People. I will remember May by the upswelling of people populating the spaces of Rieth Village, this year in many forms beyond the norm. May Term students become a familiar presence after a few weeks, but quickly prepare to leave, just as the days start to really warm. By…
We at Merry Lea Sustainable Farm emerged in April to find spring peepers, shiitake mushrooms, and budding fruit trees, all of which brightened what had been a tough winter. As is becoming a regular tradition, we offered a farm open house on April 10, which brought together students, farm…
Planting sweet corn on Monday the 30th of March felt like a bright ending to what otherwise was an exceptionally difficult month. Having a greenhouse and a detached hoophouse is a blessing, giving our farm the opportunity to extend the season in early spring and late fall. Can you believe…
Dale Hess: a great man with a lifelong commitment to sustainable agriculture and social justice. May you rest in peace. In my two years of knowing Dale, he cared deeply about treating the Earth with respect as God’s creation. Dale was raised in Africa, and part of him will…
A full blog entry for the month of February will be posted soon, but I can’t resist posting a picture or two taken while being a WWOOF volunteer earlier this month in southwest Arkansas at Plum Creek Ranch. As a first time WWOOFer, my experience was rich with learning,…
Cold temperatures and relative quiet made for a calm month on the farm here at Merry Lea. Though not always fun, January gives Dale and me time to wash vegetable trays and buckets, put away supplies still lingering out of place in various storage rooms, trap mice that want to…
The darkest month of the year has come and gone, a rather dry and somewhat mild December that ended a big year at Merry Lea Sustainable Farm. As some of our students might say, 2014 was ‘solid.’ I think all of us at Rieth Village would agree. Much…
“What do you do at Merry Lea in the winter? Does anything happen on the farm?” If I had a dollar for every time someone asked this question, I’d be rich. There are lots of things that happen in late fall and even in the winter at Merry Lea…
What do we have here? A new contributor to the agroecology blog (!) as Merry Lea’s first WWOOF (World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) volunteer has been invited to give her perspective of Merry Lea Sustainable Farm in October. And what an October it has been! Farm event-filled weekends, harvesting…
Cool nights, warm days, and hints of turning leaves will mark our memories of September this year, offering us the gorgeous weather we’ve waited for all summer. This fall at Merry Lea Sustainable Farm has been a changing landscape of faces, as the Sustainability Leadership Semester came into…
