FROG HOLLER FARM - August 29, 2020

 

Billy King built bat houses this week and he and bro Kenny installed them.

 Bats eat a lot of mosquitoes and mosquito-sized insects and are said to be beneficial to have around. We are happy to provide them with a spot to roost, but we don't want them in our belfry!

 

NOTES FROM THE FARM: 

A lot of kitchen time was spent preserving this week. Twenty quarts of tomatoes, three big batches of pesto, frozen green beans, and spaghetti sauce in progress. After a long day in the kitchen, it was very gratifying to slather some pesto on pita bread, add a slice of cheese and fresh tomato, and sit down! Sometimes simple is the best.

Note about Cilantro: if Cilantro is relatively new to you, you might not know to use the stems. They are just as tasty as the leaves and almost as tender; they can also add a slight crunch to a salad. You don't have to take the leaves off the stems - just chop it all together and enjoy the unique cilantro flavor. Years ago we had a customer from Thailand who asked us to bring cilantro bunches with the roots attached; cilantro root is preferred in some Thai cooking. You probably can't find cilantro bunches with roots attached at most markets, but go to shops specializing in Asian cuisine and you'll see bunches of the entire plant - leaves, stems and roots!

MEET CREW MEMBER KEEGEN CARTY

Keegen led off our first CSA newsletter! 

Often our crew members are fresh out of college and looking for hands-on experience for where their food comes from, before heading off on other adventures. Other times our crew members have already had many life experiences or are taking a pause in their job/work to explore a different pace or approach. Keegen Carty falls in the latter category, leaving several years working in the corporate world to forge a new path. Fun Fact: Keegen is also the only crew member who joined the farm after returning from a recent sojourn in India!

"Tree-gen" by the Ganges

When Keegen returned from India in March, he quarantined for two weeks and then started looking for his next step. He also started looking for his first house. He found his next step at Frog Holler in April and he found his first house this week!

Keegen jumped into the farm tasks with both feet and proved himself an attentive and quick learner. Of his time at Frog Holler, Keegen says, "Coming to work on the farm this season, during Covid, felt like a really important action I could take to help contribute to a stable, healthy and local food supply. And we get to eat the fruits of our labor- amazing fresh vegetarian lunch every day at work! Treating our bodies with care and respect and hopefully preventing illness starts with high quality food. This is what Frog Holler does for the community! I love it!"

Ashleh, Cale, Milan and Keegen - enjoying lunch and each other! On the menu: "TLT's":
Tempeh Bacon from our good friends at The Brinery, grilled peppers/onions, copious tomato slices
and lettuce, homemade Russian dressing, on homemade sourdough.
Thanks to Emily for the lunch menu and working the grill!

Keegen takes occupancy this fall and we appreciate that he is willing, despite lots of loose ends to tie up,  to stay on the farm crew until the end of the season. Especially because we are saying...

GOOD-BYE TO CREW MEMBER MILAN ANDERSON!

Milan leaves the farm for a tutoring job in Ann Arbor starting this September. We featured Milan in the June 27 Newsletter as we highlighted Milan's interest in foraging and introduced the Medicinal Wild Plants section to our produce ordering site. Milan researched and gathered the plants, providing a "wild" option to many interested customers.

Milan in her happy place, gathering purslane for an order

Milan has many interests and talents, one being music - she writes songs, plays cello and guitar, and sings beautifully. With the help of Frog Holler farmer/musician Billy King, who happens to have a recording studio in our barn, Milan made a music video of one of her original songs, titled "home!". (The video has lots of scenes at the farm and was taken by her friend, Xan Schwartz, when she visited this summer.) 

If you would like to download the song, here's the Bandcamp link:

https://milan.bandcamp.com/track/home

 Milan is donating all proceeds from Bandcamp to WECAN (Women's Earth and Climate Action Network).

Big thanks to Milan for being such a good sport, totally game for anything, and sticking it out from the beginning of the season until now. According to Milan, these four months went really fast. We hope that the time flew because she was having so much fun and hopefully she felt that, for a little while, she was home!

We'll give Milan the last word. In reflecting on her time at the farm, she says, "I can't think of many professions that  - through tireless, focused, and willful attention/labor - bring about the satisfaction of farming. You work the soil, plant seeds, you give 'em water and a surviving chance by weeding, and weeks later, you're putting those plants' babies into the hands of someone who, more often than not, cherishes them."

Milan, who many of you may have met at our market stall, goes on to say, "Maybe it's just because I'm a "young pup" still fresh in this so-called farming business, still cheerful and wide-eyed at those blaringly early farmer markets, but I like to think they're a culmination of our collective energy both above and below ground, a kind of weekly celebration!"

And thank you all for celebrating with us - have a great week!