Lake Divide Farm
  • Home
  • Our Story and Our Mission
  • What We Offer
  • Farmers' Markets
  • Market CSA Membership
  • Work or Volunteer with us!
  • Farm News
    • Sign-up for our mailing list!
  • Recipes
  • Contact us
  • Social Justice and Staying Active

LDF News: Greens for St. Patrick's Day!

3/14/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
Bok choi is bolting (flowering) because of the warm weather. Rather than becoming inedible, it becomes a whole new delicious vegetable. We harvested these at peak perfection. The stems are crispy and juicy. The leaves are tender. They can be eaten in a salad, sauteed with garlic and oil, roasted, tossed in pasta, or honestly, saved for snacking. Come check em out. We'll have them for the next couple weeks. 
Picture
A whole tower of straw, and that's just the start. We are really laying it on thick for our garlic this year. Hopefully that leads to less weeds and happier crops. We'll keep you posted.
Picture
Microgreens are super green. These broccoli micros are packed with nutrition. Every time I include them in my day, I feel like I've done myself a favor. Eating good food is one simple way partake in self care and microgreens really make it easy. My favorite way to eat them is drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled lightly with salt. I also enjoy them on a sandwich or tossed on at the end of any hot meal. 
Picture
Tyler took up the mechanics mantle bridging the gap between now and when Jim left the farm in 2022. Since Tyler is off to tackle his own agricultural enterprise, machine maintenance and improvement falls back to me. It's a learning curve alright but at least one I already have the crampons to climb. More importantly, I have a few good mentors and find it interesting.

Here's a disc gang in components. Reassembled, those platter sized metal hunks and cylindrical spacers are skewered on to axel like a metal shish kebob. All sandwiched between two bearings that are responsible for allowing the rotation. 

Big question: what are the pine cones for?

Ahoy reader!

​While we vegetable farmers love a good spring break (in the weather) like anyone else, it inspires a particular anxiety for many of us. We don't want to let "the early weather window" go by. Usually there is only one early one. But the field can't be too wet. If it is we could damage our soil structure, affecting drainage as well as air and nutrient availability for years to come. The first soil work of the year happens on the morning that I go out to the field and scoop a fistful of soil and give a squeeze, expecting moisture to ooze out, but it doesn't. It is just dry enough to flip some ground. This week, I thought that was going to be Friday. When I wrote this Thursday night, I believed I was wrong, but you better believe I went out ther this morning to poke around to be sure. 

Why do we want to get out there? So we can plant the kale, start the sweet turnips, get those fabulous onions on their way to being bulbs etcetera etcetera, but we quite literally can't rush nature. It's another example of something vital that is not human control. Acknowledging my lack of influence over the weather is a great practice toward sanity. 

If you didn't read about it last week, we launched the GoFundMe for our Stockbridge Community Outreach Project. We are growing vegetables for our local food pantry and are asking for donations to cover the overhead. I appreciate any support you have to offer, even if it is sharing it with a friend or on your social media, so please, share with abandon!

Cheers,
Helen
she/her/hers
 
In this email:
  • Generally important notes
    • WE ARE HIRING! Visit our Work With Us page for more info. Please share it with people you think fit the bill. 
    • A link to our Stockbridge Community Outreach Project
    • Notes for members (or potential members!):
      • Find a copy of the 2025 membership agreement here.
      • Now offering $100 CSA memberships with a $10 bonus. Please email for more info. 
      • If you shop with us regularly, consider signing up for our farm membership (CSA). This is the perfect time to do it as it offers maximum support to us and the most opportunities to use your balance over the course of the year. 
      • If you love our produce, consider giving the gift of food to someone in your family or friend. We are an especially good match for people that want to eat local fresh food but don't know how to get started. I love talking recipes, environmentalism, telling animal stories, and eating raw vegetables on the spot.
    • Here is link to our Social Justice page on our website. It is a list of resources to keep active in effecting positive social change.  
  • Fresh From the field
  • Recipe: Smashed Potatoes!
  • Member Info- 
    • Royal Oak members, please give me a little more time to send a separate email to you.
​
Fresh From the Field- 
Greens:
Bok choy shoots
Micros: Broccoli, Radish, Arugula!
Pea shoots
Spinach
Tatsoi


All Manner of Deliciousness
Apples: Evercrips, Gala, Pinata, Modi, and Ida Red. From Almar Orchard (Eastern only)
Napa Cabbage from Jacob's Fresh Farm
Cabbage
Carrots by Yoder
Kohlrabi
Potatoes! Yum!
Daikon
Watermelon Radish
Rutabaga!
Sweet Potatoes from Yoder Farms
Purple Top Turnips
Fall Squash: delicata, long pie, butternut, autumn frost, black futsu

Coming Soon
Arugula
Kale

Farms we are collaborating with:
When something sold by us is grown by another farm, we will always label both to support them and so that you can make informed decisions. 

Not all the farms we are working with are certified organic. If they aren't, you better bet we know them well enough to trust their growing practices. This is both because we have asked them about how they care for their land and what materials they use, but also because we are friends. We have asked each other questions and shared information and resources over the years. We know most of them well enough to have had dinner together and to call to share family news. This collection of family farms are our community and our colleagues. We are proud to know them and to work with them. 

Almar Orchard, Flushing, Certified Organic
Cinzori Farm, Ceresco, Certified Organic
HillTop Greenhouse and Farms, Ann Arbor. They supply the eggs from free range, happy chickens.
Jacob's Fresh Farm, Dexter
Sunnyside Produce, Homer, Certified Organic
Titus Farms, Leslie 
Yoder Farms, Leslie
Picture
​Smashed potatoes! Who would have thought that cooking potatoes twice would be worth the effort. I'm here to tell you it is.
Boil them til they can be punctured with a fork.
Put them on a roasting pan smash them. I used a flat plate for maximum smash.
Apply a generous amount of olive oil and seasoning (I like salt and rosemary) and put them in the oven at 350 for 60 minutes, flipping halfway through. You'll see. 

Also, check out those cutie pink potatoes. Find those at our table this weekend. As tasty as they are cute.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Farm News

    Read on for detailed tales from the farm! We try to share weekly and with sincerity to give our followers a window into sustainable food production and life on the farm.

    Visit our 
    Facebook page for more frequent photos and posts.

    Or sign-up to have Lake Divide Farm news delivered straight to your inbox!

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    May 2024
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly