Vacuum - Edward Vielmetti in Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104

Michigan Morel Map 2008

You don't really think I'm going to tell you where to pick morels, do you? Even my mom won't tell me where she gets hers.

What I can share is some set of things that people are tracking for timing for when morels appear, and forums where this stuff is being discussed by experts.

There is a terrific list of morel mushroom information carefully collected by The Great Morel; lots to read, if you want to know more.

The Michigan Sportsman Forums report on the Morel Progression Sightings Map for the year, which gives you big dots showing approximate locations. This is a current April 25, 2008 selection.

Absolute Michigan's story on the 2007 Boyne City Mushroom Festival includes plenty of details.

The Grayling, MI visitors bureau guide to the morels of Crawford County Michigan gives away details, but being coy, recommends that you bring your own log book and note where you found yours.

UPDATE: Mike Gould of Ann Arbor has a story originally in the Ann Arbor Observer about Roonquest: the mushrooms that bloom in the spring about morel hunting near Charlevoix.

UPDATE: More morel information by video at Youtube - see e.g. VideoMorelHunting collection of accounts and movies.

UPDATE: Morel mushroom hunting in the Upper Peninsula w/report of nothing yet as of 4/25 in Menominee County. thanks @frnash for the link

UPDATE: Superior Sights on Morel Mushroom Picking in the Upper Peninsula says their favorite spot is northwest of Newberry, MI, in Luce County, and says that the best times in the UP for morels tend to be end of May to early June.

UPDATE: The music of the Mushroomer's Waltz (MP3) comes from the National Morel Mushroom Festival in Boyne City, MI, May 15-18 2008.

Garlic Mustard in Michigan (via MSU IPM)

Garlic Mustard in Michigan, a report and information from Michigan State University:

Garlic mustard is an exotic invasive plant from Europe that invades woodland habitats in North America and impacts forest biodiversity. In some woodlands, dense stands of garlic mustard in the spring threaten showy spring blooming ephemerals like spring beauty, trilliums and trout lilies. Other research points toward potentially negative impacts on timber species and forest health. Many land managers consider it to be one of the most potentially harmful and difficult to control invasive plants in the region.

It's time to pull garlic mustard again, which is a sure sign of spring. Our yard has a little bit, not too bad, and certainly not as bad as it was a few years ago before we realized just what we had that was growing so vigorously.

Last year at this time I recounted a tale of where to go for a walk in the woods, and the story of the celebration of the garlic mustard recipe of the year. (in summary, bleah.) As a reminder:

So I made it and tasted it. Not particularly good, and I'm still dealing with the tummy ache. Perhaps someone else has a better recipe, or I picked it too late in the season, or it really just doesn't taste that good? I will admit to not adding the vinegar (or, as Allen Bailey suggested, lemon juice) which might have been the problem. Next time, I'll also cook the greens in a change or two of water first, which should also draw off some of the bitterness.

If you have an awesome garlic mustard recipe - or, if you know a source for a supply of pygmy goats that will eat the stuff - pls. note in the comments.

Hoop house basil? Some early research

It's January, which means no farmer's market basil until July or August. Not too early to start thinking about it, though, especially thinking about how to grow your own - perhaps using a hoop house to speed the process along. Here's some preliminary research to share.

http://mdmintake.blogspot.com/2006/08/basil-anyone.html

Brooke and I had a great time at the farm this afternoon. And by great, I mean I now know why Tricia is always wearing carhartts, a straw hat, gloves and boots. The weeds on the farm? Not so much like the weeds in our garden.

http://deberosahomestead.wordpress.com/2007/12/09/portable-hoop-house-construction/

This year we built a portable hoop house on Deberosa for tomatoes and basil. It was fairly successful but as you can see from the storm post, it didn’t survive an extremely bad wind. I think it would have survived it the rain did not make the ground so soft that the rebar simply pulled out of the mud. Oh well, we’ll rebuild for next year - it will just be a little shorter and perhaps oriented lengthwise to the prevailing wind.

