Hi everyone! This winter has already been very cold and snowy, and it's not even officially winter yet! We hope you are all staying warm! The farm cats have been greatly appreciating the heat lamps we have set up for them inside the hoophouse, as well as straw to burrow down into. In the video above you can see and hear the wind gusting outside, but Charlie the cat is completely cozy and undisturbed. Following are a ...
Hi everyone! Our last Mystery School meetup was once again a wonderful time! We had so much fun making the corn dolls, playing Nature Bingo, and harvesting tomatoes and spice bush berries. We had a snack of salsa (made from the tomatoes) and chips, and spice bush berries were sent home for drying (to later grind as a spice like peppercorns). Corn Doll Making Corn Doll Making Corn Doll ...
Lily in the wildflower garden Hello friends! I made this video yesterday to give you a little peek at how things are looking here at the Sanctuary right now. And I want to give a big thank you to Alissa for coming out to the work day on Saturday! In the middle of the video you can see an area in the hoophouse that she and I did a lot of cleaning ...
pawpaws 🍈 Our pawpaw fruits are getting bigger!! ...shown with my hand for size comparison (and a ground cover of lemon balm underneath). 🍈 We planted the pawpaw trees nine years ago and have waited eagerly for them to start producing. Not only are we thrilled to see our largest one begin fruiting now, it is also coinciding with another wonderful development at the farm and sanctuary. Exciting News... 🍈 We are anticipating the ...
Our hen, Peck, would like to show you a space that we’re in the process of preparing for gatherings. Go ahead and follow her down the path into the hoophouse. She’s waiting for you. Because the flood wiped out most everything we had planted in there, we decided it would be a good opportunity to reevaluate the best use of the space. So what we’ve decided is to use half of the hoophouse ...
Hi Everyone, Last night we had the biggest flood event we've had here to date. Most of the land is flooded, including our chicken coops, hoop house, sheds, and some of our garage. But thankfully NOT our house or basement. We spent a good part of the day getting our chickens situated as best we could, by adding tables into the coops (with their food and water on them), for them to stand on, along with their ...
Last Wednesday a severe wind storm affected a large portion of Michigan, including CHFS. Thankfully there was no damage to humans, animals, or buildings. There was, however, a fair amount of tree damage. Here are a few pictures of some of the trees that came down. It's hard to show in the photos just how massive some of the trees were, but I think this will give you a little sense of it. A tree ...
In our May gathering, one of the areas we walked through on our tour was the hoophouse. Cabbage and Leeks When we look at growing crops through the lens of healthy ecosystems, it requires that we think of all the elements involved and what they want and need to be healthy. Chard, Leeks, Onions, and Milkweed Some of the things I touched on during the tour, is how we ...
Crossing Hedgerows Farm is the Cavanaugh family farm which is adjacent to the Sanctuary land. It is currently also being shared with the community as part of the nonprofit mission. So sometimes you will see us refer to "Crossing Hedgerows Farm and Sanctuary". One of the aspects of the farm is the hoop house. It is a 30'x72' structure that we use for year-round growing and we keep some of our chickens in it during the winter ...