Volume 4 • No. 6 • New Moon •March 29, 2025
Kinship • 2024
So Much Love, So Little Time • 2023
Love is Everywhere • 2023
High Fired Clay, Glaze, Acrylic Paint, Chalk, Colored Pencil • Julie Kradel/Fat Pony Studio
A Marabou Stork in Kariba, Zimbabwe. Photo by Jeremy Pickering.
A flurry caught my eye last year. It wasn’t like the snow flurries we’ve been seeing these days. I noticed that we were inundated by new signups for our emails. It wasn’t immediately apparent — they arrived over a month or two. When I caught wind of the happening, it felt like encouragement, as if things were landing rightly. We were writing the sorts of writings and offering the sorts of offerings that people hungered for.
How satisfying. For a bit, at least.
As I glanced down through the list of signups, something else stuck out:
We were big in Zimbabwe. No kidding. Not one, not ten — nearly all of the signups were from Zimbabwe.
Now, readership from other countries isn’t new to us. Sweden has been our stellar example. We’ve worked to cater to that Northern clime. We’ve featured writings from Sweden’s Gunnar Rundgren, an authority on food systems and organic production (WF Vol. 3, №5), and Dougald Hine, the visionary behind A School Called Home in Östervåla (WF Vol. 4, №3). And don’t forget the feature on Grazed and Confused, a lovely contemporary-agrarian film from Sweden’s Leo Labady (WF Vol. 3, №11.)
But this was different. It didn’t make sense because we hadn’t actively cultivated anything closely related to Zimbabwe. At least, it didn’t make sense until I spied something more:
*8abg7#ffn2rr9ly
In a field intended for meaningful input, I found something meaningless: a set of characters as random as can be. The pattern continued across all of the signups.
Address? Random letter-number jumble. City? A nonsensical string of data. Zip code? Another wild bunch of nothing.
You, the reader, might have seen this coming from a mile away. The contacts were fake. I thought we were gaining traction, and in a very new locale for us, too. And it was all nothi —
Wait. Hold on.
My eyes weren’t deceiving me, and the contacts were not fake. I was seeing genuine, real-time activity from those very addresses...
The Warp — Ideas and Inspiration
|| 1 || Learning from other places: Inspired by other folks, this was the first year our family got a maple syrup setup rigged up in time to boil. Of course, that led to looking into other simple sap-related skills. I came across two fun ones from Ferment Pittsburgh:
a.) Making Tapping Spiles from Sumac or Elder. A straightforward project perfect for getting more comfortable carving wood and learning to use what’s already around to meet needs. Harbor Springs Craft Initiative Gathering, anyone? Related: a short video clip on old ways of maple season, wood, birch bark, adzes, and all, from the Great Lakes Lifeways Institute, who are always up to good.
b.) Making Mead from Maple Sap. A whole batch sounds dangerous, but I’d love to try a maple mead. I’d check with the folks from Bee Well Mead & Cider, but I know they’re up to other things, namely ”The Spiciest Cider on Earth?”
|| 2 || "Our efforts evolved during a stretch of years when online platforms, and social media in particular, began to exert relentless control over what content would be visible and discoverable for readers. The emergence of Facebook’s reaction-based algorithm updates in the mid-2010s were a harbinger of the situation we all find ourselves in today, across cultures, politics, and civic life.
The pleasures of the pre-algorithmic Internet — those moments of stumbling upon a new writer, organization, or way of looking at the world — can often feel increasingly fleeting. And this engineered scarcity short-circuits the kinds of exchange and relationships that are vitally necessary to artists and organizations working in rural America and Indian Country."
That’s a note from Art of the Rural's new Substack. For similar reasons, Substack is where we're gravitating towards, too. We’re still working out the kinks, but you can sign up or check it out here. Let us know if you're in that world as well. We'd love to follow along with you.
|| 3 || Speaking of Zimbabwe, Detroit City FC signed Tatenda Mkuruva, former Michigan Stars captain and Zimbabwe national team goalkeeper, to a two-year contract last week. Not familiar with DCFC? (The other one, not Death Cab for Cutie.) The football club that “MLS Wishes It Could Have” is known for its rollicking game-day atmosphere and commitment to the city and culture at a level akin to the renowned German club, St. Pauli. With the USL already vying with the MLS , the new promotion/relegation system adoption, and a new stadium in the works, Tatenda’s signing is just one more reason to follow along (and maybe find a maroon scarf.)
