PICTURE UPDATE!!

we love you all but farmers don't have time for blogs in the season...especially farmers with a 2 year old and a 3 month old....so here's some pictures :) 

March - laying straw down for the greenhouse

May - first (and only) asparagus for the year.  we'll have to be patient and give it another year to grow.

May - just 2  months old and already helping Mama with the shoots

May - some beautiful Spring produce at Eastern Market

that's what its all about...

May - Finn getting tractor lessons

May - The Farm!!

May - Magenta and Coastal Star head lettuce

May - Broccoli & Kale

May - Blackberry flower

May - Asparagus

May - Strawberry flowers

May - putting on the insect row cover

June - Greenhouse pre-plastic

 

June - Greenhouse post-plastic

Season Update: April

Breaking Weather

Breaking ground during the bitter end of winter

The spring has finally arrive with the end of March. In part because of the weather and in part because we have been blessed with a second child, we have been feeling a little behind with the start of the gardening, but we are starting to manage. Bed preparation continues apace, and the first transplants are going in the ground over the next few days. Currently, spinach, beets, carrots and peas have been planted, and we have two types of lettuce, kale and red cabbage on deck.

Finn supervising the installation of one of the baseboards.

We have also been busting our humps trying to finish a small greenhouse in time for the warmer weather, and the frame is coming along bit by bit. The structure has certainly proven to be a puzzle with many different components, but no pieces have gone missing yet . . .

Rowan Leadley

To use Shirley Hampshire's expression, the firm took on another junior partner on Monday, March 25th, when Rowan Marion Leadley joined the rest of the team. The birth interrupted our weekly routine a tiny bit, but with the help of Carolyn's parents, we have somehow made it through our first week as the parents of multiple children. He has already been a huge blessing, and his older brother is quite fond of him.

Popcorn Shoots

We have had many customers ask about future availability of popcorn shoots, and i am pleased to report that we have found what looks a reliable supplier for organic seed. We have a couple of trays timed to be ready for the market on Saturday, April 13th and with any luck, we will continue to make them available on a weekly basis. Sweet!

Albino Sunflowers 

The tray on the right is about 36 hours from being ready. The albino shoot is in the bottom center of the image.

Like many other organisms, helianthus annuus is occasionally prone to albinism. Due to the volume of our operation at this point and the sheer number of sprouted helianthus seeds, we notice albino shoots every so often among the trays. This past week, I finally got around to pricking one out to grow to maturity (as we had extra room on one of the trays of curly kale), as I have been curious for a while what the mature plant might look like. Rest assured, if it has a unique appearance fully grown, you may expect a follow-up picture.

Pre-Season Farm Update

A view of the farm after a snow. The demolished house in the background has since been removed.

Greetings in 2013!

 Much has taken place with the farm project since the end of last season. After continuing to harvest some field crops into the beginning of November, we have kept up weekly shoot production through the off-season with only a short break for the end-of-year holidays. As is plain from the above photo, we are still a little while removed from doing much outdoors, although the sweet onion transplants for the spring are already in trays.

onion transplants for the first spring planting

On the request of our friend and customer Phil Jones at Colors in Harmonie Park, we have also recently tried our hand at growing popcorn shoots. We dropped off some 7-day-old shoots at the restaurant, though they did not look as developed as the packaged shoots in online photos. Right now, they look like pale yellow spikes, but will apparently develop blades somewhat wider than wheatgrass blades. Most recipes that I have found on the internet assume that the corn shoots have been blanched during the sprouting process, which is what we have been doing.

popcorn shoots at about 8 days

Because we have only planted about half of one tray, the current plan is to bring samples of this crop to Eastern Market this Saturday (2/16/13) and see where customer sentiment goes from there. We also need to figure out how many days each planting would require.

Imminent Greenhouse Construction

The long march toward an improved growing space took a major leap forward at the beginning of February with the acquisition of a City of Detroit Building Permit for a greenhouse. At the conclusion of two bewildering afternoons spent at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, we emerged one permit fee lighter, but with a shining piece of paper allowing us to break ground. Our hope is to start construction as soon as the frost is off the ground this spring.

