgreens: Spicy and mild. -Limited
Shoots: Pea!- Limited
Swiss Chard- frost sweetened and in bags. 
Herbs: 
Cilantro and Dill
Mint
Oregano
Parsley: The stems of the curly parsley are incredibly sweet!
Sage
Thyme
All manner of deliciousness:
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Celery
*Eggplant: (limited) Roast, stirfry, sandwich- prep breaded eggplant in the freezer!
Fennel: Fresh licorice-y fronds with crispy bulbs.
Garlic
Kohlrabi- beautiful meal sized kohlrabi and tender petite 
Onions
Potatoes will be back in a couple weeks once the rest of the crops are safe from the frost
Sweet potatoes at the end of the week!
*Peppers: Limited
*Hot peppers: Hungarian hot wax, cayenne, jalepeno, serrano, and poblano- try pickling!
*Snack Peppers: ( limited) as sweet as peppers get!
Radishes: Classic, White Daikon, Green Daikon, and Watermelon- Try making steamed radish
*Tomatoes: greens- time to make those pickled green tomatoes!
Turnips: Sweet white turnips and purple top roasting turnips
*End of the season for starred crops so stock up while you can!
​Markets, always rain or shine!Wednesday: Ann Arbor
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.

Saturday: Ann Arbor, Chelsea, 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 Chelsea Farmers' Market is located in the lower library lot along Park St. It runs May thru October from 8 am to 1 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. I runs year round from  6am – 4pm