Growing Community in Southwest Michigan
4 of us met on a Saturday morning in mid-April to plant oats and barley in some fields that Steve had worked up previously. Beautiful weather, nice soil, great conversation, good food and lots of fun, as always with this group. We’re experimenting with growing our own grains organically in permaculture-minded systems, on a...
Dale, Tomme and Sam teamed up to organize this wonderful event at the Riverview Launch in Kalamazoo, just in time for spring. Ann Fraser from Kalamazoo College gave a very good presentation on the importance, habits, and life cycles of native bees (and other pollinators), and afterward we all got to assemble cool little...
Our March Van-Kal Permaculture meetup was at Rachelle’s place. We spent a couple hours outdoors pruning a really overgrown old apple tree (Thanks to John and Josh for the pruning guidance and Tomme and Steve for their skill and daring in tree-climbing). We also had an excellent meal and conversation indoors. A great time...
Amy and John hosted our group at their CSA/farm (Harvest of Joy) in Shelbyville. We had a great turnout despite the cold, cold weather. Good to see a lot of familiar faces and also new friends made at the MI Permaculture Convergence a month ago. Thanks to all who showed up and esp. to...
Spirit Springs Farm in Marcellus, MI has over 80 varieties of heritage apples growing, and our small group was very lucky to have a short tour and sampling of dozens of varieties. I got some ideas about some varieties I’d like to grow. Call them at 269-624-1301 for their seasonal hours, very nice people...
We had an action-packed weekend in September, starting with a potluck get-together and tour of Dale and Tomme’s gardens in Kalamazoo on Friday evening. Saturday Bill Wilson of Midwest Permaculture gave an excellent Intro to Permaculture class at the Nature Center, and Sunday we had a booth at the always-fun Harvest Festival at Tiller’s...
Norm and Rita were gracious enough to lead me on a plant walk around their beautiful property in SW Michigan, where I could see the plants and trees in late summer of 2010. Thanks for a lovely and informative tour!
Sam and PJ traveled north to take part in a weekend workshop. We missed the beginning of this (foundation and rebar/lath wall construction), but here are some photos from 2 days spent plastering the walls and making the rebar roof portion. Really inspiring process and super-nice group of people…not to mention great weather and...
