Week 11, Fall 2024

This week we embarked on a trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for soil sampling, foraging, and rutabaga pasties! Then a sweet reunion and a barn bash / Gavi’s early birthday party. Good times.

Eric with SO many like SO many daikon radishes!

Sunday, November 10 **

Woke up covered in hay but content with the barty and happy to have celebrated Gavi’s birth with my oldest friends! Folks headed for home and we settled into a calm Sunday routine (woods time, journaling and reading, harvesting and cooking, more singing etc). Two young cats followed Eric home the other day and have been hanging around the farm ever since. I am calling them Leo and Jam <3 and we are actively looking for homes for these sweet guys so please let all your friends know!!

Jam (white, left) and Leo (orange, right)

Saturday, November 9

Today we played music for hours — someone found a copy of Rise Up Singing and we are hooked! Luisa is back on the farm and she is very good at harmonizing, which contributes to the singing mood. I made banana bread with 541 bananas, then helped set up the barn for a festive night. My partner Ritz drove down from Chicago and my hometown friends drove up from Urbana to join the barty. We strung lights and banners in the barn and began with a talent show! Ella brought out a carrot + turnip cake for Gavi, decorated with coconut icing. Margalit and Erin led us in line dances into the wee hours, and I crashed with my friends in a nest of haybales. Netzach the Rooster and Phoebe the Black Cat kept us company.

Establishing trust with Leo. He Is So Cute It Makes Me Sick

Friday, November 8

A very long drive back to the farm. We passed Sheboygan’s most massive flag and the Milwaukee skyline and a new view of Lake Michigan from Lexi’s apartment. Daniella debated becoming a stand-up comedian. We made it back in time for trampolining and shabbat celebrations with the whole crew. Everyone is aware that our shabbats together are dwindling — a fact of life and yet ! We blessed challah and wine and washed our hands with the turbines blinking so steadily through the windows. We also sang sailing songs but that part is less poignant and more pirate. Goodnight, all!

Thursday, November 7

Today we met Nick, whose fields we tramped through the day before. We learned a ton about farming in the Upper Peninsula, including Nick’s projects to bring back rye as a regenerative crop and promote mycelial connections in the soil. Nick and Lexi coordinated future research projects on the land to understand how basalt effects crop yields and soil chemistry.

After our meeting, we drove north to Lake Superior and hiked at the stunning Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore! We found awesome mushrooms and ferns and moss and a glorious waterfall along the way. The hike brought us to a high cliff above orange and pink rocks, with waves crashing with such energy onto a shore of soft sand. It was pretty epic. Afterwards, we met a taxidermied bear at a pasty restaurant and drove through a dark night.

Wednesday, November 6

Just a girl and her soil auger. 

Such a strange morning in this nation! I took a restorative wander along the lakefront before digging into soil sampling for the day. We collected soil from a wheat field slightly inland, surrounded by stark woodland and broken by hills and trails through the resting plants. Working in teams, we bagged over 600 individual soil cores, then labeled and sorted the samples to be sent to the lab in Champaign-Urbana. It felt good to have a task on such a confusing and emotional day. Lexi and I cooked pesto pasta and we watched an episode of Our Flag Means Death for some much-needed silliness! Also I love pirates

Tuesday, November 5

Basalt. Lots of it

We started Election Day with a basalt delivery and some very impressive backwards driving in the early morning fog. Ella, Daniella, and I departed for Michigan, picking up Lexi and two dozen bagels in Rogers Park along the way.

The town we’re staying in is called Menominee and it’s just past the border with Wisconsin, along the southeastern flank of the Upper Peninsula, with endless views of Lake Michigan. We unpacked and headed to a bar for a long night of election-watching (commiserating, weeping, laughing, telling tall tales, tearing out our hair, etc.) in the company of friendly Yoopers. Went to sleep with a belly full of cheese curds and uncertainty.

Monday, November 4

Like usual, I harvested tomatoes and eggplants in the high tunnel — such a sweet routine to dig into. There’s a special kind of connection that’s found in the company of plants as they grow and change over time. The tomatoes are still producing, albeit at a slower pace than before, and I feel lucky to continue in this project to feed ourselves and our communities. We stacked the fruits in crates and picked several more hornworms from tomato leaves to feed to Patricia’s dragon friend!

After work, a group of us walked east on the main road and admired a landscape so different from the one I first enjoyed in August. So chilly and foggy with the sun setting at 4pm and the leaves all fallen down. It feels comforting to be back in the Midwest in this way.

Unexpected abundance. 

** 49th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

we do NOT play around when it comes to november gales