The Chicory Coffee Capitol of America

Take a drive through the Michigan countryside in August and you're likely to see pretty blue flowers in full bloom growing in the gravel alonside the road. As you might imagine, this "weed" was first brought to the U.S. on purpose, like many other common flowers we now find in our yards, fields and ditches (i.e. dandelion, mullein, purple loosestrife, etc.)

This lovely lavender blossom is of a plant known as Chicory, originally a native of Europe, which was brought to the United States as a coffee substitute and medicinal potherb. Chicory coffee? Down at the local coffee shop today, you'll have to choose between coffee beans grown in Columbia or Costa Rica, Kenya or Guatamala, Mexico or Peru. Ask for a cup of chicory root and you'll probably have a pretty confused waiter!

But once Midland, Michigan was known as the "Center of America's Chicory Field." Roasted and ground chicory roots were first used as a coffee substitute in Germany in the 1770s, though it has been grown as a medicinal herb for roughly 5,000 years. The Coffee Book, by Dawn Campbell and Judith Smith states: "Kaffee Ersatz was much in use during WWI and II when coffee was hard to come by and not affordable. Chicory's ability to blend well with coffee, tea leaves, or herbs has long been known."

In 1926, a local newspaper bragged about Midland County's place in the chicory-growing industry in its book, The Midland Sun, Second Development Edition. It said: "Few people, even in Midland, realize that all the chicory used in the entire United States is raised in Michigan, in fact, in Midland county and tributary territory. Formerly vast quantities of this root, which is used so extensively...as an addition to coffee, was not grown profitably anywhere in the United States, and practically all imported from Europe. Then somebody discovered that the soil in Midland and nearby counties was peculiarly adapted to the raising of this root. In fact, nowhere else in the whole country are conditions so favorable..."

Chicory coffee was grown, processed and sold in Midland by the Franck Chicory Company, who owned kilns to roast the root in Bay City, Pinconning, Midland and Kawkawlin. In fact, a 1922 edition of The Midland Sun, stated that it wasn't unusual for area farmers to earn $100 per acre when growing chicory in their fields. The root was harvested in a similar fashion to sugar beets.

In spite of its success, producing chicory coffee in mid-Michigan came to an end after World War II as affordable coffee beans were shipped from Central and South America. Today, most cultivated chicory is grown in France and South Africa. In the United States, the French culture of New Orleans and rural Louisiana stubbornly stuck with the tradition and it lives on with companies such as the Orleans Coffee Exchange.

So as you fill up your morning cup of coffee, pause for a moment to consider where it comes from. What environmental price do we pay for those beans that are grown in the tropics and shipped halfway across the world? What other habits do we cling to that may have more sustainable, home-grown alternatives? As you drive those country roads, take a moment to consider those pretty blue flowers and the amazing story they have to tell.

Seeds of Spring

After seeing the title of this post, perhaps some of you are thinking "Spring - are you crazy?" But if you've purchased seeds in the past I bet your mailbox is already overflowing with seed catalogs for vegetables, herbs and flowers to be planted after the snows melt and the ground warms up.

We grow heirloom plants in the gardens at Chippewa Nature Center's 1870 Homestead Farm. Heirlooms are defined as open pollinated plants whose "roots" can be traced back at least 50 years. Open-pollinated plants are non-hybrid varieties produced by crossing two parents from the same variety, which in turn produce offspring just like the parent plants.

Thousands of heirloom fruits and vegetables have gone extinct over the past 100 years. Some estimates say only 3% of flower and vegetable varieties that were grown in the U.S. in 1900 are still in existence today. Many of these plants were varieties grown for generations on small farms across America. Each was developed specifically over the years to grow well in a certain area, be resistant to local diseases, and adapted to local climate and soil conditions.

Bean poles and a dried sunflower stalk in CNC's Heirloom
vegetable garden have dreams of spring.

If you want variety, superior flavor, unusual colors and shapes and unique histories, heirloom gardening is a wonderful alternative to growing hybrids featured predominately by many large companies. Most home gardeners, for example, don’t need tomatoes with skins tough enough to withstand cross-country shipment, or potatoes that will pass the McDonald’s uniformity test. Some heirloom gardeners grow plants especially for gourmet chefs. Grow some heirloom plants at home and take the “taste test” for yourself!

Type "heirloom vegetable seeds" in your search engine and thousands of entries will pop up. At CNC, we purchase most of our heirloom seeds from Seed Savers Exchange. Based Decorah, Iowa, Seed Savers in a non-profit organization dedicated to seed saving and educating the public about the importance of heirlooms. As you plan your garden this year, check out their online catalog. You can also download a copy of their regular catalog on their website. 

Happy garden planning! 

