SolaRefuge Farm

09/19/2016

Finally I set aside some time to do a little food preservation. Sunday saw another batch of dilly beans of mixed royal burgundy and dragon tongue beans; edamame; and royal burgundy beans for the freezer. Today I spent the morning canning tomatoes and got a couple of batches done, giving me 40 quarts. Would like to do a couple more days of canning tomatoes. Now it is time to go pick and prepare for Tuesdays market, see you there.

09/16/2016

Wes Jackson, Wendell Berry, and Fred Kirschenmann

09/16/2016

50-Year Farm Bill
By The Land Institute in Feature Articles - July 1, 2009
Wes Jackson, Wendell Berry, and Fred Kirschenmann travelled to Washington DC in mid-July 2009 to promote a 50-Year Farm Bill. Open a PDF of the document athttps://landinstitute.org/sites/all/themes/landinstitute/wp_uploads/2014/04/FB-edited-7-6-10.pdf
Well worth the read whether you agree or not.

09/16/2016

Speaking of Zingermans Roadhouse, please support this establishment as they have become regular purchasers of Solarefuge Farm snap beans, including 1/2 runners, dragon tongue, royal burgundy, green beans and Roma green beans.

08/30/2016

Who would think that the New York Times would know about Edamame

Edamame in the Shell
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/12796-edamame-in-the-shell

Salt
1 pound fresh or frozen edamame in their pods
Black pepper to taste
Nutritional Information

To boil: Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it generously. Add the edamame, return to a boil and cook until bright green, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain. To microwave: Put the edamame in a microwave-safe dish with ¼ cup water and a pinch of salt, cover partly and microwave on high until bright green, 1 to 5 minutes, depending on your microwave power.
2. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt and a little or a lot of black pepper. Toss and serve hot, warm or chilled with an empty bowl on the side for the pods.

This recipe is by Mark Bittman and takes 5 minutes. Tell us what you think of it at The New York Times - Dining - Food.

08/30/2016

Look forward to seeing you all at the Ypsilanti Farmers Market today. We will have beans, beans and more beans as well as summer squashes, tomatoes, basil and more.

08/25/2016

“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the corn field.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

08/16/2016

Speaking of web sites to follow markets which we participate in, here is the URL for the Westside Farmers Market of Ann Arbor.
http://westsidefarmersmarket.com/

08/16/2016

Monday, though the ground was a little wet we planted snap beans, beets and swiss chard along with an afternoon of picking for the Downtown Ypsilanti Market today from 3-7 PM. You can keep track of all the activities for Growing Hope Farmers markets at http://growinghope.net/

08/15/2016

Saturday we saw 3/8 inch of rain and the same amount again on Sunday, things are looking better already.

12x48=576, the number of broccoli and green cabbage transplants we ran through the transplanter yesterday, for fall harvest.

Home stand is at long last open, so stop by and make a purchase and please remember it operates on the honor system.

08/14/2016

Saturday market at Depot Town went well and while unloading after the market we got some well needed rain. Since I have not yet checked the rain gauge I am not sure what the total is, but I am confident that the plants would appreciate more in a day or two.

08/14/2016

Here is a poem that I discovered while researching Joanna Macy, someone who I shall save for another post.

A Gardening Poem about Living
BY PARKER J. PALMER (), COLUMNIST
Here is one of my favorite poems. On the surface, it's about gardening. But, as you'll see, it's really about living.

Our culture favors a "manufacturing model" of life. We "make" money, we "make" friends, we "make" time, we even "make" love! But we are plants, not products, and we need to treat ourselves and each other the way a good gardener treats green and growing things.

I've heard it said that while an American child will ask, "How are babies made?," a Chinese child will ask, "How do babies grow?" So, "How does your garden grow?" is not just a line from a nursery rhyme! It's a good question to ask about everything that involves human beings and humane values.

"The Seven of Pentacles"
by Marge Piercy

Under a sky the color of pea soup
she is looking at her work growing away there
actively, thickly like grapevines or pole beans
as things grow in the real world, slowly enough.
If you tend them properly, if you mulch, if you water,
if you provide birds that eat insects a home and winter food,
if the sun shines and you pick off caterpillars,
if the praying mantis comes and the lady bugs and the bees,
then the plants flourish, but at their own internal clock.

Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.
You cannot tell always by looking what is happening.
More than half a tree is spread out in the soil under your feet.
Pe*****te quietly as the earthworm that blows no trumpet.
Fight persistently as the creeper that brings down the tree.
Spread like the squash plant that overruns the garden.
Gnaw in the dark and use the sun to make sugar.

Weave real connections, create real nodes, build real houses.
Live a life you can endure: make love that is loving.
Keep tangling and interweaving and taking more in,
a thicket and bramble wilderness to the outside but to us
interconnected with rabbit runs and burrows and lairs.

Live as if you liked yourself, and it may happen:
reach out, keep reaching out, keep bringing in.
This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always,
for every gardener knows that after the digging, after
the planting,
after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.