Now that I am thoroughly documenting my homesteading I have become acutely aware of Michigan’s brief growing season. May is for meditation! What to wear in the swiftly shifting weather, memorizing the pattern of morels, gazing deeply into the newly warmed forest floor, sorting seedlings into the garden. Then all of a sudden it is mid July.

It is hard to remember we live in the North, especially after such a mild winter. Although the first week of March is when the earth seems to be shaking off the cold and showing signs of life it isn’t until four months later that things really get going. I spend a quarter of the year planning, excited, and eventually convincing myself something is wrong because everything is “late.” May and June were bone dry, unforgiving in their parade of hot, humid days. One after the other they marched by and I began to frantically pour the stinky fish fertilizer onto all the seedlings hoping it will perk them up. Matt was quick to remind me I tend to do this every year and we just need to wait.

Here I am now finally finding the time to write about it. The squash blossoms are forming fruit, the nasturtiums have peppered the garden with color, the african marigolds seem to grow an inch every day, and the kale is blue and strong. Our sweet corn (first time growers) is taller than I am. Unfortunately we have received SO much heavy rainfall that our tomatoes are getting blossom rot despite our super sandy soil. The water just can’t filter itself out through the dirt fast enough before the next storm rolls along.

I am astounded at our fruit this year. All of our fruit trees are bursting… even sagging with the weight of fruit. Our black raspberries have spread further into the wood line and one even showed up in the corner of our garden which we will happily welcome. The domestic raspberries we planted as canes 4 years ago are now a large part of our slope with sweet, soft, succulent berries. To put our black raspberry crop in perspective I would’ve been able to pick one gallon per day if given the time. It is really hard to choose between gardening and foraging this time of year. Last weekend I picked a gallon in three hours, a few days before that a half gallon and didn’t even make it through 75% of the bushes. We also think the wild blackberries out back might come in this year with all the rain we’ve had as that soil is especially sandy.I was lucky enough to find yellow oysters on a log out back. I have only ever found white. A kind vendor gifted me a large amount of blue oysters too. I dried them all in hopes of adding them to pizzas, flatbreads, and stir fry next winter. I did my first and last farmer’s market in Tecumseh. We don’t know for sure but have spent months working with my doctor and specialists to figure out what autoimmune disease I have. It does seem to be pointing towards rheumatoid arthritis. Mornings are extremely difficult so I have had to cut back. The set up and work for the market was just too much on my body so I let it go. I gave up stirring-required peanut butter and now own what I refer to as “normie” peanut butter that has sugar in it but does not require strong arms to eat. I allow myself to nap somedays although it pretty consistently messes up my bedtime. I work as hard as I can with Jadzia in tow, work as hard as I can when she naps, and somedays I snuggle with her on the couch while she watches Little Bear and I doze off only waking to read the episode title to her (she always asks) and skip the ads (interruptions of her coveted program infuriate her.)

Part of navigating arthritis has meant letting go of some luxuries such as white flour as it can contribute to flares. I am thankful to have a daughter that will eat chewy, brown, home made bread. Embracing a mostly vegan diet was not hard as I ate that way most of the time anyway. It is hard and frustrating since this is America and we love our processed foods made from white flour and cheese. However, I feel good about embracing really simple foods to patchwork meals together. Corn tortillas with black beans and roasted sweet potatoes makes a great dinner. Salad with mango vinaigrette is wonderful on a hot day. Oatmeal with berries picked from the yard and some maple syrup is delicious hot or cold. I’ve memorized a recipe for vegan queso. It isn’t perfect. I didn’t want to go cold turkey and freak out and fail. It’s a journey to see how much better I can get at eating a low inflammation diet. I also feel way more creative and confident now that I do not feel the pressure to make elaborate Pinterest-esque meals. I can use so much from my garden and the forest. I can use so many bulk staple foods. I love that by dinner time the house has the earthy, savory scent of dried beans that have been cooking down on the stove with garlic and onion all afternoon.

I spoke too soon in my last entry and actually finally found time to not only make applesauce but can it as well! Jadzia and I picked a 5 gallon bucket of apples and over the course of a few nights I picked random Grateful Dead shows to zone out to and process the apples (cutting off the yucky stuff and cores) then cooking them in the crockpot overnight. The smell of tart fruit and cinnamon wafted gently up the dark stairs in the early morning light. Our apples are incredibly wild and tart (like instant tummy ache from tasting applesauce) so I did add some brown sugar. I cooked them a few times until it turned into a nice brown, cidery mush and blended them with the immersion blender right in the crock pot. I canned them in the evening as I learned years ago that canning during the day in the summer is a quick way to get really hot and angry!

This will deserve it’s own entry soon but… I bought a bus! I won’t say too much more but it is a 1984 chevy diesel 45 foot long behemoth. It was already partially renovated and only a 15 second drive from our house! It was a total steal (only 3k when many sell for 10k). It will be a playhouse for Jadzia next to the garden and maybe one day a functional camper. And yes, it runs! There will be more to come but I just had to share this new family member.

Unfortunately this month we lost a chicken. We think the heat combined with intense wildfire smoke from Canada was too much for her. We have gotten much better at dealing with the circle of life here at the farm but it is never easy. It is haunting to think that any living being of any size is hurting so close to you especially when you didn’t know until it was too late. Jadzia was in tow with me when we had to take care of a groundhog that Henry killed. It was really gnarly. However, little kids are amazing in that they don’t know to fear that yet. She curiously asked what it was and was so calm. I grabbed the pitchfork and we tossed it into the compost. She really enjoyed trying to use the pitchfork. Today Matt saved two baby robins whose nest had been destroyed by territorial cardinals in the neighboring tree. He found an abandoned nest on the garage, put them in it, and put them back in the tree. A few minutes later the mother found them. We know they will probably die either from the trauma or the aggressive cardinals but it felt good to do our best to help out our neighbors.