The Feral Field

The red-winged blackbirds have officially returned to #Michigan !#spring #itshappening 🌱

Farmer, 86, Rejects $15 Million Offer to Sell His Land to Data Center Developers: ‘Not Interested in Destroying My Farms’ Mervin Raudabaugh, an 86-year-old Pennsylvania man, is making headlines for turning down an offer of more than $15 million to sell his farmland to data center developers. He sold development rights to...

people.com/farmer-86-re...

Are you a snowbird? 😉😄 I’m from MI but have lived in Tucson & Cottonwood, AZ. Once saw a vermilion flycatcher in Tucson—my only sighting (so far).

What I’m workin’ with today. 😍Wrapped bouquets & Mason jar arrangements will be heading to Simply Fresh Market in Brighton tomorrow morning. 💗

Happy #SuperbOwl 🦉 Sunday to all who celebrate.

Seed inventory/organization begins, later than intended, as usual. 😅

Close-up of three white entwined snowdrop flowers hanging from slender green stems, their nodding blooms softly lit against a blurred green and white background with pale speckles of light.

1st-2nd February is Imbolc, a Gaelic festival celebrating the impending lambing season and the birth of new life. A Scottish legend tells that the arrival of snowdrops infuriates Beira, Queen of Winter, so she brings frost and snow as she battles to keep her hold. #FolkloreSunday

theferalfield.com/shop

Flyer for small farm The Feral Field advertising Valentine’s flowers grown in Southeast Michigan, featuring large pink tulips and a scannable QR code. Delivery available in #BrightonMI #HowellMI #MilfordMI and #SouthLyonMI

Hello #MI friends! I’m just gonna leave this here in the off chance someone might see it who’s actually in my vicinity…I’m bringing in Ypsi grown tulips for V-Day & deliver to all of Brighton + parts of Howell, Milford, Whitmore Lake, & South Lyon. 2026 bouquet subscriptions are also now live!

After listening to her tirade I may never buy beef again

Scientists now know that bees can process time, a first in insects | CNN Bumblebees can process the duration of flashes of light and use the information to decide where to look for food, a new study has found.

I didn’t think I could love bees any more than I already do.

edition.cnn.com/2025/11/12/s...

I don’t think I ever shared a photo of our new farm stand here! Here’s a pic of it from last week, before the first snowfall. The stand was both constructed & painted by Lansing, MI artist Tom Phillips.

Send him off with a banjo solo

No.

I always take a pic of the season’s first handful of cherry tomatoes, which this year came on 8/20. (Late!) They’re just not ripening, & other people have been telling me theirs aren’t either. Sure, my toms got early blight & the deer have cropped them a few times, but… www.mlive.com/news/grand-r...

This quote comes at the perfect time. “Oh, what a tangled web we weave,” I’ve been saying to myself in the garden lately (as I trip through mangled row cover & trellising) 💃🏻

Gorgeous.

Very cool seed heads. Neat for dried bouquets if you’re into that.

So tiny & so cool. I found some a few years back & busted out the macro lens. 👀

Ooh—looks good. I have a similar collection: stephenmitchellbooks.com/anthologies/...

Let us remember that it is Earth who gives us life -- and that this time of delusional excess is soon coming to an end.

What’s the collection?

First monarch caterpillar sighting of the year! This one is tiny, about the length of my pinky fingernail.

The milkweed in my front garden bed looks awful & I would love to rip
it out for aesthetic reasons, but there it will stay.

I love it! I started some this year but it’s still in a flat 😬

Just found out today is #WorldSnakeDay so I’m joining in the celebration. I’ve seen more garter snakes on our little farm than anywhere else ever—I think they nest under our deck! Here is a portrait I took of one sunning on a log shortly after we moved in. 🐍

Glad I got the garlic harvested before the rain. This year’s crop was grown with seed sourced from Northwoods Farm and Skill in Michigan, as well as some we saved ourselves.

I’ll be hanging these to cure in our barn’s loft, & after that I’ll bundle them with dried flowers & herbs. 🌸🧄🌿

Today in #flowers : the zins are beginning

👽

Climaciella brunnea - Wikipedia

It’s all one bug! Wild looking, right?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climaci...

🌞 Happy Summer Solstice 🌞 from the wasp mantidfly, which isn’t a wasp or a mantid but is definitely my new favorite #insect
Seen here on one of our sweet pepper plants.