Farming in the shade

This is the time of year that many veggie farmers are offering sign-ups for CSAs. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture (read more  here ), and this membership structure offers a win-win situation for both the farmer and the member. The farmer receives income at a traditionally low-income time of year from membership fees—money that can be used to purchase seeds or pay a greenhouse heating bill, or just keep the lights on and everyone fed and clothed until the next paycheck comes. And the member is assured that all summer long he/she will eat well, usually at a lower cost than he/she would have paid to buy all those veggies individually.  Our farm is quite different from most market farms. We don’t raise veggies, and what we do raise is available off and on for much of the year. We continue to go to the markets all winter, as weather and our energy levels allow. So we aren’t so much in need of a CSA model for timely income. But we look at our veggie farmer frien...

The bean harvest of 2014 was not great. So last summer we rotated between three farmers markets, and didn't have too much trouble moving the small quantity of beans we needed to market. The bean harvest of last fall, however, was much better. We continued to rotate between three markets all winter long (some of them outside!). But early this summer, we realized that we needed to work a little harder to move all these beans. We added two new markets to the mix, and now we need a Franklin Planner (an old-fashioned kind of scheduling app that uses paper and a pen) to keep us knowing where we are coming or going. With the great help of our parents, we cover five markets. The Holland market is an every Saturday market. The Fulton Street market (GR) is an every other Saturday market, as is Sweetwater Local Foods market in Norton Shores. New to the mix this year are Kalamazoo (every other Saturday) and South Haven (as often as we can get there--generally every other Saturday and mo...

Several weeks ago we brought more corn to the nearby windmill. It's a working windmill, and we have had several batches of corn ground into cornmeal. It's a nice addition to our farmers market tables.  First we clean and bag the corn. No pictures of the process this time, but we run it over the fanning mill (or screener) much the same way we do with beans.  Here's an up close and personal picture of the windmill. The wind drives the blades, which turn the giant stones. They also have a smaller set of stones which I think are powered by electricity. Here's the bottom half of the windmill, so that you can get an idea of the size. The Farmer had to take a phone call while we were there. What did we do before cell phones? We carried the bags of corn up a flight of stairs. The stones are actually on the top floor, but we didn't have to carry them that far. It's hard to remember to take pictures when we are there, as the miller is so interesti...

It's been nearly a month since I last blogged. Perhaps you were too busy with family gatherings and holiday celebrations to notice my bloggy neglect. I certainly was too busy to notice... This blog post is just a reminder that we have open farm shop hours each Friday afternoon from 1 - 4 pm. Our farm is located at 13275 Blair Street, Holland, MI 49424. Feel free to drive out if you need a fresh infusion of wool or beans in your life.  In addition to farm shop hours, you can find us at farmers markets (yes, even in the winter!). To the best of our knowledge, our market schedule is as follows: Jan. 10 - Fulton Street , Sweetwater Jan. 17 - Holland Pop-Up Winter Market, Sweetwater Jan. 24 - Fulton Street Jan. 31 - Holland, Sweetwater Feb. 7 - Fulton Street Feb. 14 - Holland, Sweetwater Feb. 21 - Fulton Street Feb. 28 - Holland, Sweetwater Mar. 7 - Shearing Day at Shady Side Farm (more about that later) For more up to date information about markets and other ...

Some of the projects we've been involved with over the past few weeks have taken away from my blogging time and motivation. Our beans will be featured in the Grand Rapids Magazine's December edition. At least that's what we've been told. When we were interviewed, we realized that we really can't put off having a real website much longer. So we've been working on that, with the great help of our daughter and her co-worker. Whatever "works" about the website is because of them. Whatever is clunky is probably where you see my fingerprints. No, we're not unveiling it just yet. It still needs a little more spit-polish. For a couple of weeks there, this blog's future hung in the balance. Why not just incorporate the blog into the website itself? Have everything look uniform, streamlined, less cluttered... But I just couldn't leave it behind. So, while I may rearrange the furniture a bit sometime this winter, I'm sticking with the blo...

We are producer members of the West Michigan Coop  and today is pick-up day. So part of yesterday we spent getting the orders ready. Customers order on-line once a month, and we travel to the city to meet them and bring them the items they've ordered. If we have extra items for sale, we can bring the extras along, too, for impulse sales. But it's nice to know that we are guaranteed a certain level of sales before we make the drive. Each bag of beans is weighed out on our trusty scale. Looks like this one needs a bit more in it. These handy strawberry carriers make hauling the bags of beans much easier. See you tonight, West Michigan Coop!