Those of us who are of a certain age might remember the days of keeping your car on the road with wire hangers and/or duct tape. Having this experience with several VW square backs when I was in my twenties, I was surprised to learn none of our gleaning crew on Monday knew what I was talking about.

Tuesday morning, Colleen and Liza got out of their Cumberland County Food Council truck and started staring at it. “What’s up?” I asked. Apparently, the muffler had become loose. “So did you crawl under the truck to see if it could be wired back on?” “NO!” Hmmm…hence the teachable moment. “Well, you don’t want to be driving down 295 and have it fly off onto someone’s windshield and cause an accident, do you?” Another “NO!” So who crawls under the truck? One of the least mechanically inclined people on the planet, and here is the proof. Thank you, Judy, for taking this flattering photo of me! Luckily the pipe was secure enough to return the truck safely to the mechanic for a replacement. All in a day’s work at G2G!

Now on to the gleaning. Colleen may not be the best at solving mechanical problems, but she shines as a volunteer gleaner at G2G, and here is that proof. We still had a nice variety to harvest on Tuesday with the help from Judy, Colleen, Liza, and Marjorie. Thanks, ladies, for your hard work and commitment this season. That was our final harvest for a couple of weeks, so until next time, take care and thanks again.

Another group of high schoolers came from the Maine Coast Waldorf School on Tuesday afternoon. They were lucky to be able to work in some warm sunshine as we had them do some weeding, lay down cardboard with wood chips, spread compost, and sneak in some more winter rye plantings. Two hours of work from 9 individuals adds up to much being accomplished in an afternoon. Last year, in the spring, we faced so much mud, weeds, and tough grass in our walkways. It’s nice to have all this help so we can be proactive with this issue. Thanks for choosing G2G for your service visits. You’ve made an impact.

Friday was supposed to be a greenhouse moving day, but there was a big rain/wind event in the forecast here, so we had to cancel. There is a lot to prepare for the move–mostly clearing the rails and outside edges of the beds. This is our Rimol greenhouse that, once detached, moves along a series of rails to its new location. So we worked on finding those rails and making sure there were no obstacles. Sue stopped by to help with this project, then we finished it up. Some projects you just don’t get real excited about, and this was one of them. Sue was not phased by this task which helped motivate us to complete it. Thanks, Sue, for giving us that boost!

We sent out all of our cured winter squashes this week. We had lots to share–over 1,800 pounds. Genevieve chose to drive our “tractor” to move them to the packing shed where we boxed them up and sent them out. I hope our recipients enjoy the flavor of the Kabocha squash as much as we have. Taste testing is an essential part of our job. 🙂

Saturday was another productive day with eleven volunteers arriving to help. They finished the lasagna project on plot 8. Thank you, Allagash, for saving and delivering all that cardboard so we were able to complete this. Yes, another pallet would be awesome! I had been saving tunnel projects for inclement weather, but with all this help, this is where we headed. All the tomato vines had to be cut down and strings dismantled. I am so sorry, Adelle, that you put your face in a spider web! We had bushels of tomatoes. 50# of them were ripe, and Genny dropped those off at MCHPP on her way home.

Our vegetable donations are now down to just a couple more varieties. One of them is this glorious tunnel full of nutrient dense spinach. Wendi and Marsha were doing some light weeding in there on Saturday. We are waiting for the cooler temperatures to sweeten it and get it to its maximum leaf size. Maybe in another week we’ll be asking our gleaning friends to come back to help us harvest.

Leeann was kind enough to be my G2G t-shirt model. We still have shirts and garlic for sale. The garlic variety is Music with a sweet and mild flavor.

It was another nice week to be outside. Chilly mornings, but warm and sunny afternoons. Saturday was noticeably calm and especially beautiful after that crazy wind storm and 3.5 inches of rain. The tunnels all held up against the 45 mph gusts, and that is due to our fabulous Fix-It Team. Thanks again, fixers!

In other news, thanks to the folks at Curtis Memorial Library the farm is now the site of an official GEOCACHE. Do you think you can find it? If you are new to geochaching, visit this page to create a free account and learn about the process. Coordinates and hints to help you find the one hidden at Growing to Give can be found here.

I am constantly amazed with how our volunteers step up to see how else they might help. Adelle, whose time is so limited right now, came on Saturday; Genny delivered tomatoes on her way home; Wendi and Marsha helped us set up our printer; Cam, who wants to help in any way she can while she is in Maine; Burnham, who walks over when we need a fixer consultation. I could write an entire farm report just on our volunteers and their generous spirits. Instead, I will mention only a few, hoping everyone else knows how much all of us at G2G appreciate them.

Theda