Winter is Over

Keeping our chickens and guineas healthy, planning infrastructure projects for the farm, meeting with prospective student researchers, and lunchtime games of broomball kept us busy in January.  What was most noteworthy was the extreme cold and snow that arrived right after the New Year.  In early January Jon got stranded at Merry Lea during a blizzard.  His plan was to be around to care for the poultry, in case roads became impassable between Goshen and Wolf Lake.  It became so cold that the pipes froze inside the Kesling Barn, forcing him to melt snow on the stove in order to wash dishes.

Despite this being their first winter on the farm, egg production by the faithful chickens held steady.  They are amazing creatures!

Even during the streak of sub-zero temperatures, lingering vegetables and herbs in our unheated greenhouse produced just enough foliage for us to harvest a few items to give to Merry Lea grad students.  A few of the students in the Masters of Arts in Environmental Education program help care for our poultry on the weekends, and are paid with produce (eggs, molasses, grape juice, frozen squash, kale, parsley, collard greens, etc).  They appreciated seeing greens in their baskets during the bleak stretch of deep cold!

Meeting fellow farmers Jeff and Zach Hawkins was another highlight of January.  This father-son team came up for a visit from Wabash County to share with Merry Lea staff about the “Clergy Supported Agriculture” program they run, an innovative experience for pastors who come to the farm one day per month for an entire year to learn directly how to ‘raise their flocks’, both pastorally and agriculturally.   Merry Lea staff look forward to possible collaboration with this inspiring ministry taking place to the south of us.

– Merry Lea Sustainable Farm staff