Low-Technology, High-Information

This next section is dedicated to my brother William and his wife Rebecca, without whose generosity our progress in this regard would not have been possible.

When we started coming to Eastern Market after the start of the year, I got into a habit almost by accident that has since yielded some useful statistical information. Desperate to find some alternative to constantly checking my cell phone for the time (it is quite handy to always know what time it is during the Saturday markets), I began bringing the elegant timepiece I received from my brother for being a groomsman at his wedding and keeping it on the table. Almost immediately, the instantaneous access to the current time strongly appealed to me, and I certainly didn't mind being able to stow my cell phone until the end of market.

Market Ledger at 8:59 a.m. on February 2nd, 2013

During the first Saturday I brought it with me, it occurred to me--since it was much easier to keep track of the passing of each hour--to mark when the tops of the hours took place in the course of tallying sales of each crop. Doing so, I realized, would allow us to see how busy we were through the Saturday market. As long as each hour was noted in its place in the tally row, we would end up with a tidy record of hourly sales.

I will be the first to admit that our hand-kept tallying system is highly imperfect to begin with, and only effectively records about 90% of each week's sales even without marking the hours. On the other hand, sales in January and February are much easier to track with any degree of accuracy, both because of their relative infrequency during the market day and the lack of crop diversity in the off-season.

Mean Hourly Sales Volume by Crop, 1/12/2013 - 2/9/2013; Source:  Rising Pheasant Farms

The above graph shows an average of the hourly sales volumes over the most recent five weeks at Eastern Market. These data seem to suggest that most folks show up for their sunflower and pea shoots around lunchtime, but I am excited to see what this bell curve does during the season. My hypothesis involves a general shift to the left (that is, toward the earlier end of the market day), but time will tell.

Thank you again, William, for enabling the preceding interpretive analysis with your thoughtful gift. Carolyn and I wish both of you the best possible luck with everything!

Spring Wrapped Up, On to Summer!

Wow!  so much has happen since my last post, its hard to know where to start.  We we are officially done with Spring!  And by Spring I mean the season in which I work 12 hour days to get all the beds prepped and planted and begin to enjoy our first delicious harvests of Detroit produce.  It was a crazy one.  We unfortunately had some personnel turn over right in the middle of the peak field work period (end of May), when we had 10 90 foot beds to work up and get planted.  But thanks to friends and family who were able to put in a little extra Finn-care time I was able to bust my butt and get it all done.  Of course now that all the real work is over I have more then enough help, as Joan has returned from South America (good stories, you should ask her about it) to join the Rising Pheasant Farms team again and we have brought on Russell for some additional assistance.  So the farm is really looking great right now and I'm nervous about running out of things for us all to do (probably won't happen but now I don't feel bad about taking Monday's off...well from field work at least).

Snapshot of the farm harvest currently: scallions, garlic scapes, broccoli, cabbage (we grew them mini, and folks seem to really like that), collards, red russian kale and curly kale, swiss chard, spinach, and peas.  A few of these spring vegetables are on their way out (we'll have more head lettuce, spinach and peas in the fall!), but just in time for our favorite summer vegetable to begin to produce.

We also planted a bunch of perennials which we will not be able to harvest at all this year.  Raspberries, blackberries, asparagus, and strawberries all went in and I can't wait till next year when I'm harvesting all that goodness.  With the complete devastation of Michigan fruiting crops it has reaffirmed my desire to grow my own berries (gotta use that heat-island effect for something positive).  Plus with out the recent crops losses, it has generally been difficult to come across organic/no spray berries at Eastern Market or even near by upick.  I used to just ignore that fact but with a small child and the unfortunate knowledge (some times a curse) that berries absorb more pesticides and herbcides then really any other type of produce, I just can't bring myself to purchase/consume conventional berries.  And I LOVE them so much...its really aweful.  But next year we will have more strawberries, raspberries and blackberries then we'll know what to do with!!  It will be interesting to see if any of them make it to market.

