Leelanau Peninsula in the summer - the surge of population, the old men in little sports car convertibles, the restaurants overrun, the beaches suddenly awakened with swimmers and sun worshippers. It’s not even unusual to see Ohio State Buckeye fans strutting around in the summer, hopelessly trying to forget their misery. It happens every year from the 4th of July to the week before Labor Day, when it suddenly switches to normal, slow rural life, the electricity off, the current of life unplugged from our techno-modernity. We stay close to the farm in the summer.
And this year, by close we mean we never leave, unless we need more lumber! We’ve been building the new apple barn. Local mason Wes Buss and his two sons Justin and Quentin did the excavation, footings and floor. Well done! and then I put up the walls. Jeff Grant, his friend John and I put up the trusses and then added the purlins, the sub-fascia and the roof steel. I’m finishing the wall purlins now and will start adding soffit steel and wall steel this week. So far, about 7500 fasteners of one kind or another. How did my Grandfather, Leander Van Peteghem, build houses without electric drills or nail guns?
I thought the apple barn would be done by July 1, but now the date is August 1, hopefully. So the lambs that came to us at 40 pounds were suddenly at 120 and ready for slaughter at exactly the wrong time. But that’s how it rolls sometimes, or actually all the time, on the farm. Nature does not know or care about our schedules. I ran out of food, both purchased and our own hay, so it was time. It’s a multi day process as you can imagine, and this morning before returning to the barn I will grind the five pounds of bits and pieces we collected. The chops, leg steaks and shoulders (for braising) have all been frozen.
And so have the 17 ducks we raised. This was my first and last attempt at raising ducks. They are delicious, but not worth the time and effort to defeather. Much more difficult than the chickens, which, by the way, are now five weeks old. I’m looking forward to the end of animal raising in three weeks.
We had an amazing crop of strawberries this year. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much of one fruit in one season before. Mary has also stored jam and frozen berries for the winter. Our freezer is packed, and I still have twenty chickens to put in it.
The lavender we planted last fall, after raising it from cuttings, was a mixed bag. Of the 400 plants we put in, only about 100 made it to this spring. However the rest of the new planting is going pretty well. We added some ground covers to the area a couple of weeks back. Let’s see if they do any better. We also have another 400 lavenders from cutting. Mary thinks we should get it in earlier and let it root in August and September. Sounds like a plan!
The orchard is having a great year. The trees are very healthy though not laden with fruit. We had an unusually cold spring and though we didn’t have a late frost, we did suffer a few very cold, very windy nights during blossom. As a result the cherry and apple harvest will be light this year, which is ok with me. I’ll have enough apples for the The Filling Station’s juice, and they’ll make a great cider as always.
Coming full circle, processing the apples into juice is the reason for the new apple barn. I purchased equipment manufactured in Europe and also found a couple of pieces here in the US. I had to make a decision since the orchard is getting to the point where I either had to buy a truck to haul apple crates and a hi-lo to load the truck, or process the apples myself here on the farm. I decided to process the apples myself, but it’s a calculated financial risk. I guess I always knew this time would come. You don’t plant 800 apple trees without knowing there would be consequences at some point. And here we are. When we have the new equipment set up and running I’ll take a video and send it out.
Well, that’s about all on the farm this summer. The garden boxes are full, and the bee yard is very active. We’ll give another update in the Fall! Have a great summer, and watch out for those old men taking the country roads a little too fast!
Thank you for reading Summer Farm Update. We are always trying to grow our subscription, which are free, and we now have over 210! Please do us the small favor of sharing this publication with your friends and family and help us get to our next goal of 500 subscribers!
If you are new here, please subscribe, it’s free, and we don’t take advantage of you email inbox - just one post a week when I have time to write. Great stories and farm updates!
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.