I am going to state the obvious: So much water! We keep track of our rainfall with a gauge so I can tell you that in the last 12 days we have accumulated over six inches of rain, ugh. Too much water! Our fields were still struggling to dry out from the long cold winter. As of now, hasn't rained in 24 hours and that is exceptional. Also exceptional, water can still be seen flowing down the hill. We have streams where we never did before. Now, all of the water is running gentle and clear, letting us keep our soil. I know that during some of the more violent downpours, this was not the case. It made me glad that we have been careful to form all of our vegetable beds across the slope rather than with it, preventing the water from getting up speed. It made me grateful that some of our winter rye, seeded last October, as risen up this spring, and is the ground in place, along with a lot of volunteers that I am usually not as happy to see. Soil takes a long time to build and we don't want to give it up easily. Every rain event and wind storm that we don't have our soil covered, we risk losing some of it. This was a good reminder that what we are doing works and we need to become better at it.
But forget what the water is doing to our soil, what about what it is doing to us! It is putting us behind schedule. We are behind on cultivation, field preparation, planting, and hand weeding. It is so wet in our lower fields, we won't even go in them. I don't want to rut, compact, or otherwise lose a truck or a crew member to the swamp that has risen. Before all this accumulated rainfall, we got a good amount of work done. We prepared ground. We planted our outdoor tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, melon, squash, more head lettuce, more fennel, oh yes. But we still have more to go! We have just about used up the ground we preemptively prepped and anything that remains is still too wet to reach. Our wintersquash, of which we only do one, very important, very large planting, still needs to get out there, along with first outdoor pepper planting. Our potatoes, also only one important and large planting, are lingering in the greenhouse, their fat budding eyes ready to sprint to the sky. Dry weather is coming, I see it on the forecast. And when all this water drains, we will be ready with plants galore.
Just before the bulk of the deluge, Jim fixed up our new old transplanter. Two people ride on it, and as the tractor pulls it, it creates and then fills a furrow and the people drop plants fast! We love it so much. It is nice for our backs, nice for creating straight and easily weeded rows, and wonderful for getting a big planting done quickly. We got to use this magical device once for about 10 minutes. The sky then opened up and it became clear that little good could come from our continuation and we stopped. But that is the sparkling activity that I am so looking forward to when it dries out. And we are working on ways to use this planter contraption as much as possible.
If you have any extra time this week and are interested in hearing out about how Jim and I ended up out here on the Lake Divide, check out this essay I got to write for Edible Jersey! When I was starting my farming career at Whistling Wolf Farm in New Jersey, I had the wonderful opportunity to write a column called " The young farmer diaries". I was so pleased when this spring I was asked to write a follow-up essay recounting my adventures since. It was a pleasure to write about our farm trials from a place that feels less volatile and full of potential.
Have a great week and see you at markets!
Helen and The Lake Dividers
Vegetables!
Green garlic
Head lettuce (limited)
Kale (limited)
Micro Greens- Spicy mix
Micro greens- Mild mix
Potatoes
Radishes (limited)
Transplants! Herbs, Kale, Chard, Squash and Tomatoes!
Following today's unfortunate discovery of young and delicious, but sadly flowering cut greens :( we'll also have
Arugula
Tatsoi
Tokyo Bekana
Mustard
Mizuna
at our markets Thursday through Sunday
*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!
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 and January thru April from 8 am to 3 pm.
Thursday: Jackson
The Jackson Green Market at Allegiance Health is located at East Michigan Avenue and Waterloo Street. It runs from May through October 9 am to 2 pm
Friday: Stockbridge
The Stockbridge Open Air Market is located on the square in downtown Stockbridge. It runs from May thru October from 4 pm to 7 pm
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 located in the lower library lot along Park St. It runs May thru October from 8 am to 1 pm.
Sunday: Howell
The Howell Farmers' market can be found in the heart of Howell at State st and Clinton st, adjacent to the historic Livingston County Courthouse. It runs May thru October, 9 am to 2 pm.
But forget what the water is doing to our soil, what about what it is doing to us! It is putting us behind schedule. We are behind on cultivation, field preparation, planting, and hand weeding. It is so wet in our lower fields, we won't even go in them. I don't want to rut, compact, or otherwise lose a truck or a crew member to the swamp that has risen. Before all this accumulated rainfall, we got a good amount of work done. We prepared ground. We planted our outdoor tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, melon, squash, more head lettuce, more fennel, oh yes. But we still have more to go! We have just about used up the ground we preemptively prepped and anything that remains is still too wet to reach. Our wintersquash, of which we only do one, very important, very large planting, still needs to get out there, along with first outdoor pepper planting. Our potatoes, also only one important and large planting, are lingering in the greenhouse, their fat budding eyes ready to sprint to the sky. Dry weather is coming, I see it on the forecast. And when all this water drains, we will be ready with plants galore.
Just before the bulk of the deluge, Jim fixed up our new old transplanter. Two people ride on it, and as the tractor pulls it, it creates and then fills a furrow and the people drop plants fast! We love it so much. It is nice for our backs, nice for creating straight and easily weeded rows, and wonderful for getting a big planting done quickly. We got to use this magical device once for about 10 minutes. The sky then opened up and it became clear that little good could come from our continuation and we stopped. But that is the sparkling activity that I am so looking forward to when it dries out. And we are working on ways to use this planter contraption as much as possible.
If you have any extra time this week and are interested in hearing out about how Jim and I ended up out here on the Lake Divide, check out this essay I got to write for Edible Jersey! When I was starting my farming career at Whistling Wolf Farm in New Jersey, I had the wonderful opportunity to write a column called " The young farmer diaries". I was so pleased when this spring I was asked to write a follow-up essay recounting my adventures since. It was a pleasure to write about our farm trials from a place that feels less volatile and full of potential.
Have a great week and see you at markets!
Helen and The Lake Dividers
Vegetables!
Green garlic
Head lettuce (limited)
Kale (limited)
Micro Greens- Spicy mix
Micro greens- Mild mix
Potatoes
Radishes (limited)
Transplants! Herbs, Kale, Chard, Squash and Tomatoes!
Following today's unfortunate discovery of young and delicious, but sadly flowering cut greens :( we'll also have
Arugula
Tatsoi
Tokyo Bekana
Mustard
Mizuna
at our markets Thursday through Sunday
*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!
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 and January thru April from 8 am to 3 pm.
Thursday: Jackson
The Jackson Green Market at Allegiance Health is located at East Michigan Avenue and Waterloo Street. It runs from May through October 9 am to 2 pm
Friday: Stockbridge
The Stockbridge Open Air Market is located on the square in downtown Stockbridge. It runs from May thru October from 4 pm to 7 pm
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 located in the lower library lot along Park St. It runs May thru October from 8 am to 1 pm.
Sunday: Howell
The Howell Farmers' market can be found in the heart of Howell at State st and Clinton st, adjacent to the historic Livingston County Courthouse. It runs May thru October, 9 am to 2 pm.
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