March 2024
It’s an early spring in the Duluth area! We’ve had a number of days in the 40’s, and while winter still stops by from time to time to remind us it’s always nearby, it is nevertheless time to start preparing for my first crop.
This month’s post discusses some of the work that is underway on the food production and land procurement fronts, and features the unveiling of the official logo for Living Proof LLC.
You also might see some changes to this blog. For one thing, I am dropping the month to month overhead shots of my home property in favor of photos related to the work I am actually doing.I’ll keep taking those shots, but I’ll summarize them semi-annually or annually depending on what feels most appropriate. I’ll also start experimenting with supplemental materials for those interested in what I am watching/reading as I continue this journey.
These are my first two mushroom log stacks. These are the shiitake inoculated sugar maple logs I prepared in December. The biggest concern with overwintering logs isn’t the cold; it’s the lack of humidity. Cold dry winds can pull moisture from the logs, which dramatically reduces yield the following year. This winter was on the warmer and wetter side, so in retrospect, I probably could have stored the logs outside, especially laying on the ground where wind is less of a concern. Now that we are having weeks of warm, humid weather at a time, I have pulled the logs out and stacked them.
I have some larger logs that still need to be put outside, and I still have some very large logs to process. That will take time, as it is quite hard to do by myself, so I’ll be chipping away at them throughout the next month or so.
I’m finally able to prepare my first round of blue oyster mushroom buckets. These will be grown on coffee grounds from local coffee shops, and provide a nice, short-turnaround mushroom, as they usually start producing two to three weeks after initial preparation.
Reliable mushroom output is one of my biggest challenges as a beginning farmer. With the combination of winecap, shiitake, and blue oyster mushrooms I am cultivating, I hope to have some mushrooms available for harvesting each week.
In addition to ramping up mushroom production, I’m beginning to work on a planting plan for my home property—putting to practice my ideas for a multi-layered food forest with mushroom production as its core. This will combine regionally adapted fruit, nuts, and perennial vegetables growing on multiple levels with rows and stacks of mushrooms at the center of the plating layout.
But I’m not just working on planting my own yard. I continue working to secure a larger plot of land to farm on. I hope to be able to share more on that soon.
Okay, so I know that this is something that many of y’all are particularly excited about. I’m pleased to show you the official base logo for Living Proof LLC.
Careful readers will note that I said “base” logo, and that is because with a business that has the level of variety in terms of what it is doing, it makes sense to tweak the logo for those different use-cases. But this is the foundational logo from which iterations will spring.
I will call them out in the thank yous, but a huge shout out to Connor Riva and Patrick Kovacich for the many months spent talking about and iterating on this logo. I called it out in last month’s blog post, but I learned so much during this process—and there is still so much to learn as new use-cases come up and we present the logo needs in new and unexpected contexts.
But despite the journey ahead, this feels like one of those moments in which the whole venture feels “real,” like there is a meaningful identity being established.
Finally, on a more personal note, I’ve been having some health—including mental health—issues for a while now, which makes consistency a challenge for me. This blog is the only thing I’ve produced steadily over the last four months, and I look forward to writing it every month, so I really appreciate your spending the time to read about my farming journey.
Some minor calls to action:
As always, sharing this blog post and encouraging folks to subscribe does me a huge service. My conversion rate from initial reader to subscriber is up in the past month, but still quite low. I’d love to begin changing that trend!
I’m also planning to hire a summer intern, and I would love any advice on how to go about advertising for the position, determining a fair pay, and generally talking through how to make this internship a great experience for whomever I hire, while keeping the business moving. Feel free to email me at mischa@livingproof.farm if you’d be open to chatting!
Thank Yous:
I’d like to thank the following folks for helping me with everything I mentioned in this post!
Connor Riva for working with me to design my logo.
Patrick Kovacich for working with me to design my logo.
Jonathan Kilpatrick at the Sustainable Farming Association for getting me to attend their annual conference—it was incredibly informative and exhilarating!