Frog Holler Farm CSA - Share #1!

Crew member Keegan with beautiful head of Red Leaf Lettuce

Introducing our first share of the 2020 season - ta dah! It seems like it was a long strange winter but Mother Nature knew what she was doing and brought us our spring greens when the time was right.

What's in the box:

LETTUCE X 2 - Red Leaf and Green Bibb

Green Bibb - Red Leaf above

SCALLIONS - spring green onions

GARLIC SCAPES - Thin, curly, vibrantly green stalks with a mild and sweet flavor all the way through. The garlic counterpart to scallions. Chop fresh into salads, or roast or stir-fry.

RADISHES - red outside, white/pink inside

SWISS CHARD - we grow "Rainbow Chard", beautiful jewel-tone stems and veins

KOHLRABI - a crisp and tender spring root crop. Use fresh as a "dipper", roasted or in stir-fry.

ARUGULA/CHIVES Flavor Booster Bunch - nutty/peppery arugula plus garlic chives

RECIPES FROM THE HOLLER! - each member gets a copy of the Frog Holler recipe book, full of farm and festival favorites. Let this be a helpful resource as you cook from your share box this summer!

Here are some suggestions from Recipes from the Holler for this week's share:

Roasted Rad-Nips, p. 72 - Radishes are not just for slicing into salad!

Radical Radish Sandwich, p. 45 - Radishes are also for slicing into a sandwich!

Original Arugula Rice, p.51 - AND Arugula is not just for chopping into salad!

Frog Holler Salad Mix, p. 25 - you have some of the fixings for our famed salad mix: two different varieties of lettuce, Rainbow Chard, and the Flavor Booster bunch.

FROG HOLLER FARM - a little history
This is an excerpt from our first CSA newsletter of 2010. Although it was ten years ago, the history of the farm - and the beauty of the pond - remain the same. However, in light of the present urgency for justice for all and the increasing uncertainty for the health of our planet, we remain ever more dedicated to the ideals and inclusiveness that the former stewards of the land lived by and inspired in us and many others. 

Our farm pond - the heart of the Holler!

Drive 45 minutes west and slightly south of Ann Arbor and you will find yourself among many lakes and gently rolling hills – an area of southeast Michigan dubbed the “Irish Hills”. There you will also find Frog Holler Farm, with 120 acres of those rolling hills, along with many wooded sections and a large pond at the center. It’s a pretty piece of land.

From the 1940’s to 1972, the land was owned by Dr. Robert and Cora Lees Gesell. Dr. Gesell was a professor of physiology and Chairman of the Physiology Dept. at U-M Medical School in the 40’s and 50’s. Mrs.Gesell was an ardent conservationist and when she decided to sell Frog Holler after the death of Dr. Gesell, asked that the new owners continue to care for the land and animals and to “forever call the land Frog Holler”. This was the Gesells’ pet name for the land, no doubt inspired by the frog chorus that emanates from the “hollers” between the hills (or perhaps by the frogs that holler!).

Dr. Gesell shocked his colleagues in 1952 when he delivered a paper calling for the humane treatment of animals in laboratories and the cessation of vivisection in the name of scientific research. He also enlisted his daughter, Christine Stevens, to “do something for the plight of animals in laboratories”. Christine did more than “something”; she was known as the “Mother of the Animal Protection Movement” and was instrumental in passage of the

Christine Stevens at the Ann Arbor Humane Society in the early '50s

Animal Welfare Act, The Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Humane Slaughter Act, the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act and the Wild Bird Conservation Act. Christine, who passed away in 2002, was also founder of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and the Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL).

Although we never met any of these extraordinary individuals, we continue to draw inspiration from their dedication to fairness and justice for the land and all its inhabitants.

By gardening organically, we do our best to respect the land and the complex interweaving of plants, insects, birds, animals and people that creates a healthy ecosystem. And of course we call the land Frog Holler!


Thanks everyone - enjoy your veggies!