How Much Land Does It Take to Feed a Bee Colony? More Than You Think

It's a classic image of summer - busy bees buzzing in the bushes (sorry, I couldn't resist!) But what's really going on when a hive of honeybees take to the air in search of food? How much do bees eat? What flowers do they prefer? And how might their food choices relate to Colony Collapse Disorder of which we've heard so much in recent years?

Kim Flottum, of thedailygreen looks at these questions and more in her blog essay: How Much Land Does It Take to Feed a Bee Colony? More Than You Think. Check it out and next time you see those bees on your bushes or reach for that bottle of honey in the supermarket you'll have a new appreciation for all their hard work!

Coffee Grounds for the Garden

If you like your morning cup (or pot) of coffee, but hate to see those messy grounds in your trash, there are a couple of great alternatives for you to consider. First, coffee grounds can be a beneficial additive to your garden soil. During brewing, most of the acidity is removed, leaving grounds with an average pH of 6.9 and a carbon ratio of 20-1 (for all you garden savvy folks out there). Most perennials love a little nitrogen, so adding some fresh coffee grounds into the soil nearby is a good way to give them a little treat. Or, you can mix it in with some leaf matter or grass clippings to make a more complex nutritional blend. Another way to use coffee grounds is to mix them with other "brown" material (leaves, etc) and put them directly into your compost pile. When used in this manner, it's best to use them within three to four weeks to capture the best nutritional value. For more information about how to use coffee grounds in the garden, check out Sunset's "Starbucks Coffee Compost Test" or visit the Starbucks Coffee Compost page.

Organic Lawns Made Easy

Green lawns seem to be a rite of spring and part of summertime fun. But creating that suburban dream can come at a big cost to the environment and the wild animals that call our yards home. Going organic and still having a green lawn isn't just a pipe dream, it can become your reality! So forget the synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides this year and begin the transition to organic. The following tips are quoted from "Six Tips for a Lawn You'll Love" by Fern Bradley. Fern is one of the editors of the Reader's Digest All-New Guide to Gardening and has a number of posts on the Reader's Digest Living Healthy Blog. 1. Leave it long to prosper. One of the simplest changes is to start letting your grass grow longer—3 inches long—before you mow it. And when you do mow, never remove more than one-third of the height at one time. This stresses the grass less, and the longer lawn naturally shades out weeds. 2. Stop bagging the clippings. Grass clippings are natural fertilizer. Leave them in place each time your mow, and in the course of a year, they’ll add roughly 2 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet to your lawn. 3. Spread compost. Stop applying chemical fertilizer and substitute compost instead. Apply screened compost at least once a year, spreading a layer that’s no more than 1/4-inch thick. You can do the job by hand with a rake or use a drop spreader. 4. Water deeply. If you must irrigate your lawn, be prepared to soak it thoroughly. This will encourage roots to grow deeper into the soil, and that strengthens your lawn over time. 5. Overseed for a lusher lawn. If your lawn seems sparse, perhaps it just needs more grass plants! You can apply more grass seed right to your existing lawn. It may help to aerate or dethatch your lawn before you spread the seed. Fall is the right time to overseed cool-season grasses; spring for warm-season grasses. 6. Diagnose problems before you treat. If your lawn is looking sickly with patches of dying or dead grass or other unusual symptoms, make sure you diagnose the problem properly before you try to treat it. Gardening reference books like the All-New Illustrated Guide to Gardening include charts of lawn pest and disease symptoms and treatments, or try taking a digital photo of the problem and e-mail it to your local cooperative extension service for a diagnosis.

Join a CSA today!

Throughout the long winter, those of us living in Michigan don't have many choices when it comes to eating locally grown fruits and vegetables. But once spring comes around, opportunities abound! The year begins in March with maple syrup and proceeds to asparagus in April. As soils warm through summer, more and more crops ripen until we're up to our eyeballs in tomatoes and pole beans are climbing the fences. Before we know it, autumn comes around and we'll be picking pumpkins and apples at the orchard down the road.

Many of us simply don't have the time, space and energy to grow large gardens at home. If that sounds familiar, a great way to get local produce is to join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project! A CSA works by individuals purchasing "shares" of produce directly from a local farmer. Sometimes CSAs include people helping out in the garden, weeding, watering and the like. Most local operations, however, simply supply you with fresh produce once a week in exchance for a monthly payment. CSAs in the Saginaw Valley supply fruits and vegetables, herbs, eggs, meat, wool products, and more!

Check out the Local Harvest Website for a good list of CSAs throughout Michigan and the U.S. You can also visit the Midland's Farmer's Market to connect with local farmers or call Stephan and Sandra Bowman (989-837-0953), who will be running their "Bowman Center Farm" CSA for the third season this year.