Infrastructure wise, we're still plugging a way on the fence (and making plans for fencing in the side yard) and we've finally finished demo on the farmhouse!  This past weekend we actually put something IN the house (besides blood, sweat and tears).  My neighbor Mike, who is a carpenter, assisted us in building and placing a 16 foot beam down the center of the house so we could remove a support wall and expand the kitchen.  It looks awesome and only took one days work (after a year of demo, it is unbelieveable that any thing could be accomplished in a day).  The next project is replacing the stairs in the center of the house (taken out when it was converted to a 2 flat).

We've also started our weekly farm stand.  We've put up our stand 3 times now and seen some decent neighborhood traffic, including meeting at least 5 new neighbors.  And since that's really the whole point of the stand, besides increasing access to fresh produce, I'd say we're doing pretty well.  The farm stand will probably never be a big money maker (hard to beat Eastern Market) but I think it will serve very well as a neighborhood gathering spot and mini food hub.

Well I'm sure I'm forgetting a whole bunch of exciting updates, but its time to get out to the field so I'll leave you with some photos from the spring!

Tilling up the new land back in April

Cabbage back in April.  Now we've got mini cabbages at market.

Finn enjoying an entire bag of sunshoots :)

A little help from the neighbors at our first farm stand!

Our biggest load yet...we made it to the 3rd level!

View of the farm (beginning of June) taken by Randall of Eastern Market Corp.

The Rotobike!

Tilling began today on the new land!

and when we say bike power we mean bike power...check out Jack picking up the tiller from Earthworks (a convenient time to run the dog as well)

http://vimeo.com/40648533

Here we go!!

Sorry folks, this post has been a long time coming...didn't mean to leave you with such a downer post for so long (though it had a happy ending, right?).

So lots going on here on the farm.  Darryl and I have been holding it down at Eastern Market.  I hope you all have gotten a chance to come and visit (and maybe picked up a bag of sunshoots!).  We are now in Shed 2 next to Brother Nature Produce for the rest of the year, so you can't miss us.  Last week was our first week out there and despite it being a little cold, it was a pretty good market.  Darryl seems to be really enjoying the market and I really enjoy having the help!  Sales are definitely up over last year, though I don't have an exact percentage, so we're off to a good start!

On the home front, Jack and I have been diligently working away on the fence for the farm.  As you can see from the photo we have completed the eastern side and actually now the northern (Frederick) side is nearly

complete (this photo is a couple weeks old).  We're building it out of the 100 year old lath we've been removing from the farmhouse as we demo.  At this point the lath is multi-colored, which looks really sweet, but I think unfortunately it will all go grey eventually.  I'm not a big fan of fences in theory but the reality is this will hopefully help define what it is we're doing out there for our neighbors.  It shows that its cared for, well maintained, that it isn't a community garden in the sense that folks are welcome to just take whatever, and that we are committed to that space.  Plus its not exactly a fortress wall...no razor wire...I knew we forgot something :)
Just to prove that I'm really dedicated to this fence I ceremoniously smashed my thumb with the very first nail and then continued to hammer my blood into the fence (literally, I was getting blood all over the nails).  It seemed very poetic.

Beyond my minor wounds, the fence is coming along really well.  Its a slow process but I feel like that is to our benefit.  Detroiters (and most people) don't do well with sudden change.  Because the fence building is time-intensive our neighbors see us out there nearly every day adding a little more.  It makes the process more on a human-scale.  Plus Finn has been out there with us most of the time and people walking by like to stop and say hi to the cute baby and it really facilitates neighborliness.  We're still the new kids on the block, and since many neighbors have lived here most of their lives we're going to have that title for a while, but that makes it all that much more important for us to be seen and to be seen slowly improving our little bit of the neighborhood.  We're building trust as we build our fence, dismantling the "other" and being seen as just people. Well at least that's what I hope. :)