http://quetzalfarm.com/tour.htm

Early in the spring we plant basil and cucumbers in our hoop house. It is significantly warmer than outside, allowing us to harvest much earlier. The basil will grow into fall.

http://www.newfarm.org/depts/beginning_farmers/0603/greens2.shtml

Basil’s really the only herb to which we give much attention, and it responds well. It flourishes in the heat of the hoop. Keep cutting back the terminal buds and it’ll bush out. Give it an occasional shot of fish and it may produce for months.

http://www.vpi.org/urban_farm.html

ReVision Urban Farm is an organic micro-farm whose guiding vision is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable urban agriculture. The farm grows a wide variety of food crops on three reclaimed urban lots totaling one-acre of growing space. The farm enhances the delivery of nutrition services throughout our community and increases local awareness of the social, environmental, and economic benefits of sustainable urban agriculture.

Technorati Tags: basil, hoophouse, gardening, farm, ubifarm

Infected spider bite = MRSA? Cases at Pinckney, Howell

This is not medical advice; if you suspect you have an infected spider bite, seek medical advice from a professional.

Saw this in the Ann Arbor News online:

Individual cases of the powerful drug-resistant form of staph infection known as MRSA were confirmed Monday in a Pinckney elementary school and Tuesday at Howell High School at the Parker Campus.

Pinckney Community Schools Superintendent Dan Danosky said Farley Elementary School principal Lynda Henderson was alerted to a girl with a suspected "infected spider bite," one of the indications of MRSA - methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The Livingston County Department of Public Health was contacted immediately, he said.

This site gets enough queries for "michigan spiders" that my eyes perk up whenever I see that. Some more googling around got page 1 hits for MRSA and turmeric, but I didn't want to quote any of them until I found some research. What I did get was this:

0546 Curcumin and Bisdimethyl Curcumin Isolated from Curcuma longa Inhibit the Growth of Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria
Y.C. KIM1, Y.-O. YOU2, S.L. JEONG2, H.H. YU2, S.H. HAN2, and K.-J. KIM2, 1 Wonkwang Univ, Iksan City, South Korea, 2 School of Dentistry, Wonkwang University, Iksan, South Korea

Objective: Antibiotic resistance is the one of important problem in dental and medical fields. Therefore, new agents are needed to treat methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from acute oral infection.. In the present study, we investigated the antimicrobial activity of Curcuma longa (C. longa) and the antibacterial components, curcumin and bisdemethyl curcumin, from C. longa has been isolated and identified by MS, 1H-NMR, and 13C-NMR.

Technorati Tags: mrsa, turmeric, curcumin

2007 Michigan apple crop harvest predicted dates

Michigan State University does an annual apple crop report for Michigan.

Source: P. Schwallir, A. Irish-Brown: Predicted peak 2007 apple harvest dates.
MSU CAT Alert, Vol. 22, No. 14, July 24, 2007

Apple maturity for 2007 is expected to be a week to 12 days ahead of normal for most of the state, which experienced an early end of winter. As a result, bud growth developed across the state with an early bloom in all areas. This year however, the south part of the state was damaged by a severe freeze in early April. Bloom was extended and fruits did not set well on older wood. Many areas have an apple crop born of one year old wood, which bloom later than our recorded bloom dates. Predicted dates in the southern part of the state are less accurate than most years for this reason. There was an extended bloom which contributes to a less accurate prediction. Also, there is quite a variation in crop load. Trees with light crop loads will mature earlier than these predicted dates. Heavy cropped trees will mature after these predicted dates.

Table 3. Normal Peak Harvest Dates for Varieties for Grand Rapids Area

Variety / Normal date / 2007 Predicted Date

Paulared / 8-24 / 8-14
Gingergold / 8-26 / 8-14
Gala / 9-10 / 8-28
Mc Intosh 9-15 / 9-1
Honeycrisp 9-18 / 9-4
Empire 9-22 / 9-8
Jonathan 9-28 / 9-19
Jonagold 9-28 / 9-19
Golden delicious 10-2 / 9-21
Red delicious 10-5 / 9-26
Idared 10-10 / 10-2
Rome 10-15 / 10-7
Fuji 10-25 / 10-18
Breaburn 10-25 / 10-18
Goldrush 11-1 / 10-22

Technorati Tags: michigan, apples, ubifarm, agriculture, grand-rapids, east-lansing, michigan-state-university, fruit

First Frost - trends from Google Trends - cover your tomatoes!

