-
This Saturday may be our last market for the year. We don't quite know how the lettuce will "pick out" but if this Saturday isn't the last, then next Saturday will be. That means that we have trucked on down to the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market for six and a half months this year; that Ken King and designated family members have rousted out of bed at 4:00 AM for almost 30 Saturdays and 25 or so Wednesdays; that friends and family have pitched for just as many Tuesdays and Fridays helping to harvest and make salad mix for next day's market; that countless seeds have sprouted, grown to fullness and offered up their ripe richness to harvesting hands; that brightly-colored rows of vegetation have decorated the garden in a changing patchwork throughout the season; that bowed backs have moved slowly through the rows, keen eyes and nimble fingers creating order in cultivation or harvest; that hundreds of boxes have been filled, trucked to market, emptied and dispersed, and trucked back to farm ready to be filled again; that countless wheelbarrow fulls of compost have been trundled off to steaming piles, to cook and season, creating the miracle of rich earth from vegetable waste -- true alchemy; that the sun has offered its growth-giving radiance over and over; and that rains have nourished thirsty roots; that farmers have rejoiced; that farmers have cursed; that we have listened to birds, seen rainbows, watched butterflies; and that some days we have started early, ended late, and never looked up. It's all in a season's work, and a very good season it has been. Thanks everyone!

And although frogs dig down in the mud for the winter, I plan to continue the frog log with hopefully more insights into organic farming and vignettes from the Holler. Stay tuned!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Cruising by the strawberry patch at the end of the day when I scooped up a red beauty and popped it in my mouth -- and stopped in my tracks. Now THAT was a strawberry. Believe me, I have spent hours crawling through strawberry patches, picked thousands of berries, tasted at least well into the upper hundreds. You would think I might be a little jaded. Or at least a bit cool toward these innocuous looking little fruits that take over my life and back for the month of June. But I really had to stop and just taste that berry. Somehow the perfect combination of springtime rains, sweet organic earth, afternoon sun, and essence of berry had conjoined to splash a sparkle of flavor across my tongue that deserved the silence and stillness of utter appreciation. In an extremely busy time for market gardening when strawberry picking becomes yet one more huge task in a day overfull with patches to tend and fences to mend, I appreciated the reminder to stop and savor the fruits of our labor. You ma
Read more

My road to Frog Holler, by Paul Burger

-
I graduated from Michigan State in 2010 with strong passions for local organic food, community development, and a healthy (or maybe unhealthy) fear of not making enough money in the career path that I would eventually be forced to choose. The looming decision often weighed on me heavily as my inner self struggled to put a value on working with my passions vs. working for a salary. Towards the end of my college career, I spent weeks toiling over the situation. After contracting shingles and likely straining many of my interpersonal relationships, I still felt as if I had not made any progress in terms of knowing what was right. I eventually decided that I would “sacrifice” a year in order to pursue work that I really loved before zeroing in on a more lucrative desk job. I was lucky enough to find a dream job in my hometown of Ann Arbor working for Avalon Housing in coordination with Growing Hope on gardening and nutrition education for low-income Ann Arbor residents. I loved my wo
Read more

CSA time

-
Last week we started our CSA session for 2010. for the next 17 weeks we will do our best to fill a box with delicious seasonal veggies for our CSA members. We'll also include a newsletter full of farm doin's and vegetable lore. It isn't quite the same content as the Frog Log, but it will no doubt take precedence over any other writing. I doubt if there are any faithful Frog Log readers left after such " few-and-far-between" posting, but if anyone is still interested, most posting will be done at http://froghollercsa.blogspot.com/ Also, being busy as a bee, and apparently a bit of a birdbrain, I am now tweeting at http://twitter.com/ - look for froghollerfarm! Off to the newsletter - tweet tweet and ribbit!
Read more