Adorn Original • Oil and acrylic on canvas • Original painting, 16" x 20” • Liv Bishop
In This Issue: Michigan Worm Works, Starting a Small Business, Rural Creative Placemaking, and Real Organic.
Click above to watch Michigan Wormworks: A Virtual Twilight Tour
The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration
|| 1 || We depend on networks we often don’t see. Whether in reference to sanitation workers or the minute biota that buttress ecological health, our lives are bettered and supported by agents we’re often not aware of. This video offers a glimpse at one of those worlds—a time-lapse look at the role soil fauna (in this case, creatures like worms and mites) play in the transformation of dry leaves and sticks into healthy soils. The process, touched on by Elana Warsen of Michigan Worm Worksin the Virtual Twilight Tour above, creates pathways for the storage and movement of oxygen and water, and sets the stage for necessary exchanges between fungal life and plant and tree roots.
|| 2 || Starting a small business. I remember sitting in a small Chicago cafe questioning whether or not I should carry through with beginning a small coffee roasting business. As I sipped the drink in front of me, aspirations seemed clearer and I got my answer. If the cup of coffee I enjoyed there could be so moving—a catalyst for inspiration—I wanted to offer that to others as well. The tricky part was where to go from there.
Luckily, there are resources for those who sense a need in the world and have an idea of how they might be able to help meet it. Institutional guidance is available from groups like MSU Extension’s Business wing or the government’s Small Business Administration. If it’s farming you’re interested in, the Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference archives likely hold content that may be of interest, and you might find Twilight Tours (like those in the Weft #4 and #5 below) valuable. Working to find an organization, company or person doing things in ways I appreciate, operating from similar paradigms, has been helpful for me. And then I try and learn from them. For example, the Patagonia-derived book The Responsible Company begins with these lines:
”We are still in the earliest stages of learning how what we do for a living both threatens nature and fails to meet our deepest human needs. The impoverishment of our world and the devaluing of the priceless undermine our physical and economic well-being.
[…]
This book, though it draws on our experience at Patagonia, aims to be useful to all people who see the need for deep change in business practices and who work in companies quite unlike ours. Although we mostly address companies that make things, or like us, design things made by others, this book is germane to all businesses that offer a service or to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and nonprofits that want to treat their people well and reduce the environmental impact of their operations. This book is for anyone who works, not just business leaders and managers. It is also for business students and other young people who want to engage their best, deepest self in the working life that stretches ahead.”
If that resonates with you, find the book. Or check out this talk on it. And then get moving.
|| 3 || Elana’s business isn’t the only Worm Farm. I heard folks discussing Wisconsin’s Wormfarm Institute and didn’t have any idea what they were referring to. Turns out, Wormfarm Institute is a land- and arts-based-organization—”a national leader in rural creative placemaking.” Much of their mission and work runs along similar lines as that of the Hatchquarters vision—cultivating spaces for encounters that inspire and shape at the intersection of arts, land and farming. Their upcoming Farm/Art DTour, for example, is a self-guided excursion through rural Sauk County—an experience spanning fifty miles of art installations, food demonstrations, performances, gatherings and more. It’s a mixer of sorts, spurring ideas and conversation about food, culture and place, and it also offers farmers the chance to showcase their land. Sounds like a wonderful excuse for some rolling-hills fall bikepacking if I were a bit closer.
I owe much of my own sense of direction to farm folks who offered that kind of model as a form of hospitality on their own. Whether as an institutional endeavor, like Wormfarm, or part of a decentralized farm-hosting network like WWOOF, if you find good people doing good work (you’ve gotta do a little vetting,) and you’re looking to do the same, pay attention or get involved.
|| 4 || Is Hydroponic Growing Organic? I’ve been getting emails from Real Organic on their efforts to protect the meaning of the term “organic” and ensure that it doesn’t become obfuscated by corporations seeking to use the label as a marketing ploy without honoring the intentions of the movement itself. One of the tricky areas of their work involves defining what is and isn’t actually organic, which begs the question: is soil necessary for organic farming?
Here’s Real Organic’s take from a debate on whether or not the future of certified organic production will include hydroponics. They say no—real organic farming is foundationally built upon healthy, living soils. Unnecessary purism? Crucial distinction? What are your thoughts?
