By Nora Boxer, UWM graduate student in creative writing This January, I was given the opportunity to participate as a student in Write On, Door County’s The Craft of Writing Series via a scholarship made possible through Gathering Ground. The focus of the...
By Alex Krantz, Gathering Ground intern 2020 Before becoming an intern with my sister Izzy at Gathering Ground, I was an Island regular. Every summer my family would drive up from our Illinois suburb to Washington Island, anticipating the euphoric moment when we would...
by Russell Rolffs, farm manager This year, Gathering Ground grazed six White Dorper sheep, rotating them through the vineyard June to August and then the young chestnut and fruit orchards the rest of the season. Combining livestock with crops is a sustainable...
This year the grapes didn’t ripen very well — they have low sugars (10-13 brix) and won’t make good wine. The low sugars are due to the downy mildew that prematurely defoliated the vines and prevented them from ripening the grapes adequately. While...
by Izzy and Alex Krantz, Gathering Ground Interns As we reflect on the past five weeks of the Gathering Ground internship, the smell of dead Rose Chafers composting in the sun haunts us. We close our eyes and see thousands of brown beetles swarming around us, clinging...
Saturday August 1, from 10 am – 2 pm Gathering Ground is happy to present our first garden tour. We’ve asked 8 Island gardeners to open up their gates to visitors and share a little bit of Island life. Enjoy this socially-distant outdoor activity and get...
Let’s say you live here on the Island, or regularly visit, and don’t have your own compost pile. You now have a way to compost your organic matter at Gathering Ground! “But why is this important? Why should I compost?” you might ask. Composting...
Beginning in July, our community compost program will be up and running. Our goal is to recycle the kitchen and yard waste from Island households and businesses, up to the holding capacity of our structure, diverting the waste from being dumped and carted off-island....
The last few years have been very trying for many gardeners on Washington Island due to massive numbers of rose chafers. We have been researching methods of organic and biological control at Gathering Ground, methods that go beyond the standard conventional controls,...
On a quiet April day, Casey Dahl of Folk Tree Farm on Washington Island shared his pruning knowledge with a couple of neighbors in their old apple orchard. The trees had not been pruned in years and they wanted to learn more about how to care for them. Gathering...