I've also be busy growing our transplants for this season.  Currently we've got onions, leeks, cabbage, broccoli, collards, lettuce, kale, sweet peppers, and some flowers up and growing.  I learned a very important lesson about not cutting corners with transplants.  Growing supplies are not easily available in the city (yet! Detroit Farm and Garden is opening this Spring!!) so I usually borrow a car and drive all the way to Troy to get some of our transplanting supplies.  Unfortunately I forgot to pick up perlite when I was there and I attempted the the first transplants (the onions, leeks and scallions) without it.  Big mistake!  Perlite, for those who are unfamiliar, is  "an amorphous volcanic glass that has a relatively high water content, typically formed by the hydration of obsidian. It occurs naturally and has the unusual property of greatly expanding when heated sufficiently. It is an industrial mineral and a commercial product useful for its light weight after processing. When used as an amendment it has high permeability / low water retention and helps prevent soil compaction."  Thank you Wikipedia.  Its the little white balls you see in potting soil.  So basically without the perlite the soil in the transplant trays is compacted and doesn't drain well which results in roots rotting and plants dying. :(  Thankfully I was able to get some perlite off Patrick at Earthworks and most of our transplants are doing just fine.  Actually the cabbages are ready to be hardened off (the picture of "Red Express and "Farao" is our cabbages but a couple weeks ago) and if it wasn't so dang cold and windy they'd be outside right now.  It seems cruel to subject them to this kind of weather after living in the warm cozy attic all their lives.  But the day will come when we got to kick them out of the nest, give them a few bucks, wish them luck and send them on their way....we'll try again next week. :)


Out in the field the garlic is up, peas and beets are planted and hopefully we'll be planting spinach, onions, carrots and our cabbages next week. 


We are tittering on the brink of the busy season and all the excitement, anxiousness, and anticipation is beginning to unfold. I think it is going to be an amazing season. We're better established with our land (though it would really be nice to actually own all of it...if you have contacts to the City of Detroit that could help us, please let us know!!), feeling really good about having Darryl on board, and just feeling like its all coming together, slowly but surely.  I have been so fortunate to be given the chance to do what I love in a city I love (most of the time) and to work along side such amazing farmers, activists and neighbors.  


Thank you all for your support! 

The Market from Hell! yes I have a flare for the dramatic...

Bicycle farming in the city is a romantic notion.  We get to feel all warm and fuzzy about our low-carbon business, while getting exercise, interacting with our neighbors, and saving a bunch of money.  What you don't hear often (because I have a lot of pride and try not to complain too much) is that it's a lot of hard work and sometimes I just think we're totally crazy.

Saturday's market was one of those days.  We experienced the unfortunate timing of a couple inches of snow over night leaving a freshly laid blanket on all the streets when i left the house at 7am.  Detroit is notoriously bad at clearing streets and since it had just fallen and it was early on a Saturday, very few cars had come through to pack it down for me.  Needless to say the bike ride to market involved some walking while pushing my bike and trailer through the snow (imagine your grandpa's story about walking up hill through the snow both ways when he was young, except without the hills...God bless this flat land!).  And what is usually a 15 minute ride, turned into at least a half hour of walking and cautious riding (and a lot of cussing).

But I made it and was excited to start the market day because it was going to be Darryl's first time at Eastern Market with Rising Pheasant Farms.  Darryl, much to his credit, was on time despite the snow and very cold weather.  With the table set, we started taking out our beloved shoots to proudly display our hard work, when we noticed that a few of the bags seemed to have frost damage.  Sunshoots are very cold sensitive and will turn to mush if frozen (basically all the plant cells explode when they freeze!).  We had kept the shoots in the fridge in the farmhouse over night and I was worried that it would be too cold because the house isn't heated but i didn't follow my gut and now at least 1/5th of the shoots we brought were damaged.  So Darryl and I debated whether we should still sell them (at a discount) or just set them aside, which is tricky because we didn't have that many shoots to begin with and most of the damaged bags were at least 80% good still, but you don't want to sell low quality produce and have that reflect on your farm standards.  Ahhhh!