The Weft — News and Events
|| 1 || Register for the Carbon Farming Cohort: Enrollment is now open for the first Carbon Farming Cohort (CFC). CFCs are peer-to-peer learning experiences for small groups of land stewards in Northwest Lower Michigan that will focus on land-management practices that (1) reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and (2) sequester carbon. The program includes six workshops—mostly virtual, but some in-person—largely focused on planning and implementation of these practices. Six peer-advising farm tours will also be conducted. For additional questions and inquiries contact program coordinator Daniel Marbury daniel@crosshatch.org (231) 714-9730. Please register on our website by September 26th to participate.
Additional Details:
Participants must commit to 12 sessions between November 2022 and June 2023 (concentrated between November 2022 and March 2023).
Participants will receive a $500 stipend for their participation in case studies, as well as free education and technical assistance, including admission to the 2023 Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference.
To qualify, you must manage land for agricultural purposes (including forestry and conservation) in one of the following counties: Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Emmet, Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Kalkaska, Manistee, Misaukee, Otsego and Wexford.
You must register on our website by Monday September 26, 2022 - spots are limited to 12 participants and will be granted on a first come-first served basis to representatives from eligible farms.
|| 2 || The Alluvion Now Hiring a General Manager: Traverse City’s newest performance venue—The Alluvion, baked into the four-story mixed-use building at 414 E. 8th Street—is ready to bring on a GM. Is it you?
A well-matched candidate has experience in arts presenting, hospitality, and staff management, as well as an abiding love of the arts. Exceptional candidates will also understand how to develop a culture of appreciation for both art and artists, how to seek artistic excellence within a broad range of performing arts, and how to work with integrity and grace with scores of community partners.
No two days will be the same, but here’s a brief taste of one:
You enter 414 E. 8th Street in the late morning, grab a fresh mug of Highland Humanity from Higher Grounds, greet some friends and colleagues, then head upstairs to get to work. First order of business: the morning sweep of the Alluvion, noticing any tasks, large or small, that need to be completed before the show tonight.
As the morning renter—an improv class for seniors—arrives, you welcome them, give a brief refresher on how to operate the A/V system, then you head to the green room to get it ready. Fresh flowers, a sweet hand-written note, and a well-stocked fridge are all part of the process.
You then settle into your office with your laptop, first to smooth out last-minute wrinkles, then to catch up on email correspondence, filling a few slots in the Alluvion calendar as you go. You see that some of the partners—Amanda Kik and Jeff Haas—are wrapping up a meeting so you hold a 5-minute stand-up meeting in the hallway, talking about plans to fundraise for that Hammond B-3 you’ve had your eye on.
Lunch with these partners and a new donor follows, then a quick tour of the space. As you are saying goodbye to them , you are also saying hello to the artists as they pull up in their van. You get them squared away with a cup of tea and snack before handing them off to other staff to get them settled, loaded-in, and on to the soundcheck.
Next, a quick review of the coming week’s ads, a few bits of accounting, some contracts to sign and riders for upcoming shows to initial.
You take a break with a bike ride around town. You’ll be back that night to watch the show and soak up the magic.
If this example has your eyes shining and your brain turning on new ways to tackle these kinds of problems, you might be the one. Apply now.
|| 3 || Forest Bathing: The Antrim Conservation District and Natureology are partnering to offer one final public forest bathing walk in 2022 for adults in Bellaire, on Sunday, September 25th, 10 am to noon. Forest bathing is a restorative sensory exploration typically practiced with a group of people gathered outside in a natural environment. The guided sequence is typically two hours long and combines rest and wandering, interspersed with facilitated group gatherings and solo time. Register here.
|| 4 || Small Farm Tool Selection and Use at Buckwheat’s Market Garden: As a small farm with a big commitment to regenerative food production and healthy food access for the community, Buckwheat’s Market Garden faces the challenge of limited labor and time. To lessen this constraint, farmer Adrienne Wolff deploys systems, including specialized tools, that build efficiency season after season. Come learn about the ways that they produce an abundant and diverse array of organic vegetables, using tools such as an Earthway wheel seeder and BCS hand tractor. See a demonstration of these tools—and a paper pot transplanter as well—and ask your questions of a BCS tractor sales rep. Find more info on the Wednesday, September 28th, event here.
|| 5 || Conservation Plantings for Farm Resilience: Join us at Lakeview Hill Farm to see a windbreak planting and discuss the planning and planting process for conservation and energy efficiency systems currently in use or under development at the farm. Farmer/owners John Dindia and Bailey Samp will also showcase some of their extensive season extension hoop-house growing. More details on the October 5th, 5:30-7:30 pm, event available here.