Farm Friday, July 15th, 2022
Visiting the big lake
This week started out with some time off the farm up in Bayfield, WI on Lake Superior. My in-laws rent a cottage there every year, and we get to join them. It was hard to leave the farm. So much needed to be planted last week, and we didn’t get it all in. I worked most of the day on Saturday, trying to button up the farm for my absence.
Arriving in Bayfield, I was able to let go of everything I didn’t finish. I even took a break from writing for Medium.
Water. Clouds. Rocks. Good food. Conversations.
A high point was taking the ferry over to Madeline Island. The island is sacred to the Anishinaabe people, and (I’m assuming) in partnership with the Red Cliff and Bad River bands, all of the signs on the island are both in English and in Anishinaabemowin. I would like to see this in every place, along with the reparations and Land Back that should go along with it. Having bilingual signs could be a beginning of a real acknowledgment that we all live on stolen land.
Back on the farm on Thursday, I found the gardens transformed. It was a good week for growing plants. It has been warm, and we got two little dumps of rain, not enough, but the most we have had in weeks. This is the mid-summer week when everything seems to double in size. Potato plants are growing exponentially. Onions are sizing up. Corn is shooting up like rockets. Tomatoes are becoming hedge-like. Pumpkins are starting to vine out big time.
The blueberries and raspberries are in full flush and we have been harvesting and eating berries all week. We also pulled in a bunch of mint to dry for winter teas.
Wanna see something gross and also something beautiful? If no, this is your stop. If yes, keep scrolling.
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Ok. The gross thing is that we are losing the battle to the potato beetles (photo below). We have spent hours and hours picking thousands of beetles and larvae and they just keep coming. We let enough from the first generation get by, and now they are back for more! It is ridiculous. I finally tried the spinosad spray, knowing it is likely ineffective, and I could not tell if any beetles died. I’m going to try some other organic sprays, while putting in my time hand-picking.
In other insect news, the local monarch population is thriving. The caterpillars have made chrysalises and will soon emerge. One found its way to the bottom of one of our fertilizer bags!
In writing news, Yael Wolfe recently wrote about the monthly prompts for the publication Pollinate. This month’s prompt is “Creativity,” and I have submitted a short essay to see if they want to add me as an author. I’ll keep you posted!
I have some unfinished writing irons in the fire. I wrote about the history of our township for a land-use study being conducted in our county. This is in first draft mode and needs references and polishing. Likewise, my monthly genealogy column is late. I have a draft going about population growth and immigration, but it needs a hook and revision. I wrote a piece for the local Democratic party, but it was too long. I think it wasn’t long enough! So there! Maybe it will come to Medium?
My Vocal Media “Summer Food” challenge story about poisoning myself by eating the wrong wild mushroom failed to win. I’m holding out hope that my scary story might place in their “Campfire Ghost Story” challenge. I don’t have a following (yet!) on Vocal and the only people who read me there get sent there by me, but they keep offering nice fat prize money, so I will keep on rolling the dice with my stories.
See you next week!
© Andrew Gaertner, 2022
