Yes it has been too long since our last blog, but what better time to resume but the planting weekend of Wisconsin- Memorial Day weekend.
The photos above it to give a shout out to local artwork done by family and friend. The Willoway Farm sign itself was made by Farmer Dan's sister -Elizabeth Brunner. The logo was taken from our barn built in the 1800s which we thought we would honor to remember the fine craftsmanship of whomever made the barn. Back in the 1800's barn builders used symbols to sign their work. The symbol itself could be interpreted however you like: is it the sun? flower? full of circle and symmetry we dug so we are using it.
The fine bracket was created by Nathaniel Reinartz of Lake Bernice, Wisconsin. The best contact we have for him is his email address: newburg_wi@yahoo.com. Please feel free to contact us if that does not work. He has work at the Urban Ecology Center, at Weeds in Cedarburg and soon will be doing the hinges for our Timber Framed Vegetable wash building doors.
Regarding happenings at Willoway Farm successions of beets, heirloom lettuce mix, radishes, spinach, lettuce heads, beans, kale, chard have all been planted with more plantings to conduct. This weekend we plan on planting the curcubits (cucumbers, squashes)-which we held off a little due to the funky unpredictable cooler weather this spring has presented to us. This will be closely followed by our heirloom tomatoes, peppers and potatoes along with a Okra and a bounty of cut flowers for our Waggle Dance Flowers department. ANd you bet those strawberries are in blossom now-yum, yum, yum
Waggle Dance Flowers is part of Willoway Farm. Being that flowers are an integral part of our farm's production : i.e crop rotation, beneficial insect habitats, green cut flowers for our flower share and Wedding arrangements, even the cup plant flowers provide a bucket of water for our beloved birds such as bluebirds and mega bug eating swallows. Waggle Dance Flowers has it's own facebook page now which you can feel free to like. We have yet to make the email, website marketing aspects of it.
What does WAGGLE DANCE come from: HONEY BEES. We raise honey bees for ourself and of course for are open pollenated veggies. The waggle dance an just another one of those amazing things honey bees do which the female worker bees do to direct the other worker bees to the most optimal flower/pollen location. This dance completely incorporates the degree distance from the sun for direction and the longer the dance the further the distance the voyage to the pollen is. We love our honeybees and it again is an integral part of Willoway Farm, from the veggies, herbs, and apple trees, strawberries. This all goes along with why we create wedding flower arrangements to give people a choice from the Conventional imported flowers you get from grocery stores, florist and gas stations. The conventional flower farms of South America and Africa have all reported a loss of honey bees in these areas. Not to mention conventional flowers farms are the host of underpaid workers subject to harsh chemicals causing serious sickness and cancers. Even florist get sick from the green floral foam used which contains black carcinogens and other nasty gas base -plastic chemicals...the list goes on and I think I , Jacqui of Willoway Farm have said my mouthful for the day and best get back to the work at hand.
BTW-we are expecting another bambino in about 5 weeks....amid all this we are getting pumped for this new arrival-Happy planting to you all!