Alas, we did sell some of the damaged bags, until a not-to-be-named friend of ours accused us of  trying to sell him "a bag of mush" and we felt a bit ashamed and decided to pack up.  Oh and I forgot to mention that i had Finn with me (thankfully not on the "ride" to market) and we quickly discovered that it is a whole new ball game this year with the little guy.  No longer is he a calm passive observer happy to hangout in a backpack while Mama works.  No, this guy now has a mind of his own and was letting me and the rest of Shed 3 know it.  Finn proceeded to cry for much of the rest of market while we tried to pack up and get out of the shed (which is made difficult now that we're in this center stall instead of a normal stall...we have to weave through all the people with the bikes and trailers).

Ok we're on our way.  I'm pulling Finn, who is still crying (probably hungry and a little cold and just all around unpleased) and Darryl has the long trailer.  We head out and I'm going at a pretty good pace, motivated by my crying baby and a strong desire to be done for the day, and soon realize I've totally lost Darryl.  At that very moment I get a call from him saying he's had to stop because the hitch has come loose and it has caused one of his spokes on his back wheel to break.  Damn! so I bike back to where he's at and conveniently the size allen wrench he needs is being used to hold Finn's trailer to my bike.  We get Darryl hitch tightened (Finn is screaming his head off) and I take off as fast as I can.  I finally pull into the driveway, grab Finn and head inside to warm up, get some food and try to de-stress a bit.

"Well it can only get better from here" says Darryl when he arrives back at the house.  I sure hope he's right and I definitely appreciate his good attitude...at that moment I was ready to throw in the towel.

So you might be thinking...is it really worth it? And despite days like that (which are rare) I would answer with a resounding "Yes!".  As Jack likes to so often remind me, "No one said this was going to be easy". Sustainability and living a "green" life are so often romanticized, but when it comes down to it, its just a lot of hard work.  Prioritizing what is easy and convenient is what got people into this mess in the first place, the alternative will always be harder and less convenient.  Living a sustainable life is about prioritizing environmental, social and economic justice and no one said that was easy.

Crop Plans for 2012 and a New First Mate!

It's still winter, right?  Where I'm from it snows and is cold during winter, so this soggy 40 degree weather has been really throwing me off.  Though as a cyclist I have to admit that this unexpectedly warm January has aided in the ease of transport for me and my family.  So I guess I can't complain too loudly, but this constant nagging feeling, "this isn't right", won't go away.

Despite (or maybe because of) the warm weather we've been really gearing up (pun intended) for the 2012 growing season!  There has been a whole grocery list of items to attend to and I'd say we're really shaping up and are excited about easing back into things.

Once the holiday craziness had past, I got to work on our crop plan.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I've decided to prioritize diversity over quantity at market, and start up a neighborhood farm stand.  With this in mind and the results of our neighborhood (what do you want to eat?) survey in hand I embarked on the adventure that is crop planning.  I'm not sure if you've ever done much crop planning but it can basically be as complicated or simple as you want.  We definitely try to incorporate as much crop rotation (planting crops based on a rotation of crop families and trying to avoid planting the same family in the same location each year) into our plan as possible.  Rotating your crops really helps cut down disease and insect pressure, though I have to admit that when you're only growing on 1/5th of an acre I find it hard to believe that the pests can't skip over a couple beds to where their favorite crops are now planted.  Some insects are of course less mobile then others and certainly soil diseases are cut down dramatically.  but hey, you do what you can.

