We are almost ready for markets, but not quite!

I know, I know. I know I said that we would be at market this week, but we need one more week to get our feet under us. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding. 

New first market days are as follows:

• Stockbridge on May 26th from 4 pm to 7 pm and every following Friday through October!
• Dexter on May 27th from 8 am to 1 pm and every following Saturday through October!
• Howell on May 28nd from 9 am to 2 pm and every following Sunday through October!
• Ann Arbor May 31st from 7 am to 3 pm and every following Wednesdaythrough December!
• Ann Arbor June 3rd from 7 am to 3 pm and every following Saturday through December!

Note that these are our debut market days. Every week following we will be at market rain or shine! Also remember, that all these markets open this week, and even though we won’t be there, a wonderful group of vendors selling a variety of delightful products will be there, so don’t wait for us to be there to get out to the market!

Well I had better tell you something about what has been happening here, otherwise you might think we are just relaxing, drinking margaritas!

Here are the most noteworthy tasks accomplished this week:

• We used our ancestral two-bottom plow and flipped two and a half acres. All of this will be planted in vegetables by the end of the year. This was very exciting. It was my Grandpop's on my mother's side.
• Updated our deer fence to enclose just over 7 acres. This involved a lot of post pounding and line stringing. We also got a spicy new fence charger, the kind that plugs into the wall. With our old solar charger, I always tested the fence with my hand. NO MORE! It is too shocking!
• We got our first round of cucurbits in the ground (cucumbers, squash, and melon). We have lots of different varieties. Goldy is my favorite zucchini, flavorful and smooth. Silver slicer is a wonderful cucumber, mellow and never bitter. And the cantaloupe? Well it is just so hard to choose. You will have to tell me your favorites when the start showing up in August.
• The celery, celery root, parsley, leeks, some of our flowers, and second round of tomatoes also somehow all made it into the ground.
• We ran the irrigation out to the new field, which is no small feat. Over 500 feet of line, connected up and moving water to our tender crops. This involved taking stock of what we have and running new line too. 
• We have laid ground cloth for subsequent plantings. This acts as a weed barrier, as well as heats the soil and helps in moisture retention.  
• We got the hoops up on the new hoop houses! All we have to do now is add a little rigidity to the structure with some purlins and endwalls, then slap some plastic on there! 
• Despite not having endwalls, we composted the ground in the new houses to prepare it for the ginger, which is finally starting to spout. 
• We weeded the kale and some of the spring greens. 

Here is a picture of goofy Exie the Dog and my Grandpop's plow. We don't have a lot of ancestral farm equipment so it was exciting to use something that had been used by a previous generation. When plowing, many tweaks have to be made to the hitch and to the equipment to get it just right, especially with my novice (yet expanding) experience level, tightening and loosening here and there. When making these adjustments on old equipment, I have often found that everything is rusted together and banged up. It gave me a measure of pride to find that the bolts on my ancestral plow were easy to adjust and that the grease points were well greased.

And because I can't let an email go by without mentioning nature's life on our farm, let me tell you a couple things about that:

• We found quite a few Redwing black bird nests, expertly woven into sturdy clumps of grass, each with three to four light blue and brown speckled eggs. We will wait to mow those areas until after the babies have fledged. I have been amazed with how tolerant the parents are of our presence.
• We have a lovely, giant garter snake that lives around our greenhouse that I have nicknamed The Greenhouse Guardian. Hopefully our serpantine friend will enforce our strict no seedeaters allowed policy. Incidentally, we also have a pair of toads protecting our greenhouse from insects. Hopefully, the toads are snakewise. I think the must be to have gotten as giant as they are!

Redwing blackbird eggs! I really think they are beautiful!

Here is the blackbird's nest from the side so you can glimpse their technique. The are the original weavers.

All the best!
Helen, Jim, Exie the dog, and the Lake Divide Farm Crew!

Here, Beverly and Kegan are laying ground cloth. It is a bit arduous but we can reuse it every year and it really works wonders for us.

The lilacs are at their end but the sure filled the air with perfume while they were in full bloom!