The Fix-It Team came to the rescue once again! Just in the nick of time our redesigned shade tarp was delivered and installed by the FAB 4–John Hayes, Tom, Diana, and Burnham. With John Newlin’s help it was pulled up over the tan shed and secured to the framework. Our hope is that the velcro straps John H. sewed on will be the solution to it shedding water and holding up in the winds.
We now have another regular Friday Fix-It Team volunteer, David Hoyle. Now that David is learning the fine art of irrigation and other projects, I will now refer to the team as the FAB 5. 🙂
More irrigation is now up and running over all our newest seedling transplants–thanks to the FAB 5.
We started our week off with gleaning–Judy on Monday and Carol on Wednesday. Judy delivered spinach and rhubarb to Woodside in her home town of Lisbon Falls. Judy has such a big heart and is really invested in helping her neighbors in need. She knows from her conversations with these recipients how important these additions of fresh vegetables are to their lives. They never let anything go to waste by freezing or drying anything that is left on their community table.
Carol is equally passionate about her gleaning with Growing to Give. She too harvested spinach and rhubarb with the addition of big beautiful heads of Brentwood lettuce. She worked with the Wednesday Farm Skills Team a bit to show them some harvesting techniques. Her vegetables went to MCHPP. Carol and Judy spend additional hours mowing, weeding, and planting with us at G2G. Thanks to both of you for all the time and energy you spend with us.
Ian came back this week to introduce another class of middle schoolers to work songs and the beauty of singing and weeding! They helped us weed and remove tarps and sandbags, getting ready for the next planting. Sounds a bit boring? Well, it was a beautiful morning so no one was complaining about singing, working, and learning outside instead of in a classroom.
We also had a few of our high school friends from the Waldorf School come to help out. They cut back some clover for us to then use as a mulch around some newly planted snapdragons. Rebecca, Sharry, and Tina transplanted the annuals around some branches we had saved from prunings. The branches are to help the flowers remain upright for cutting–an idea I borrowed from a garden tour last summer on MDI.
We are going ahead and transplanting our tender annuals out without protection. With no cool nights in the extended forecast, I might be taking a chance. I hope I’m not making a mistake! Diane worked on planting blocks of colors of zinnias. She is hoping to promote our Pick-Your-Own Bouquet for a donation in the community where she lives. Thank you, Diane.
We’re still planting seedlings from our greenhouse into our plots. This week we planted my favorite pepper, Carmen. My sister-in-law thinks it’s my favorite because that is her name. Nope! Sorry, Carmen. I love it because it is so sweet and crisp. It takes a bit longer to ripen, but is so worth it. It is one of the veggies I slice right up, still warm from the sun, and pass around for all to enjoy. Now that they are in the ground, we only have to wait 80 days to start picking and sharing these delicious red peppers!
Sunflowers, tomatoes, and green beans were planted by our Waldorf 3rd graders on Thursday and Friday. They learned to use their hands to measure the spacing for the beans they were interplanting with the tomatoes. It’s so fun to see them enjoy the farm and accomplish so much on their visits.
It really warmed up and dried out this week. We have been mulching heavily around all the transplants with cover crop debris, clover clippings, or spoiled straw. This has really saved the transplants from drying out and causing us to hand water.
Interplantings of beets with the peppers was done by Logan using the Earthway seeder. Amy was watering in the eggplant, onions, and a sprinkling of dill. Dill is supposed to attract beneficial insects who would prey on the CO potato beetle if the need arises.
Saturday was so HOT! There were 15 of us. Lots and lots of water, sunscreen applications, and shade breaks were needed to get through that first heat blast of summer. Thanks to all who came despite the high temperatures. We planted 900 seedlings that day. All got mulched, covered, and the irrigation set up and running over them.
I continue to be amazed at what we accomplish each week with the help of so many hands. Little hands, big hands, young and old hands–each set has something to share and give.
Thanks to all these hands.
~Theda