Farm Report 8/2/23 - President Biden checks out Growing to Give

Farm Report 8/2/23 – President Biden checks out Growing to Give

Well sort of, this is not totally fake news.

He did fly over the farm, and we watched and all wondered if he could see us. I am sure if he did glance out the window of his helicopter he would have liked the tidy little organic farm full of glorious vegetables and the handful of people waving.

Our week started out with Carrie and Libby leading Upward Bound’s final visit to the farm; they helped clear a plot of chard and scallions and get it ready for planting a cover crop. Many of them were excited to learn that scallions are just baby onions!

Meanwhile, the Telling Room camp, a literary arts education organization, arrived Monday morning to set up by the goats and spend the week engaging in creative activities around Scattergood Farm. Libby and Carrie led them in a mini soil workshop followed by their first activity down in our growing area, which was to sow crimson clover amongst our growing watermelons.

Shoveling goat manure onto our rhubarb beds has been on our to do list for way too long. I kept saying, “Let’s wait for a cooler day”. A small but eager-to-help group of engineers came to volunteer from Blue Marble Geographics on Tuesday. We planned on just having them cut and lay down the cardboard between the plants, but they were so efficient (engineers!) we couldn’t keep up. So they volunteered to help shovel! Thanks, guys, that stinky project went by so quickly we barely noticed the smell, and we got to check it off our list. This will make for very happy rhubarb in 2024.

Libby took on an ambitious cooking class with the Telling Room kids, gathering ingredients from the gardens and setting up an outdoor kitchen. There was a chef demonstrating knife safety, and then it all came together in a beautiful salad, but the kids wouldn’t eat it! Too much kale perhaps? Oh well, at least it gave them something new to write about! Nice try, Libby.

The gleaning pace is picking up. We appreciate all the help from Abigail, Jacob, Henry, and Sam. They volunteered with us last summer, so they are veterans and can jump right in to help pick, wash, pack, and deliver.

Lucky for us, we have an annual group of Hannaford interns who come the last week of July, which coincides with our garlic harvest. There were 15 of them! Being at the farm for four hours allowed them to dig, clean, braid, and hang our harvest (the Telling Room kids jumped in for the harvest part). They also leave us their garden gloves every year–another bonus for us. Thank you, Hannaford, for your generosity, and to Matt their leader for the abundance of enthusiasm he brings each year. Hope we see you again next year!

After a busy garlic harvest, Carrie, Neena, and Libby headed over to Bowdoin College for the Environmental Fellow poster presentation session. Here are our two Fellows showcasing the work they did this summer.

Friday brought two groups from Apogee Adventures. The morning group helped clear a plot of kale and cabbage from upper field, followed by tomato pruning. The afternoon group weathered some intense heat while tarping the newly-cleared garlic plot–only after making sure that every last dill volunteer was harvested! Both groups enjoyed feeding the goats our brassica crop residues.

Friday was also a bouquet making day, a big gleaning, and another delicious potluck. It was Riley’s last official day on the farm with us, and her mom Maggie came to volunteer and join the potluck. Last week’s theme was “something from the farm”–an easy one since there is so much to choose from.

We were also able to help solve a flower crisis. This lovely bride-to-be and her dear friend reached out on social media looking for wedding flowers. The florist had bailed on them.:( Someone mentioned G2G, and they arrived excited to see what we could offer and left with armloads of colorful blooms.

Riley, you will be missed! Your positive attitude, no matter the weather or task at hand, was so appreciated by all of us. Your green beans are amazingly out of control–great job! We are going to have to recruit an entire team to harvest them!

It was such a hot humid week, we tried to find shady projects to keep us busy and less tasking work after lunch, but it was tough. My Saturday volunteer friends still arrived at 8, but we all faded fast. There was some talk about my photography skills and there being too many unflattering derrières in the farm report. Mary is the only one who made the cut this week.

Thanks, David, for helping us with mowing on Saturday and to Doug, Dylan, Genevieve, and Cathy for mowing in all this heat. I estimate we spent 12+ hours mowing and weed whacking this week. Besides causing us to be mowing daily, this continuous rain is making everything lush and green, and it’s helping our watermelons grow!