A Stone Coop Summer's Day

It's been a rainy week here on the farm, but the show goes on--and we've got plenty to show for it! Broccoli, parsley, summer squash, and kohlrabi have been planted despite the weather's best efforts, and the field kale harvest is brisk and bountiful. You can expect to see bunches of curly red and curly green kale, as well as bags of the ever-popular lacinato variety, at tomorrow's Brighton Farmers Market, 8 AM - 1 PM. In addition, we'll have a very small amount of sweet Sungold cherry tomatoes and 4th of July salad tomatoes available. Come around early to get yours!

Speaking of which, the great tomato harvest is just now ramping up; we managed to pluck some twenty pounds this week, but within a month we can expect roughly eight hundred to a thousand pounds per week. Whether you take them raw or fried, on sandwiches or salads, drizzled with balsamic or sprinkled with salt, this is great news for all tomato-lovers.

That about covers it for now. We look forward to seeing you at market tomorrow, where we'll also be offering eggplants and purple peppers for the first time this season!

Farmers Market Update

We'll just be at Brighton market again this weekend. The summer crops are just starting to come in, but we're still a bit too low on inventory to fill two weekend markets in addition to our summer shares and online sales. Hoping to be getting back to Howell in the next week or two!

Planted nearly all of our fall brassica transplants today: Kossack kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, and cabbage. Just a bit of broccoli and cauliflower left to put in. The second (and much larger) batch of sugar snap peas are starting to come in, and the field kale is finally ready to harvest! Get to market early enough tomorrow morning and you'll be able to pick up the first of the summer kale.

Farmers Market begins this weekend

Remember, farmers market starts this weekend! We'll be in Brighton on Saturday from 8am - 1pm and in Howell on Sunday from 9am - 2pm. Stop by to get some fresh produce and some herbs and veggie plants for your garden!

Now Selling at Howell Farmers Market

Come find us at Howell Farmers Market on Sundays, 9am to 2pm. The market is in downtown Howell, just off Grand River and Michigan Ave. It's a great market with plenty of local farmers and crafts. This was our first week attending, and we really enjoyed the atmosphere, as well as all the new folks we met. Next week (Sunday the 19th) is the last day Howell Melon Fest, a big event in downtown Howell from 9am to 5pm. We'll be there with plenty of our delicious and unique heirloom tomatoes!

First Market of the Season

Wow, what a fabulous day at Brighton Farmers Market! The highlight was meeting several new farmers in the area, such as Rebecca from Small Planet Farm. Had some great conversations, and it was wonderful to be able to share experiences and knowledge from our journey so far.

Last year we were only selling transplants at market, but this year we were one of the few vendors to be offering produce. From our hoop house we brought to market kale (three different kinds), kale rabe, chard, and lettuce salad mix. Outside, some of our herbs have been doing well, so we had a nice selection of thyme, oregano, mint, chives, and tarragon to offer. We were sold out of everything by the end of the day! It was so great to see many of our regulars, and meet plenty of new folks as well! What a great way to start out the season.

-Shannon

St. Paul's Boutique and Bake Sale

If you are missing our fresh vegetables, you have another chance to purchase some this weekend. We will be at St. Paul's Holiday Boutique on Saturday from 9:00 AM to 3:00PM. St. Paul's Episcopal Church is located on the Millpond in downtown Brighton. Their address is 200 West St. Paul's Street, Brighton, MI 48116 and they are back on the one-way street behind Yum Yum's. There will also be a bake sale, including lots of Holiday cookies, a raffle, hand made gifts and lots more. Here's the link with more details - https://www.churchpost.com/view_mail.php?id=cp4e9ee530bf8

Market Members who still have money in your accounts - we will be honoring that money until the end of December.  This would be a great opportunity to use some of your remaining funds.  We will have a couple other opportunities, but we will have the biggest selection this Saturday.

Here is what we will have available on Saturday:

Lettuce Mix

Spicy Salad Mix

Spinach

Radishes (D'Avignon - the French Breakfast variety)

Hakurei Turnips (fresh sweet salad turnips)

Carrots

Beets

Tomatoes (the very last of the season!)

Green Tomatoes

Winter Squash (Spaghetti, Butternut, Confection, Burgess Buttercup, Red Kuri)

Pumpkins (Long Pie and Kakai)

Onions

Kossack Kohlrabi

Cauliflower

Broccoli

Brussel Sprouts

Kale

We hope to see you on Saturday!

-Joannee

Winter Produce Online Sales

Don't miss out on fresh produce from Stone Coop Farm after the farmer's market season has ended! Sign up now on our email list to receive weekly updates and ordering information on our winter produce. The only way to purchase our produce this winter is through our email/online sales. Just email Joannee to get signed up: joannee@stonecoopfarm.com Several of the produce items that will be available after farmer's market has ended:

Beets
Chard
Green Tomatoes
Kale
Kohlrabi
Onions
Pumpkins (sweet pie pumpkins)
Radishes
Salad Mix
Turnips
Winter Squash


We have three markets left before we begin online sales: Wednesday Oct 26 4:00-6:30 at Stone Coop Farm, Saturday Oct 29 8:00-1:00 at Brighton Farmers Market, and Saturday Nov 12 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church 9:00-3:00.

Harvest

We have been very busy with harvest since the beginning of August. Now is the time when just about every summer crop is producing to its fullest, and we're out in the field 12 hours a day just trying to keep up with the exuberant plants. Last week, we harvested around 300 pounds of tomatoes, over 200 pounds in one day alone! The rainfall and beautiful weather has been a much-needed blessing after the heat and dryness of mid-summer.