We will be growing 41 different varieties of annual crops, in addition to planting everbearing raspberries, 2 varieties of strawberries, black berries and 2 varieties of asparagus (yeah perennials!!!).  wow, i might be in over my head :)  so we'll see how things go.  Its been a little while since I grew this many different crops and varieties so I have to admit I'm a little nervous.  We're making the leap into perennial crops because we FINALLY own 1 of our farm lots and will be tilling it up this year.  Now if  the city could just get its act together we might own all 3 by the 2013 season (who knows, miracles do happen). We will also be growing all the transplants and I have given the grow room a bit of a makeover (cleared out all our personal storage items, put down a new floor covering, and added shelves and more lights...its really going to glow in there!) and now have space for transplant production.

As a matter of fact, I did the very first sunflower shoot planting for the year yesterday and we are oh so excited to return to Eastern Market next Saturday, February 4th.  We'll be in a center stall in Shed 3, so please come check us out!  We'll of course have sunflower shoots and possibly garlic and dried tomatoes!

Last but certainly not least, I'm happy to announce that we have a new member of the Rising Pheasant Farms team.  Darryl Howard, a graduate of the Earthworks Agricultural Training (EAT) Program and avid composter, will be coming on board as our Assistant Farm Manager.  Darryl has been involved at Earthworks since Brother Rick ran the show, but most recently spent the past two years participating in the EAT program as a candidate and a mentor.  He has also played an active role in the Capuchin Soup Kitchen Community Bike Shop and, I'm told, is a great bike mechanic. Darryl will be my "first mate" if you will, for all sunflower shoot and field production, as well as at the market.  We are very excited to have his skill, incite, and warm smile!  Welcome Darryl!

Winter Break & 2012 Plans! (Written Nov 2011)

Despite the unusually warm weather (its going to be 69 F today!) the 2011 season is coming to a close. we have just 3 more Saturdays at Eastern Market before a much anticipated (and deserved, i think) break.

We finished clearing the Frederick lots today and are awaiting our leaves.  If you have leaves or an any connections to landscapers with leave please contact us!  We finished up the season with leeks and scallions in addition to our sunshoots but now the sunshoots are the lone product on our table.  It does make for a much less chaotic Saturday morning but it is always a little sad (but also quite satisfying) to pull out the remaining plants, put away the field tools and say goodbye for the winter.  We do actually have spinach and lettuce still in the field but i'm doubtful they will make it to market.  We definitely got out lettuce in late.  Mostly due to a (or many) persistent mouse who continually removed the tops off my lettuce transplants and cause me to replant them twice.  the spinach is producing but i still have very inconsistent results with the 6-row seeder and there just really isn't enough to take.  so perhaps i'll just see if folks in the neighborhood would be interested when its ready.

though the 2011 season isn't quite finished, i'm already onto plans for 2012.  i've had a continual debate about my crop plan strategy since we started in 2009.  i've found it very frustrating to spend all my time growing vegetables and then have to go to market and buy vegetable.  i'd start with good intentions to have a separate family bed but with everything going on, it would soon become a pretty low priority and turn to a weedy mess.  in addition to this situation weighting on my mind, we learned a LOT about selling at market this year in regards to what sells and what doesn't and how much we can realistically move at market.  we discovered that for some items, mainly the sunshoots, we can sell a LOT more then we thought (or ever did at the Grown in Detroit table), but for most of the field items we really don't sell that much and that it would be preferable to have a diversity of crops as apposed to a large quantity of a few crops.

so for 2012 we are doing a 180 on the crop plan.  since i realized that the field crops are a small proportion of our total income (compared to the sunshoots) i feel less pressure to plant only crops that return the highest price per square ft (salad greens are an example of a very high price per square ft as compared to winter squash which takes up a lot of space and doesn't yield a very high price at market).  Next season our prioritize will be the following:

1. Grow enough food for our family to eat and preserve
2. Grow a diversity of crops to sell at Eastern Market from February through November
3. Grow a diversity of crops to sell at a weekly produce stand at our house, thus making it easier for our neighbors to pick up fresh produce

The first priority will require some research into urban homesteading models and increasing our preservation efforts.  We should be able to use the farmhouse for food storage next winter (i'm still hoping we might be LIVING in the farmhouse next winter but who knows), which will relieve my current tiny kitchen.

