Our summer time routines got a bit of a shake-up this week when we were visited by a dozen pre-schoolers from Kalamazoo International Pre-K.  Many of these kids had never been in a vegetable garden before, much less a working farm and certainly none of them had ever seen a working team of oxen before.   It was a lot of fun having them visit us.  They started out with some yoga to help them get centered and an awareness of the environment around them.  Then we went down to one of the gardens where the kids were able to pick a few green beans, peppers and green tomatoes.

After that we visited the chickens, ducks and geese.   The kids saw the nest boxes and oohed & awwed seeing eggs in the nest.  Last stop was being introduced to Gabes team, North & Star.  I think the kids had a good time and it was a nice break for us.

The gardens are all lush and green.  Elmer jumped the fence a couple times and did some damage but a strand of electric wire put an end to that.   We’ve been picking beans for a couple weeks now.   Looks like sweet corn will be ready in another two weeks.   Cabbages are forming nice heads.   Lot’s of tomatoes.

After being left stranded by South Haven we had to scramble to find a new market this year.  We were fortunate to get into the Kalamazoo Market on Sat and the Portage Market on Sunday.  We’ve also been participating in a few on-line fiber shows, held on Facebook LIve.  That has been a whole new learning experience but I suspect it very well may be the “new normal.”