Frog Log

This article was written by Ken King, Frog Holler's founder. Although Ken passed away in 2009, his vision continues to inform and guide. Measuring Up to Mother Nature, by Ken King (First written in 1980, republished for the People's Food Coop "Connection," January 1990) (PFC Connection Editor’s Note: The following essay originally appeared in the January 1980 issue of The Alchemist, a now-defunct local Ann Arbor publication whose content and design could be described as falling somewhere between The Observer and The Agenda, two current area publications. Ken King is a local organic grower who has had a long working relationship with PFC. He and his family have artistic interests as well – some of you may remember them performing at the last PFC meeting along with other musicians. Although first published ten years ago this month, the following could easily seem to have been written within the last few weeks. Ken’s statements are as appropriate at the beginning of ...

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!