The second priority should be simple enough.  We'll already be growing a diversity of crops for our family and we'll just grow a large quantity of each item to take to market.  Hopefully we will therefore a more interesting and attractive table with great diversity throughout the growing season.

The third priority is not new in theory but one that I've been rolling around in my head for years now.  I've always wanted to do a neighborhood-based CSA (community supported agriculture) model here on the Eastside but I feel a small farm stand will be a good starting point.  It will hopefully serve as a way to reach out and meet neighbors and build relationships (and sell some produce).  Perhaps in the next couple years we can build enough support (and skill) to try out a CSA, but for now I think the farm stand will do.

We've got a lot of work to do, so I better rest up now.

See you in February!

Sunflowers & Sun Golds!

Borage

 The flowers are coming on full force and they are BEAUTIFUL! We have completed our flower bike trailer (a covered wagon/hoophouse attachment) and have been selling bouquets for the past 3 weeks and folks are quite excited about them. I have discovered that flowers are a rather time-consuming crop to harvest and therefore I'm oh so happy that we completed our walk-in cooler this week. No longer will I have to harvest flowers in the dark or cause myself unneeded stress about being late to market. This week we'll be able to harvest everything on Friday and keep it in the cooler overnight. I'm soooo excited!

The cherry tomatoes are also coming on strong and we're harvesting every day to keep up. Last saturday was the first large tomato harvest at market and they were definitely a favorite amongst our customers. The Sun Golds are just so tasty, they are certainly one of my favorite tomatoes. The yellow pear also sold very well, though I don't  think

Rudbeckia

 I'll grow this variety next season. The plants are very small, hardly 2 feet, and though they are producing decently, the plant itself doesn't seem very strong.  Plus, the large difference in size makes it a little awkward to string them alongside other varieties. The large heirloom tomatoes are very full with fruit and I've picked off a couple ripe tomatoes from a variety called Rutgers which is nearly pulling down the staking. The Green Cherokee (many Detroiters are familiar with Purple Cherokee, we'll see how this compares) is also producing well but no ripening fruit yet.

we are also happy to have the help of our neighbor Paul Weertz, though probably not the Paul Weertz you all may be familiar with.  This Paul Weertz is only 9 years-old and also known as "PJ" and Paul Weertz's grandson.  So PJ has been helping out a little on the farm, including prepping beds, hilling leeks and planting scallions.  This past Saturday was his first time at market and he really was a life saver.  It was just Jack and I at market which required a lot of babywearing for Jack while doing everything else, including getting all the produce/display to market and setting up, while i was away harvesting flowers.  thankfully PJ was able to assist Jack by weighting out tomato baskets and arugula bags and making change.  all very difficult tasks while wearing a VERY grabby 10-month old.  Thank you PJ!

The guys at work...one of the down sides of having a eastern stall at market, my photos always come out like this! oh and you can see our crazy flower transport covered wagon in the back round.

Last but not least, we had a very productive (though small) workday a couple Sundays ago.  My folks were back in town, so we had the benefit of a very happy grandma to babysit and an even happier grandpa to put to work.  With chainsaw in hand and a grin on his face, my pop cleared the whole side of the house!  Jack, myself and a few friends helped  move cut

i can't say that it looks good, but it looks better i guess :)

 branches and clear out parts of the felled tree.  we also cleared broken glass near the house and generally gave the back/side yard a little love.  Though these were important tasks in general I had specific desires to clean up the place in order to host a birthday party for myself (the bummer about getting old is having to do all the work for your birthday..oh well).

Oh and one last exciting bit of news, we'll be a featured stop on this year's DAN Garden Tour!  So if you are doing the Eastside tour this year, I'll see you tomorrow!

Finn LOVES the Sun Golds!

Tree felling and first flowers!

hello all!

it has been a little while and i do apologize but it has been a busy summer and finding the time to sit down, think and write has been a little difficult.  but busy is good, we love busy...so here we go...