Beautiful heirloom tomatoes

Though having all this food coming in has been wonderful, we're definitely ready for harvest to start slowing down as the weather cools for the fall. We'll still be harvesting many of our cool-season crops—broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, chard, brussel sprouts, salad mix, etc—into November. Last week we also cleaned out the eggplant beds in the hoop house and planted spinach, lettuce, arugula and brassica salad mix. All but the lettuce will overwinter in the house. We're starting some field clean up this week as well, tilling in old beds and planting cover crops for the winter.

Summer isn't over yet, though! Our Summer Shares still have five weeks of distribution left and farmers market will be in full swing until the end of October. Harvest Festival in Brighton is coming up at the end of this month (Saturday, September 24, 8:00-1:00). The market will be on Main St in downtown Brighton. It's a great time with lots of vendors, music and crafts. Hope to see you there!

-Shannon

A successful harvest and distribution

 A big thanks to all our members for making the first distribution such a great success! It is so encouraging that we have the community support that we do, as it shows that more and more people are concerned about where their food comes from. Thank you for choosing local and organic! We had a wonderful time meeting everyone and talking about the produce, and we hope that those who received their shares have been enjoying the food.


If you have any recipes that you tried out last week and enjoyed, consider sending them to us in an email, and we will add them to the website to share with everyone.

We look forward to another bountiful distribution this week. The drill is the same as last week, so if you have any questions, please refer to the previous post for clarification. Remember that the u-pick area is available for members coming to pick up their shares, as well as to market members. When you come to distribution, just ask one of the farmers to show you where to go. We will be happy to direct you.

 The hoop house tomatoes are getting ready to ripen.

They should be ready in a few weeks!

-Shannon

First CSA Summer Share distribution this week

The first CSA distribution for CSA Summer Share Members is this Wednesday, June 15th, 4:00-6:30 at the farm. For directions to the farm, see the Contact Us page. Remember that we're on the same property as Hamburg Fitness Center and Camps. We will be in the red and white striped tent on the hill behind the gravel parking lot of the Fitness Center.

If you're not able to make it to the distribution, make sure you call us by 6PM on Wednesday so that we can make arrangements for you to pick up your share on Thursday. If we don't hear from you by 6PM on Wednesday, your share will be donated to Gleaners Community Food Bank. A friend may pick up the share for you if you can't make it, but call us to let us know who will be picking up your share.

Check out the Frequently Asked Questions page if you have any questions about distribution. If your question isn't answered there, feel free to call or email us before Wednesday and we'd be happy to answer your questions.

As always, Market Share members and those who are not members of the farm are welcome to come to market Wednesday night as well.

See the Farmers Market page for the list of what will be available at market this week.

-Shannon

Is it monsoon season?

What a crazy spring! We have been battling the flood waters out at the farm, attempting to lay out new contours to our roads and paths so we don't lose any more of our beds. A canyon has eaten some of the cilantro bed, and some of our onions are precariously close to tipping over a precipice. We had to save some washed-out potatoes (now happily in the ground once more and growing quite well) and created some gullies to divert the raging torrents to keep any more damage to a minimum.

Perhaps it's part of a farmer's job to complain about the weather. Come August, we'll be looking to the skies for rain. A positive to the cool, wet weather is that our kale and chard are doing very well. We harvested quite a bit this morning at our space at Tuthill Farms and are very excited to have it for our customers tomorrow at the Brighton Farmers Market. Check out the Farmers Market page for more information on what we'll be having at market. Hope to see you in Brighton this weekend!

-Shannon

Another good week at the farm

This week has been a busy one! Then again, what week isn't this time of year? We've been battling the quack grass at Tuthill Farms and are slowly making a dent in the grass growing in the beds. The radishes are doing quite well out there—we had our first taste of them this week, mmmm! They will be some of our first edible items at market in a couple of weeks.

At the Stone Coop Farm property we have planted the entire hoop house with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and basil. Those heat-loving plants have been growing like crazy this past week with all the hot weather we've been having. We got potatoes in the ground at both Stone Coop and Tuthills (a lot of potatoes) and have finally finished planting the remainder of the scallions.

As usual this weekend we will be at Brighton Farmers Market from 8am-1pm. We will have tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants available, including some wonderful heirloom tomato varieties. My sister-in-law, Jackie, will also be at market with us, selling her delicious and creative home-baked goods. In the afternoon we'll be back at the farm, pulling the wire for our brand-new deer fence that we've worked on this week. Let's hope for some good weather for market and fence-building!

-Shannon

First markets this week

May is here, and that means farmers market season has started! Our first market is today, Wednesday, May 4 at the farm 4:30-6:30. We'll be in the red and white tent above the gravel parking lot next to the fitness center. It's been a cold, wet spring, and that means we have less available this time of year than usual. We will, however, be selling tomato transplants at the market today. At Brighton's Farmers Market on Saturday we will have tomato, eggplant and pepper transplants available. Check out the Farmers Market page for updates on markets.

-Shannon

We have our hoop house!

What a great turn out on Saturday! With volunteers from Selma, UUAA and many individuals from the community, we were able to complete the hoop house in a day. A fun time was had by all, and I think we all learned quite a bit along the way. A great many thanks to everyone who came for the build! We couldn't have done it without you!

 Here we are completing the frame of the hoop.

 The plastic has been pulled and now we're wiring it to the frame.

 Rolling up the sides to set the automatic roll-up.

After a long day of hard work, the hoop is done!

To see more pictures from the build day, check out our Picasa photo album.

In other news, May is here, and that means this is the first week for the farmers market! We're very excited for our first markets this week. The first is on Wednesday afternoon at the farm, 4:30-6:30. Later in the week on Saturday we will be at Brighton's Farmers Market, which runs from 8:00am-1:00pm. Make sure to be checking the Farmers Market Info page during the week to see what we'll have available at market.

Hope to see you there!

-Shannon