Every year about this time I make sure there's a comment in my first frost, last frost posting. Ann Arbor has a heavy frost warning tonight, lows 33-37 - cover your tomatoes!

University of Minnesota Extension has a handy page on how to use your tomatoes after a frost.

It happens every year. There are always some ripe and semi-ripe tomatoes left on the vine that get caught in the first frost of the fall. One of the concerns that people have is whether these tomatoes can be used for canning. The recommendation is not to can tomatoes from frost-killed vines. This may result in an unsafe product because of the potential low acidity of the tomatoes on frost-killed vines.

If you're wondering when the first and last frosts are, here's the Google Trends comparison for first frost and last frost to tell you when to expect it:

Technorati Tags: 2007, annarbor, karb, wx, first-frost, tomatoes, michigan, go-blue, gtd

Where to pick blueberries in Marquette, Michigan

Now that I've had my berry-picking for the year, keeping the patch hidden is less important.

This year the intelligence directed us to a spot on M-553 south of County Road 480, past the Blueberry Ridge pathway and not as far as the fairgrounds. We pulled off on the west side of the road at a stop sign, drove in 20 feet, and there were more berries on the ground than a team of five enthusiastic pickers could exhaust. From the looks of it, the whole area south towards the airport would be likely. Here's an approximate map of blueberries near Marquette, MI that would get you nearby.

The berries were small, perhaps smaller than normal, but not by much. Last Friday they were almost all ripe, so if you haven't gone out go out now.

Local berry-picking spots change from year to year, and there are places that are unmarked private property that still may be open for berry picking. Use caution, and check for ticks when you're done picking.

Technorati Tags: marquette, michigan, blueberries, july, berrypicking

Dexter Blueberry Farm: Open July 18, 2007

I called the Dexter Blueberry Farm this morning to get the opening date of the blueberry picking season. The recorded hotline (734) 426-2900 gave the first day of picking of the year as "no later than July 18". The web site says that the season generally goes through September 10, and U-Pick is $1.35/lb.

The farm is at 11024 Beach Road, between Dancer Road and Lima Center Road north of Dexter-Chelsea Road between Dexter and Chelsea. Take I-94 Exit 162.

Technorati Tags: blueberry, 2007, dexter, michigan, farm, annarbor

Strawberry and pea picking: Rowe's Produce Farm, Ypsilanti MI

Saul and I went this morning. As of 6/23/07 it's nearing the end of the strawberry picking season - there are still plenty of berries to be picked, but there are also some mooshy ones and you should look under the leaves for best results. We picked two quarts in no time flat.

They also have peas for the picking - we picked a peck of podded peas pretty promptly, and right now it's a great time for pea picking.

I twittered out a "going berry picking" status message and ended up seeing Derek Mehraban there with his family.

The farm is Rowe's Produce Farm, which is in Ypsi Twp. Exit I-94, go south on Rawsonville Road to Martz Road, turn right and it's on your left 1/4 mile down clearly marked. Phone (734) 482-8538 ahead of time for conditions and hours - they were open 7am-8pm when I called. Get on their mailing list. The web site includes a photo essay of picking strawberries.

Raspberries are due in late July.

Technorati Tags: annarbor, ypsilanti, belleville, rawsonville, michigan, u-pick, strawberries, peas, raspberries, june, berrypicking

Michigan Spiders: Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia)

 

Big Spido, originally uploaded by gkretovic.

Also known as a Black and Yellow Argiope, Orb Weaver, Writing Spider, or Scribbler.

Photo courtesy of Yooper and Flickrite gkretovic .

See:

Bug Guide: http://bugguide.net/node/view/74618

Hammond, G. 2002. "Argiope aurantia" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed June 22, 2007 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Argiope_aurantia.html.

Posted by Edward Vielmetti from Flickr.