Helen enjoying the inaugural flight of the new van
March is flying by and lucky for us it is really starting to look like spring. The bluebirds were back today, joining the killdeer, redwing blackbirds and early sandhill cranes.The voices of the spring peppers echo across the field from their wetland paradise. The red maple buds look like beautiful crimson ornaments dusting the treeline. And the sun. Can't forget the sun! This weeks greenhouse seeding was like a tropical vacation. The second round of eggplant, peppers and tomatoes are rising from the soil as we speak! Next week we are looking at several days that hold both daytime and nighttime temperatures above freezing! It has been a long time since that has happened!
All of this is telling me it is time get out there! We are hoping to get some of our first seeds in the field next Monday. All the greens we love: Arugula, salad mix, tatsoi, and mustard to name a few, plus delicious spring turnips and radishes. We are also hoping to start prepping the field where all of our cabbages, kale, broccoli, chard, carrots, beets and a handful of others will go. We are lucky to have an couple acres uphill that dry out a little faster. Isn't that the benefit of being on the Great Lakes Divide? I say hope, because the temperamental weather is the leading factor. I try not to look it in the eye but rather just sidle up on it saying take it easy. I will let you know next week if we manage not to surprise the beast.
But even while the world is saying it is time to get a move on, we are still slotting preparations into place. In just a week and a half, our crew will start and I am really hoping to settle some of the bigger details before then. One big thing, today we got a market vehicle! It is a van that anyone can drive unlike the unwieldy truck+trailer combo. It will allow us to go to two markets at once and, on days that we have only one market, it will let us keep the truck on the farm for all the important tasks we use it for like harvesting, hefting, building hoophouses, you know. Seriously, it is our multi-tool.
We are also still working hard at getting organized. Jim and I are making plans for a new field map. One that will better represent how we are working our land and the acreage we are using. This will allow us to respect the different soil types and topography around our farm. Some areas are meant to be wild and we plan to let them. It will also help the crew find what the heck I am talking about when I saw the third salad mix planting or the fourth radish planting.
We also finally got a bunch of drywall up in the house! This is a two-fold benefit. First, it really is so nice to have (most of) the walls closed up. I have managed to become blind to most of the ongoing construction in the house. However, the moment the walls in the office went from wood framing and bright yellow insulation to smooth white boards of drywall, a weight rose up from my body. It just makes life feel less chaotic. The second benefit is that the drywall that we used had been purchased in December. We had big plans for this winter. We bought a lot of drywall and stacked it all in front of the area where we keep all of our tools. So we couldn't easily use many of the things that we needed or, if we did manage to dig them out, it was a real struggle to put them back. Hence tools and materials from various projects seeped into the room like lava making other critical things hard to access (like the washing machine for one!) With all the drywall out of the way, we are on track to have our tools organized in time for folks to be able to put things back where they found them!
Still more to do but isn't that the way. See you at market tomorrow!
All of this is telling me it is time get out there! We are hoping to get some of our first seeds in the field next Monday. All the greens we love: Arugula, salad mix, tatsoi, and mustard to name a few, plus delicious spring turnips and radishes. We are also hoping to start prepping the field where all of our cabbages, kale, broccoli, chard, carrots, beets and a handful of others will go. We are lucky to have an couple acres uphill that dry out a little faster. Isn't that the benefit of being on the Great Lakes Divide? I say hope, because the temperamental weather is the leading factor. I try not to look it in the eye but rather just sidle up on it saying take it easy. I will let you know next week if we manage not to surprise the beast.
But even while the world is saying it is time to get a move on, we are still slotting preparations into place. In just a week and a half, our crew will start and I am really hoping to settle some of the bigger details before then. One big thing, today we got a market vehicle! It is a van that anyone can drive unlike the unwieldy truck+trailer combo. It will allow us to go to two markets at once and, on days that we have only one market, it will let us keep the truck on the farm for all the important tasks we use it for like harvesting, hefting, building hoophouses, you know. Seriously, it is our multi-tool.
We are also still working hard at getting organized. Jim and I are making plans for a new field map. One that will better represent how we are working our land and the acreage we are using. This will allow us to respect the different soil types and topography around our farm. Some areas are meant to be wild and we plan to let them. It will also help the crew find what the heck I am talking about when I saw the third salad mix planting or the fourth radish planting.
We also finally got a bunch of drywall up in the house! This is a two-fold benefit. First, it really is so nice to have (most of) the walls closed up. I have managed to become blind to most of the ongoing construction in the house. However, the moment the walls in the office went from wood framing and bright yellow insulation to smooth white boards of drywall, a weight rose up from my body. It just makes life feel less chaotic. The second benefit is that the drywall that we used had been purchased in December. We had big plans for this winter. We bought a lot of drywall and stacked it all in front of the area where we keep all of our tools. So we couldn't easily use many of the things that we needed or, if we did manage to dig them out, it was a real struggle to put them back. Hence tools and materials from various projects seeped into the room like lava making other critical things hard to access (like the washing machine for one!) With all the drywall out of the way, we are on track to have our tools organized in time for folks to be able to put things back where they found them!
Still more to do but isn't that the way. See you at market tomorrow!
Vegetables!
Arugula (limited)
Kohlrabi: Beastly beauties. I have been cubing and roasting them and can't get enough
Micro Greens: a mix of Arugula, Red Russian Kale, Mustard, Mizuna and Beets
Potatoes: White, red skinned, and fingerlings!
Radishes: Loose daikon, green meat (sweet daikon), black, watermelon
Rutabaga
Spinach!!
Turnips- Sweet
Gilfeather the Sweet white Turnabaga!
*We send this email out before harvest, and although we do our very best to make accurate predictions, crops and quantities found at market may vary.
Markets, always rain or shine!
(we begin attending on dates listed above)
Saturday: Ann Arbor and Chelsea
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 in the cafeteria of the Washington Street Education Center at 500 Washington Street in Chelsea, It runs November through March from 9 am to 1 pm.
Arugula (limited)
Kohlrabi: Beastly beauties. I have been cubing and roasting them and can't get enough
Micro Greens: a mix of Arugula, Red Russian Kale, Mustard, Mizuna and Beets
Potatoes: White, red skinned, and fingerlings!
Radishes: Loose daikon, green meat (sweet daikon), black, watermelon
Rutabaga
Spinach!!
Turnips- Sweet
Gilfeather the Sweet white Turnabaga!
*We send this email out before harvest, and although we do our very best to make accurate predictions, crops and quantities found at market may vary.
Markets, always rain or shine!
(we begin attending on dates listed above)
Saturday: Ann Arbor and Chelsea
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 in the cafeteria of the Washington Street Education Center at 500 Washington Street in Chelsea, It runs November through March from 9 am to 1 pm.
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