The Weft — News and Events
We’re heartened by a wide-range of expressions of resilient communities and gatherings. Here’s a smattering of regional events and happenings that reflect that diversity, collected for your consideration. Choose your own adventure!
|| 1 || Call for Speakers, Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference—The NMSFC is now welcoming proposals from a wide variety of speakers on a wide range of topics. We're considering contributions from all stages, absolute beginners to seasoned experts for speaker presentations as well as hands-on skill-sharing workshops. Find more details and/or submit a proposal here.
|| 2 || New Launch from Crosshatch: NW MI Small Farm Jobs Board—Check out the new job board here. Posting positions is strongly encouraged. Please share in your networks, and keep an eye out for more openings that might be a good fit for you or someone you know.
|| 3 || Wagbo Maple Sugaring Open House—Today! (Saturday, March 29th,) 10am-2pm. "This annual festivity includes syrup tastings, maple treats, Sugar Shack tours, music, nature trails, maple dogs and PANCAKES! This event is free but you can support the all-volunteer-run Friends of the Wagbo Sugar Bush program by donating for tasty treats or purchasing a bottle of the sweet stuff itself." Find out more on the Wagbo Farm & Education Center open house here.
|| 4 || Land-Based Projects: Art & Ecology Input Sessions (Virtual)—Featuring Lolo Katz Nosanchuck. Monday, April 14th, 10-11:30am, and Wednesday, April 16th, 5:30-7pm. Two sessions for farmers, artists, creatives, and land stewards to connect, share projects, and seek input from the Crosshatch team and fellow community members. Find more information and register for either of the sessions here.
|| 5 || Save the Date! The 2025 Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference will be Monday + Tuesday, August 18 - 19th at The Leelanau School in Glen Arbor, MI. We look forward to seeing you there. Stay tuned for further information on schedules, speakers, concurrent happenings, and more.
|| 6 || Community Food Forest Mutual Care Party & Compost Learning. Sunday, May 4th, 11am-2pm at DeYoung Natural Area. Come on over for a spring plant maintenance session and new planting of perennial edible plants. Food producing and climate-adaptive trees will be available for free for at home planting. We will engage in questions, conversations, and information sharing regarding community efforts for forest health, climate resilience, and perennial edible plants. Representatives from Edible Trails Project, Salix Community Forestry Collective, and Crosshatch will be present. Find more here.
|| 7 || Farmland: Food, Justice, and Sovereignty. An art exhibition at MSU's Broad Museum "centered around questions of food knowledge, production, scarcity, and consumption against the background of Michigan State University’s 170-year history of agricultural tradition." January 18th-July 27th. Find more information or get free tickets here.
|| 8 || Book Reading and Fiction Writing Workshop with Christine Maul Rice. May 21st at Bee Well Mead & Cider and May 22nd at Grass River Natural Area. More details on the Antrim Writers Series event to come. Find more information at the links above.
|| 9 || NDN's Community Action Fund Grants are now open for applications. CAF grants support Indigenous frontline, grassroots, community-based groups and organizations, Tribes, communities and villages, and individuals leading direct action or movement-building work in their effort to defend Indigenous People’s rights, and protect their land, air, water, and natural resources. Find more information here.
|| 10 || Happenings at The Alluvion Between Now and the Next Whole Field include:
Hickory Creek Revival, a Documentary Premiere Screening from Stone Hut Studios, The Alluvion Big Band, Funky Uncle, Ship Yard #4 feat. Whitney Marie and Simple Machines, a Benefit Concert for Musicians Impacted by LA Fires, The Jeff Haas Trio featuring Laurie Sears + Lisa Flahive, Hail Your Highness, BIMBO, Trash Can Symphony, The Vincent Chandler Experience, Tim Eriksen with Laurel Premo, Big Fun, May Erlewine (Two Nights, Album Release Shows with Theo Katzman), and a Candlelight Concert featuring Kara Huber and Ara Sarkissian.
Find more information at www.thealluvion.org.
sponsored by:
Desmond Liggett Wealth Advisors is a mission-driven, fee-only wealth management company with a simple purpose: to generate exceptional value for the individuals, families, small business owners, and non-profit organizations they serve. Desmond Liggett Wealth Advisors believe in and adhere to triple-bottom-line analysis for portfolio investments, ensuring that they review how a company’s environmental and social values impact its long-term resilience and, consequently, value.
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