Demo time!

Doing a total 180 on our house repair plans, we've decided and begun removing all the plaster and lathe in the house.  Though much of the plaster was still in good shape, as we proceeded with our thinking we came to the conclusion that having a blank slate to put in all the electrical, plumbing and do some room redesign was necessary. 
So a couple weeks ago we got a small group of friends and family together to begin the process.  We now have all the plaster removed from the walls on the 2nd floor but still have a LOT of clean out to do.  We also need to remove the ceiling plaster (or maybe we'll leave it and make it work with the drywall...not sure?).  once we get the 2nd floor cleared out we'll need to move all our belongings on the 1st floor up there so we can begin the demo process on the 1st floor.  looking back at my naive dreams of moving into the house by winter, i can't help but smile and shake my head...we've already learned a lot and its gonna take some time to make the farmhouse our home.  thankfully we have lots of friends who have completed similiar projects and there's no end to the encouragement.

the dedicated father

We've also continued our work on our walk-in cooler.  This time with the skills and experience of my pop.  My dad came for two weekends in a row to help gather materials and continue the build (including hanging the door and laying all the foam board).  We are soooo close to finishing the dang thing.  We now have half the OSB board on the inside walls, the floor down and an electrical outlet ready to go.  We just need to finish getting the walls up, put on the roof, put in the A/C, and attach some shelves and we're good to go.  Of course the plan was to have the cooler finished before the flowers came in but alas they have come and we aren't ready...such is life.

which brings me to the FLOWERS!!  so i've never grown flowers before.  honestly until i took a cut flowers class at MSU i had no interest what so ever in flowers.  if you couldn't eat it then i wasn't interested in growing it.  i still kinda feel that way but i did really enjoy bouquet making so i thought i would give it a go.

Leeann and our first flower customer!

We were able to harvest a small variety of flower last Saturday including zinnas, calendula, amaranth, snapdragons, borage, and gomphrena.  Figuring out pricing, sizes and display were all a new but welcome challenge.  As i mentioned about the cooler, we were not able to harvest on Friday and therefore it required a little harvesting in the dark Saturday morning.  I was of course already all nervous about getting them to market and how they'd sell etc. and harvesting them in the light a tiny head lamp tested my harvesting abilities.
but despite some minor set backs (the trailer we intended to transport the flowers in had a flat and our pump had magically disappeared) the flower were brought to market, made into bouquets and sold to FIVE whole customers (hey! it takes a lot of flowers to make one bouquet).  so lessons learned from our first flower sales: finish the walk-in, check trailers the night before, and plant more flowers next year.

and last but certainly not least...we had an old fashion tree felling a couple days ago.  the huge Tree-of-Heaven or Ghetto Palm as some like to say, which was in front of the farmhouse is, well, still in front of the farmhouse though now it is laying on its side and we have a very large stump and a LOT of wood to chop up.  As is classic Paul Weertz style we had been told that he wanted to cut it down but we just had to bug him about it.  When working with Paul you NEVER  set a work day you just have to come up to Paul when it looks like he in between project and it itching for adventure and you say "hey Paul, you wanna go cut down that tree?!" and usually it works.  and it was an adventure...the plan was to tie a long rope (long enough, hopefully!) to the main branch of the tree and the other end to the Weetz 15 passenger van.  Paul does his best impression of a lumber jack (sans flannel) and his son Joe guns it in the van.  After a couple, heart-stopping attempts in which the whole tree top swayed dangerously, the whole thing came down and broke into many pieces.  thankfully the tree fell exactly where we wanted it and none of the branches even went in the street!  but of course now we have a huge tree to cut up, but once we get our wood-burning stove we'll be set for a while.

it begins...that is a might big saw!

we're keeping our eyes on you Paul!  Don't drop it on our farmhouse!

It begins to lean...

Down with a crash!

Look at all that fire wood

A great community event! ha!