Live to Garden

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Times Gone By

Here are some views of various areas on the Leelanau Peninsula. I have admired these old buildings for years. I wonder how old they are and what the area looked like at that time.

This church sits across the street from the old buildings.

I caught this sunset on my home to moms Friday night. This photo does not do it justice.

It's Cherry Season in Northern Michigan

The tart cherry harvest began a few days ago for some farms. Others are still a week or so out. Here are some beautiful Montmorency tart cherries. These aren't quite ready for harvest but it wont be much longer.

Sweet cherries of course! One of the perks of my job is getting to eat them straight off the tree. I can often be found with purple teeth and a bit of cherry juice on my shirt. Guilty!

The weather is supposed to very hot this week so we are all going to be roasting in the orhcards during harvest.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Plenty of cherries here.

It's harvest time!

Friday, June 24, 2011

At Home, Sick

I can't help but have that nagging feeling of slackerness (no, that's not a word) when I'm home sick. Like I should be at work, working. Well, I did work this week and now I'm even more sick because of it. It has rained on me everyday since Monday. It's the type of weather that will make you feel crappier when you already feel crappy.

Today, I am coughing up green and my glands are nice and swollen so as you can imagine, I feel great. I attempted to head out to work but made it as far as the local coffee shop before I called Jim and said "I don't think I can work today. I feel worse than i did Yesterday". So today, Jim is scouting all the orchards alone and he even has to fill out the forms. Poor guy. Sorry Jim.

How did I get sick, you ask? Well, last weekend was my girlfriend's bachelorette party which was in Put-In Bay, Ohio. It may have been the thousands of people sweating it up in the clubs, breathing in each others dirty lung air. Or, perhaps, it's from the really drunk guy who was attempting to pee into a water bottle on stage but missed and peed all over me. Yeah, that actually happened. Most of it was on my arms so I was able to quickly wash it off after the wave of shock, disbelief and then disgust came over me. The bouncer tossed the guy out because, well, let's face it. If you are to drunk to get it in the water bottle, you are to drunk to be in the bar.

And if that's not bad enough...

What really sucks is that my vegetable garden is still not in. I have five flats of peppers, tomatoes, greens, etc. that are waiting for me but I'm sick and it won't stop raining.

If this post sounds a bit crabby, well, it is. But I am typing it with a smile on my face at least.

My "Big Farm" Dreams

At the age of five, I spent a short part of my childhood on a farm. I still remember the barn, cows, pasture and the creek that ran through the property. At that time we were just renting the place. The cows weren't ours but for me, it was all mine. We even raised a huge, pink pig for our freezer.

I have always lived rurally. Either on a small farm, deep in the woods or in a very small town. I spent most of my youth in Brethren, a town of about 1000 people located in the heart of the Manistee National Forest. We still own a small cabin on two acres just outside of town and a 115 year old house in town. There's still no traffic lights there. As for businesses, Brethren boasts several bait n' tackle shops, a pizza shop, a bar/restaurant, and a gas station.

I spent many thousands of hours playing in the woods, swimming in the lakes and rivers, and digging in the dirt while tending my garden.

Those days I wanted to be an Architect, then a Veterinarian, then some sort of nature activist. Never once did I realize that being a farmer was an option.

Since the day I discovered small farming and the CSA concept I haven't thought of much else. It has been very clear to me that that is what I want to do. After all this moving around, renting and bouncing from state to state, we will soon buy a farm and I will get started.

My eyes have settled on a 36 acre farm in Northern Lower Michigan. It's within a half hour from where I grew up. The land has a long gentle south facing slope and about 10 acres of Maples and several more of Spruce trees. The house was built in the 40's and is a bit small at 1300 sq feet but I really don't care. I can change the house. It's the land that I want more than anything else. There is a large barn, detached two car garage and another smaller garage out behind the barn. In the maples sits a small sugar shack. Andrew wants to turn it into a sauna but I think it would stay a sugar shack. We can build a sauna.

I can picture the rolling land divided into pasture by Osage orange. A small herd of goats and a few cows, horses and a mini donkey or two browsing the pastures. Chickens, ducks and turkeys enjoying open air. A pig and her piglets resting in the cool moist soil beneath the apple trees. Tidy beds of vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers covering a few acres near the house and the small orchard just to the north.

I can imagine the extremely hard work that it will take but I will love the feeling of the accomplishment. I will love bringing people together over food. I will love raising my family there, under the sun and over the land that feeds them.

I will relish the dark winter days spent planning the coming years farming activities. Improving on the past and cataloging my mistakes, hopefully few. Hours spent crafting, mending and tending and reading the latest news in agriculture.

I have plans to install a cheese cellar near the house. Stone walls and steps lead down to the door. An earth roof will disguise it from a distance. Perhaps a slightly 'hobbit house' appearance.

The gardens around the house and buildings will be English/Country with emphasis on country. Field stones and reclaimed barn wood will be used to build all the little outbuildings that I've always dreamed of having.

Well, It has been many months since I typed the above post and since then the farm has sold, not to me unfortunately. So, I will have to find another one to start dreaming for. It's okay. I've done it a dozen times.