Greens!

Spring is here! The warmer weather means (more) fresh greens grown by nearby farmers are now available at the farmers' market. When we arrived at the Ann Arbor farmers' market this morning, we headed straight to the Brines Farm table where Shannon and Priscilla (both pictured here) were busy bagging several different types of baby greens - pac choi, arugula, mixed greens (and others). Shannon is the proprietor of Brines Farm. He has a hoop house operation in Dexter, Michigan, which is about 10 miles northwest of Ann Arbor. I guess you could call him a hoop house harvester of sorts. A hoop house functions like a greenhouse but unlike a greenhouse, it is unheated. It has a series of hoops for a frame and it is covered by plastic...it looks like a long, white tunnel with a door. Virtually unheard of a few years ago, they are catching on in places like Michigan where the winters are long and cold. Thanks to hoop house harvesters like Shannon, it is now possible to eat fresh, locally grown greens on an almost year-round basis. We left the market today with a 1/2 peck of Braeburn apples from Alex Nemeth and from Brines Farm, a bag each of arugula, mixed greens, and pac choi .