Some pictures of spring crops......

Happy May! Things are going quite well here at Niemela's Market Gardens. As folks who live in the area know, this spring has been a bit funny. Weird swings, a bit like the pendulum on a clock. Hot spell, then cool, then hot again. This past Monday, it was almost unbearably hot. Today, we were wearing jackets and hats again. It was nice to not have mosquitoes buzzing us all day, though. When the wind whips off Keweenaw Bay, it sure cools things off. In the greenhouses, however, the crops in the ground think it's high summer. Some of the early type greens should be ready in a couple weeks or so, lettuce, kale, chard. Green onions soon to follow, and beets. Carrots will be a bit slower than I was hoping (one of my faults is to be overly optimistic at times), but they'll come along in due time and huge numbers. Here's how some of the early transplanted kale looks........

Starbor kale.....

 Oh, and the collards! I had some older seed of Cascade Glaze collards I threw in, and ended up with a handful of plants. I don't think too much of that variety will make it to the market tables, however. One day, while my lovely wife Janice was cruising along through one of the growing tunnels, she exclaimed, "Ooohhhh, Cascade Glaze collards!!" I imagine they'll disappear as they get big enough to eat (and it won't be rabbits), but that's fine, the queen of the cottage gets first dibs. :) There'll be plenty of the pictured variety called Flash.

Flash collards.....

Speaking of markets, the Hancock Tori will go along this summer, in the same location, in spite of the road construction project in downtown Hancock. I imagine it will be a bit of a kerfuffle once the work begins in earnest, but we'll make the best of it. The city is supposed to have wooden sidewalks and a crosswalk, for when the road is all dug up directly in front of the market. Little bit of a nuisance, but Yoopers are tough! Gotta be to live up here.....:)

There is also a new market starting up in downtown Houghton, on Tuesday evenings, which we plan to be attending. I was happy it got off the ground, because a market earlier in the week was getting desperately needed. Crops get picked over for the big Saturday markets, then there's not really any good opportunities to move product out until the Wednesday Tori. This new market will help get some more veggies through the pipeline earlier in the week. Hooray!

We also plan to be attending the Lake Linden Farmer's Market on Saturdays (and we will be doing the Tori as usual), so this summer looks to be beautifully busy. So thankful for the kids, many hands make work light, as the saying goes, plus, once they get old enough to start working at the markets, it's a blast! I love watching them interact with the customers and improving their "people" skills. Hands-on direct marketing, 101! :)

"Greenhouse #4"

Pink Brandywine closeup.......

It's rather fun, kind of like a puzzle, trying to figure out where to plant things, in which beds, which greenhouse, etc. In Greenhouse #4, we have a bed of kale, with a small patch of radish at the end. Middle bed has tomatoes, which can run up strings to the roof, and some basil interplanted, with some cilantro planted alongside a portion of the tomato bed. The other side bed, has collards, chard, and some radish. Once the summer plants are winding down, we'll transplant other crops for fall/winter harvest, and then remove the summer crops when it's time to give the new plants more elbow room.

Bright Lights chard...

Muir lettuce, an old standby for us....

And Oscarde, another of our favs.

Another things going on here is.........hogs! One of the gilts we bought this past summer is going to be having her first litter in a couple weeks. Pansy is her name, and here she is.

Pansy's on the right, giving us the eye....

Despite her looking a bit devilish in this picture, she's actually my favorite of the 3 pigs here. Petunia, the red gilt, is a bit more "wired", not as mellow. Oreo, the daddy, is OK, but is a bit intimidating, when he comes grunting/snorting/puffing up to see what you have for him in the slop bucket. But, Pansy is a perfect sweetheart, if a pig can be a sweetheart. :) The kids know not to make pets of many of the animals here, since many of them we raise for meat, and it's not fun to eat someone's pet. However, since these pigs will hopefully be around for a good while, I told the kids we can make them into pets of sorts. Of sorts, obviously, because they can't run around the yard with the kids like the dog, but more pets than, say meat chickens, who are given a good life, then eaten. :) The little kids can't go in the pig yard by themselves; but I've been known to hop over the electric fence with a forked stick and do a bit of back-scratching. Pansy especially has gotten to be a bit like a dog, in that she will sometimes follow me around, then stand placidly for a back-scratch, with sleepy eyes. Rather endearing. Hopefully she will be a great mommy to her piggies, we will see soon!

Well, I'm gonna wind down. Y'all take care now. Oh, wait, here's one more. Oreo, saying hi, or bye, or ???????? Or maybe, what are you doing, sticking that funny looking thing in my face?