Northern Indiana Farmers

On a family vacation in Indiana we went to the Michigan City Farmer's Market (open Saturdays) and to the nearby Sevick Gardens & Farm Market store, which is open during the week. I remember going to Indiana for apples (John Hancock Fruit Farm in La Porte) when I was growing up, but it seemed like Indiana had less farming and more suburbs in recent years.

On this trip, though, we had bison burgers from Broken Wagon Bison, fresh peaches and blueberries and onions, from Sevick Gardens, and I got beautiful pumpkin-clover honey to bring home.

It's exciting to see the resurgence in local food and no-spray farming happening everywhere. The pastries at the Farmer's Market were awesome, too.

The MeadowCreature

Here's a rare image of Bob actually using the Meadow Creature broadfork, his design, based on a traditional tool. The broadfork was made for centuries by local blacksmiths, designed for local conditions and needs. There are a lot of broadfork designs out there, with different kinds of handles, length of tines, width, and weight. Ours is unbreakable, all-welded steel construction, designed originally for the sand-clay-gravel soils we have on Vashon Island and around Puget Sound. The steel handles won't flex, wasting your effort, or break, wasting your afternoon. The tines won't bend if you hit a rock; with some extra effort you can dig it out.

We now have 3 tine sizes: the standard 14-inch  for breaking sod, digging out blackberry crowns, and hand-tilling your beds; the professional-grade 16-inch for extra-deep cultivation of established beds; and the lighter weight 12-inch, which is a bit easier to use but perhaps not quite as powerful if your goal is to turn an acre of asphalt into a thriving garden. The 12-inch isn't on the web site yet but send us an email (sales AT meadow creature dot com, no spaces) and ask for one if you like it. The 16-inch is a terrific tool for growing extra-long parsnips, but harder to use if you're not a big tall person. If in doubt, go for the 14-inch.

Grow Your Own!

People have good reasons to be concerned about our food – where it’s coming from now, and how secure that supply will be in the future. One hopeful response is that so many people, in so many places, across generations, are starting gardens, collaborating on community gardens and farms, shopping at Farmer’s Markets, and joining CSAs.

At the Mother Earth News fair in Puyallup last month we were heartened to meet so many people who were united by their passion to grow their own food, raise their own meat, and develop their own energy. People were excited about chickens, sheep, solar panels, growing herbs, saving seeds – and those common interests brought everyone together across a variety of political and social views.

This article by Rebecca Solnit in Orion magazine speaks to the growing movement of urban farming and gardening – a way to grow food, develop skills, and build community: Revolutionary Plots.