Luckily we are an organization that adapts fairly easily and the organizations that we partner with also are able to work with our always changing harvest schedule.
But you are wondering why this week’s focus would also include the word LETTUCE? Well, let me give you some of the details that happened this week that include the main ingredient in most salads–LETTUCE!
It started on Monday when we helped the Cumberland County gleaners donate 42 pounds of LETTUCE.
On Wednesday, Carol, Carrie and a team picked 107 pounds.
Friday, Peg came thinking, and I quote, “Oh I thought I would just be taking a couple of boxes of LETTUCE.” We filled her pick-up truck with 151 pounds of LETTUCE along with spinach, radishes, and rhubarb.
On Saturday morning, Carrie and I, along with Amy and Genny, harvested 78.74 pounds of LETTUCE. Saturday is not a normal gleaning day, so as usual our volunteers stepped up to the challenge and gladly picked, packed, and delivered this fresh harvest to MCHPP. Thank you, Amy and Genny.
Being a holiday weekend we turned on the CoolBot and are storing a couple of cases of broccoli–just kidding–LETTUCE for a Tuesday pick-up.
We have sent out over 1,000 heads of LETTUCE so far with another 1,000 more to go. Thanks to everyone for jumping in to help get the harvesting done and LETTUCE delivered!
On to other farm news…
Our 3rd graders came for their final farm visits this week. They saw a plot that needed some weeding and volunteered to tackle it! Too bad this was their last day since we are headed into weed season. Ian showed up with a new hat to lead the work song session, and when I walked by they were singing “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Being outdoors on a beautiful morning, singing and weeding, life can be good in 3rd grade. Carrie set up a scavenger hunt sending the kids around the farm looking for cover crops and interplantings. As this photo shows, they were taking it very seriously. Thank you to Miss Fox, the moms, and all our 3rd grade friends who came in all kinds of weather to learn about sustainable farming and to volunteer to help send fresh food into our community.
We turned some new beds on Saturday and interplanted amaranth, white eggplant, Thai basil, nasturtiums, alyssum, and celosia. This should be a burst of color! Some of these plants are part of our culturally preferred requests. Mother nature dropped ½ inch of rain later that afternoon, which hopefully will give them all a good start. The beds in this plot were visibly different in how they were treated last fall. The beds that were finished off with leaf mulch have a darker soil color and were less compacted and dense. It will be interesting to observe the differences in plant growth and health. We do love our leaf mulch. The mulching we have been doing all season with straw has saved us from this dry weather. The plants are looking healthy and seem to be insect-free.
Our new triangle-shaped flower beds in the upper field were mulched on Thursday by a home school group and their parents that meet regularly at Patten Free Library. They also weeded our strawberries. It is always fun to find projects that will engage people of all ages!
All we have to do is give Bob an idea on how to fix or organize something, and he is on it! Bob went home and fabricated a shelving system to install on the backside of the new tool shed. We went from mayhem to organization.
Speaking of mayhem, the rest of the Fix-It Team were working on irrigation in our newest tunnels getting the overhead sprinklers up and running. They were working on the last one when they came running towards me. “What happened?” They had it running, then BOOM–it stopped. What got turned off in the system? I assured them that I had only turned on a valve to feed another plot. Much head scratching was done with no solution. We all agreed we would have Bob look at it later. Everyone left for the day puzzled and confused about the sudden system failure. A few minutes later John hurried towards me. “The valve is on for left field and has water running everywhere!” What?! I only turned on this one…..I am beginning to get a reputation. 🙁
Cam stopped by to say goodbye. She is a friend and was an intern with us several seasons ago. She graduated from Bowdoin this past weekend. Thanks, Cam–we wish you well on your next life adventure. Oh and thanks for helping us harvest some LETTUCE!
This was our Saturday Skills Team’s last day with us. Here are our friends modeling bouquets of a certain vegetable. Yes, yes–I, too, am beginning to tire of this theme.
LET US end this week’s update with a promise not to focus on LETTUCE again. 🙂
Thanks everyone for all the help, gleaning, weeding, planting, and mowing!
– Theda