July BLOG

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July 25th, 2006

Apologies for the sparse blog posts – we have many farms to catch you up on...

Since we last wrote, we’ve cooked up heaps of good food while volunteering with Mike Everts and the Real Food Dream Kitchen at BlissFest, joined Marty’s father in celebrating his 65th birthday fishing on a CHOPPY Lake Michigan morning (everyone, including the birthday boy, was nauseous), and visited 4 farms! 

Our tour has rounded the corner in southwest Michigan and has begun the journey northward – through the Grand Rapids area…and beyond.   We’ve been delighting in the varied landscape and agriculture of southwestern Michigan.  The monotony of corn and soy fields is broken by miles and miles of cucumbers, and then acres of blueberries, and then ridges of fruit trees – apples and peaches and plums, oh my!  We camped on the shore of Lake Michigan a bit south of Saugatuck/Douglas for a brief but satisfying dose of non-farm natural beauty.  Michelle was disgruntled by the E. coli advisory (unsafe for swimming) at the beach.  As we rode away from the lake, we again traversed the ridges of fruit orchards and returned to the flatlands with their corn, soy and large confinement animal operations.  Oh my Michigan, how I love your diversity!

ATTENTION FOODIES:  Next time you’re in the Saugatuck/Douglas area, do yourself a favor and drop in to Journeyman Café in downtown Fennville, MI.  They are doing American artisan foods right proper with a seasonal menu, locally supplied ingredients, traditional artisanal breads from a beautiful, wood-fired masonry oven, and a café-style dining area.  We’re currently at the second farm that supplies produce to them – check ‘em out!

After our detour up north, we returned to White Yarrow Farm and our stashed bicycles to finish weeding the onions and enjoy some incredible cherry blueberry cobbler.  Thanks again to Dale, Jo and Rianna for your hospitality and for babysitting our bicycles. 

When we arrived at Eaters’ Guild Farm in Bangor on a late Wednesday afternoon, much to our delight farmers Lee and Laurie were in the front yard tossing a Frisbee with their friend David.  A perfect welcome to a beautiful farm and delightful family.  Lee and Laurie Arboreal started their CSA in the Mt. Pleasant area, but 3 years ago they bought a farm in Bangor and moved their operation.  Their land, certified organic for 30+ years, used to be the site of the School of Homesteading, established and run by Maynard Kaufman.  They now live in an authentic turn-of-the-century brick farmhouse with their daughter, Iris.  Eaters’ Guild has 60 CSA members, sells at farmer’s markets in Saugatuck, South Haven and Holland, and wholesales certified organic produce through the Organic Valley farmer’s cooperative and to Whole Foods.  We helped harvest for the farmer’s markets and actually got to check out all three of the markets.  Eaters’ Guild has a cool arrangement with Journeyman Café:  Eaters’ Guild sells Journeyman bread at Saugatuck and South Haven and Journeyman sells Eaters’ Guild produce at Holland.  Along with a lot of harvesting, we also helped with the weekly greens seeding, and braided softneck garlic.  On Saturday evening, a number of folks came out to the farm for a proper “slow” meal and to learn a bit about our tour, organized by Chris Dilley and Fair Food Matters from Kalamazoo.  Sunday evening we even went to the beach in South Haven with Lee, Laurie and Iris.  We’ll see you this winter, Iris!

Another notable from Eaters’ Guild:  they have a “breakfast table” share add-on that includes maple syrup and home-roasted coffee.  Lee and Laurie buy green coffee beans (from Sweet Maria’s in Oakland, CA) and then roast them, get this, in a WestEnd Poppery II air popcorn popper!  As weird as it sounds, we can now say from experience that fresh, home-roasted coffee is dis-licious!

So much more to share…but it’s late and I need to sign off for now.  We’ll have to catch up on the next couple of farms somewhere further down the road.

Greetings from Bellaire – we’re up north for the weekend!  We’ve visited four farms since the last blog, and now we’re taking a few days off for the annual Bliss Festival (www.blissfest.org), and to check out a couple of potential farm properties in northern Michigan.  Our friends Dustin, Susan, Brad, Amanda, Sarna, and Pete have made the weekend trip possible by giving rides, hosting and feeding us, lending cars, etc.  As always, this trip is happening as a community project, with the generosity of our friends and family at the core.  Heartfelt thanks to all of you, eternally.

Avalon Farms Premium Homegrown

Their CSA (which they call “Share of the Farm”) has an unusual twist: door to door delivery!  They bag and deliver shares to maybe 50 households and workplaces in the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek areas.  While we were there, we helped harvest hydroponic grape tomatoes and mixed greens, pack tomatoes, deliver shares, went to farmers’ market in Battle Creek, and learned about Farm Bureau (of which they are active members) while weeding the asparagus patch. We learned a lot about the “non-organic” farming world from the Leaches, which was cool, because we move mostly in organic farming circles, and it was good to talk and spend time with folks with a different background and perspective.
 In the share at Avalon the week we were there:

Besides oxen and draft horses, Tillers is home to goats, chickens, guineas, one very proud tom turkey, a rice paddy, and a prolific black raspberry patch. While there, we had a surprise reunion: the summer interns and staff from the MSU Student Organic Farm came for a tour that day!  So we joined them for a demonstration of cultivating corn with a pair of oxen—nice driving, farmers!

Lake Village Homestead

Lake Village Homestead was our next destination, on the shore of Long Lake, outside of Portage.  Lake Village is an intentional community formed in the early 1970s, based on the behaviorist philosophy of B. F. Skinner.  Currently the community encompasses over 300 acres, 1 1/2 miles of undeveloped lakeshore, and a pasture-based livestock farm.  Animals include a beef cattle, pigs, milk goats, riding horses, chickens, and lots of peacocks.  Lake Village doesn’t technically have a CSA (we discovered after we arrived) – they formerly had one, but discontinued it a few years ago.  They do have a store on site, where they sell animal products (meat, goat milk, cheese, eggs) from the farm, and occasional produce from the garden.  These days they have a “Food Share” program – community members or friends can purchase a share, which entitles them to a discount on all store purchases.  We spent a few days camping by the lake, and helped build a tent platform, pull weeds, and move bales of hay.

In the shares at White Yarrow the week we were there:

Our trusty videographer and chauffeur, Dustin, picked us up on Tuesday and whisked us away to northern Michigan, where we are now, and from Friday-Sunday we’ll be at Bliss Fest – hope to see you there!

On another note: the BIKING part of the trip has been GREAT!  For me (Michelle), the first couple of weeks were hard, because the rear shifter wasn’t working properly on my otherwise wonderful borrowed bike.  Turns out there was a kink in the cable housing about an inch from the shifter, so Marty resourcefully shortened the housing, and now it just glides.  Delicious.  I’ve developed an affinity for paved roads that I’ve never experienced before – a new perspective!  I’ve also learned to stretch without swerving (too much), yawn with my teeth closed, use “both” pairs of legs (i.e. I really like the clipless pedals, and I’m getting better at it), and when Marty can slow down enough for a stretch, we’re practicing drafting, which makes riding, esp. in headwinds, much more fun and more of a team project.