Frog Log

Well, I don't know what the Beatles were thinking, (or smoking), but strawberry fields do not last forever. I'm a little embarrassed because I noticed that I was writing strawberry rants last year as well (see June Frog Log archives). And strawberry season is so over, what's the point of mentioning them? Well, I happened to hear Wes Parson, the Food & Wine columnist for the L.A.Times interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air. Terri Gross asked him what produce item, besides tomatoes, which apparently they had already discussed, suffered the most from modern methods of growing and distributing. There was a longish pause and I just knew what he was going to answer. Yep -- strawberries! Mr. Parson went on to inform listeners that ripe strawberries truly cannot be shipped. Once he wanted to make a dish with ripe strawberries in the off season. He called all the specialty fruit producers he knew to find someone to send him fresh RIPE strawberries. No one would even talk to him! Fin...

Last Saturday, two friends came by the market who hadn't been there in a long time. They live in Saline, which now has its own farmer's market, and they have generally chosen to forego the ten mile drive and city traffic that an Ann Arbor trip would involve. But they decided to take a little jaunt last Saturday and surprised me when they materialized in front of our stall. Paul reported that he had very little traffic to deal with, and was pleasantly surprised to cruise easily through the city streets. But as they approached the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market area, Paul and Maryanne said that street activity noticeably increased. Shoppers walked purposefully down the sidewalks toward the market; parents pushed strollers with baskets dangling from the handles; cars on the street jockeyed for parking places; the cityscape seemed to come alive. It was only 9:00 AM and over at the Farmer's Marlet, Ann Arbor was very much awake! Yes, the market had been jumping for almost two hou...

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...

Many of you who have been around the Frog Holler web site or farm site, know that our roots go back to Indian Summer Natural Foods Restaurant, which began operating in 1972. Why a bunch of twenty-somethings with no previous experience thought they could start a restaurant remains a question that only can be answered by "youth", "idealism", "the times", or just plain foolishness. Somehow we got lucky and Indian Summer, for a few fresh and vibrant years, beamed a beacon of unpretentious high-quality natural food and down-to-earth friendliness to the Ann Arbor community. The restaurant's success and popularity was a magnet to many young people as they passed through town, heading toward other points on down their road of life. I have no doubt that stopping off at Indian Summer for a few shifts in the kitchen or at the tables changed the course of many of those yet unfinished itineraries. Case in point: A gangly youngster not too far out of high school str...

And here's another good reason to garden! From Joy of Cooking: About Herbs "Confucius, a wise man, refused to eat anything not in season. Everyone who has tasted the difference between food served with fresh rather than dried herbs knows how wise he was. Few herbs can be bought in a fresh state at market, but the most important ones can be easily grown in a small sunny plot. We know, for we have grown and used all the culinaries in this section. Therefore, we beg you to exercise your green thumb at least on those whose evanescent oils deteriorate or almost disappear in drying. Chervil, borage, burnet and summer savory suffer the greatest losses. And those mainstays - chives, tarragon, parsley and basil - can never in their dry form begin to approach the quality of their fresh counterparts. Even the flavor of sage when fresh can be so delicate as to be almost unrecognizable." A few comments from the Frog Logger: 1. Twenty-five hundred years later, thanks to the Slow Food a...

Another good reason to garden!: Working in Dirt Can Actually be Healthy (from Mercola.com) Exposure to certain forms of soil bacteria can boost the immune system, which can in turn improve mood as effectively as antidepressant drugs. Mice exposed to a benign soil microbe, Mycobacterium vaccae, performed better on a behavioral task commonly used to test the effectiveness of antidepressants. The mice were placed in water and observed to see how long they continued swimming before giving up. The mice who had been exposed to Mycobacterium vaccae continued swimming for a much longer time. These results are similar to those from a previous study, in which human cancer patients treated with the bacteria reported significant improvements in their quality of life. Researchers suspect that the microbes are affecting the brain indirectly by causing immune cells to release chemicals called cytokines, which stimulate the production of the mood-regulating chemical serotonin. The lead researcher on t...

Hi ho -- the Frog Log has been dormant, to be sure, but then frogs do hibernate. My friend and writing buddy, Tom Hines, who has been immortalized in several blogs, finally took the bull by the horns -- or the frog by the legs -- and wrote his own Frog Log. I appreciate the wake-up call, but I'm still moving kind of slow in this cold weather. I'll let Tom fill y'all in for now and I'll return soon. I did stop by the Farmer's Market today and a few intrepid farnmers were braving the low twenties temps. One of them was an organic grower bringing in fresh greens from his hoophouse. Good for him! If Ken has his way, the 100 ft. hoophouse he has been building this winter will be full of greenery next winter, and we'll see you at the market year-round. Here's Tom: I'll walk with Jupiter in the cold woods. I'll think and amble as he lopes off after deer. The gardens rest, only bushy green kale dares stand, still life like into the new year. Short cover gras...