Frog Log

Living in the Ann Arbor area, where non-tradition is more the tradition, we were invited to a vegan thanksgiving. As organic vegetable growers, we support the inordinate consumption of veggies, so were happy to accept the invite and contribute our share to the vegetative bounty. The day before the event we scoured the garden for the final harvest of remaining crops. The generous yield was surprising : 4 crates of cabbage, 2 crates of napa, broccoli, turnips, brussels sprouts, rutabagas, lettuce, parsley, arugula, cilantro - and on and on. We're finished with market, so this is all for us to store, freeze, and eat throughout the winter months. And also to share! I can't describe the kitchen counters filled with vegan dishes that everyone contributed to the feast; it was a veritable cornucopia. But I can recount what veggies the Frog Holler gardens supplied and what we did with them: We made a fresh batch of our salad mix - thanks lettuce, arugula, swiss chard, chives, sorrel, p...

There is a shortage of seed garlic in the land! And although this might seem like a good thing for vampires, it actually suggests that more folks are planting garlic and soon little plots of homegrown garlic will make it impossible for hungry vampires to find a place to land - sorry, fans of the Twilight series! The Frog Holler garlic crop was a little pathetic this year. Although I would like to blame it on vampire intervention, I have to admit that the weeds got the better of the patch, despite the heavy mulch we applied last fall. Luckily for us, a dear friend and ace garlic grower had more garlic than she knew what to do with, so sold us a nice selection of healthy garlic bulbs for our planting pleasure. Did you know garlic comes in many flavors? We have always planted "Music", a homegrown standard known for its flavor and reliable yield - we love its robust richness and also like the name! Bur now, thanks to our friend, we have planted "Killarney Red", ...

Not that any one has been looking for me. Loyal blog readers must have long given up, unless they got the memo to click over to the Frog Holler Farm CSA Newsletter . My summer blogging has been dedicated to that weekly endeavor, and you can view lots of photos and vignettes reflecting the season in the garden, if you're so inclined. Now, as the calendar marches through October, and the temperatures dip, and the leaves start to fall, and the crops start to dwindle, we feel the imminent end to the unlimited fresh produce that we have enjoyed all season. And that's scary! This week we took action in the kitchen! First we cooked and canned 16 more jars of spaghetti sauce - bringing our total to 50. That might get us through the winter. We saved some of the tomatoes for our last fresh salsa of the season. No photo -it was gone too fast! While the sauce was simmering, Kirsten sliced apples for the dehydrator for dried apple snacks throughout the winter (except everyone munched on the...

Mosey on over to our CSA Newsletter #5 for the latest Frog Holler news and photos. Thanks for stopping by!

Since I just learned to link, I will send all you fine readers over to the latest CSA Newsletter which is full of recipes, farm fotos and an important invite to the social event of the holiday weekend. You simply must click on the link!

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!

I just finished a book titled "A Drunkard's Walk, How Randomness Rules Our Lives", by Leonard Mlodinow. Well, actually I sort of weaved my way through it rather than reading from start to finish - but the gist of it, I think, is that as we look back on the events that brought us to where we are at a certain point in time, it's like watching a drunkard walk - unpredictable, without apparent direction, and with a random ricochet from one unexpected interaction to another. Mr. Mlodinow's presentation is sort of convincing, and as I look back on the 39 years of "randomness" at Frog Holler Farm that have preceded this day, I do see many unexpected events. Of course! How boring if we could predict life! But I also see something that Mr. Mlodinow may not have accounted for in his theory. Woven through the myriad and seemingly disparate choices, incidents and experiments of these decades on the farm, there has been a vision - an unwavering underlying thread of...

Frog Holler seedlings ready to grow ! "Locavore" was chosen by the New Oxford American Dictionary as the word of the year in 2007. The narrowest definition of a locavore would be a person who seeks out locally produced food. And the most local food would be right out your back door, or in your nearby Project Grow garden! So unleash your inner locavore and come see us at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market for an enticing array of organically grown seedlings to get your garden off to an early start. We will be selling seedlings starting Saturday, April 10, and continue through mid-June. Sure, it's early, but Spring has been warm and many cool weather crops would be very happy to spread their leaves right now. Home gardeners don't need a Word of the Year to acknowledge what they have known for generations. Home-grown produce is the freshest, tastiest, most nutritious and usually most cost-effective food to put on your table. A Square-Foot Garden, a Lasagna Garden, a herb ...

I am a farmer, and I fear that my words will sound rustic and plain when I try to speak about our world situation. It is complex, experts say, and dangerous too, no fit subject for a tiller of the soil. And yet I have watched things grow, bear fruit and die under many circumstances and have come to believe that the health of my little garden and the health of this world bear a relationship stronger than analogical. - Ken King, found writing Wendell Berry and Ken King never met; it's uncertain if Ken even read any of Berry's writing. Yet both men, deep thinkers and lifelong "tillers of the soil," drew a resonant guidance from living and working in tune with nature's cycles. Berry published many thoughtful volumes of poetry and essays; Ken has left us provocative snippets. Each man, in his own way, expresses a wisdom inextricably tied to the "simple" act of working the land, and succeeding when working with nature. Berry's concern, in his essay, Life ...

Ken King, founder of Frog Holler Farm, passed away last year. A deeply thoughtful man, Ken left essays, fragments, poems behind - most unpublished - and many inspirational. Here is the introduction to what was apparently the start of a book. As Cathy and Ken & Cathy's sons - Billy, Kenny and Edwin - contemplate this new season without Ken's physical presence, these words provide a reminder of the basic ideals that always informed Ken's vision and actions; they also provide guidance for the choices that lie ahead. Untitled, by Ken King It is the last day of 2003. The seed catalogs have arrived, and tomorrow morning I will begin to look them over. As the process begins of contemplating the upcoming gardening year, the basic question always arises: Apart from the relative successes and failures of past years - good crops, poor crops, good or bad soil management, right or wrong seed selections, smart or not-so-smart marketing of plants and produce - apart from the purely...