Being raised a Catholic, we were taught never to lie, steal, cheat, or eat the first ripe tomato.
So with this in mind, I must confess I broke that rule and ate the first tomato. It was only a cherry tomato, and we do have something like 1,100 tomato plants, but I saw, I picked, and I popped it into my mouth! Never even considered offering or sharing it with someone. After admitting my guilt, the first question was–how did it taste? It tasted like SUMMER!
While today’s constant rain event continues to darken my mood, and I sit here reminiscing about last week’s flavor of Summer, I am looking into next week’s weather forecast, hoping those promised days of sunshine will ripen more tomatoes so I can share with our community and stop feeling guilty!
We added carrots and fennel to our donation boxes this week. I mentioned to Carrie she should pick a bulb to take home, not knowing this was not going to be an easy task! I walked with her so I could take a photo for the farm report. She tugged and tugged and that fennel bulb would not budge. Libby gave it her best effort and out it came.
I thought it would be funny to play a trick on Deirdra during our Wednesday glean. “Why don’t you go harvest the largest fennel bulbs? You won’t need any tools, just pull them right out of the ground.” Well, my joke was a flop because she did just that, without any problem. When I confessed (oops, there’s that word again) about my intended joke, she refused to pose for my photo opp
We had lots of extra help this week from Apogee and Upward Bound.
The Upward Bound group cleaned out our pea tunnels, gleaned what was left, tarped them to eliminate weeds, and created a brand new compost pile with the vines.
On Friday, the morning Apogee group had fun helping to glean the Swiss Chard. Then we had a fennel tasting, since no one in the group had ever tasted it before. Some thumbs up, some not so much. I personally do not like the taste of licorice, but sliced and tossed with EVOO, Kosher salt, and roasted at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes until caramelized, now that’s a whole new delicious flavor profile.
They then finished the day helping uncover beds of squash, which was a tremendous help.
The afternoon Apogee group finished sheet mulching the left field hedgerow, started covering our blueberry bushes with netting, then took on bug patrol! They loved bug patrol! We will have to keep that task in mind for later groups.
The Japanese Beetles are out of control, so having a group that likes to track them down is a big help.
Besides having the two groups on Friday, we sent out our first flower bouquets. These go to the Morning Glory Natural Foods store in Brunswick for donation. Diane and Genevieve worked on the bouquets and Christine delivered them. It’s a bit of a slow start for flower picking, but by next week we should have our “Pick A Bouquet and Donate Today” sign out at the farm. It’s mostly zinnias, snapdragons, and dahlias that we are picking right now.
The Fixers were busy with Tom installing some new shelves in the garden shed, and the plastic was taken off damaged tunnel 6. Bob is usually very helpful, but this week maybe he needed a break. I caught him lying down on the job.
Carmen and Sadie arrived sporting matching G2G t-shirts. They helped me move tarps and sandbags, then took on some much needed weeding. Thanks, Sadie. I think you were our youngest volunteer this week. Tops on her list was feeding cabbage leaves to the goats and bottom on her list was leaving the farm! Nice!
Sivi stopped by and showed us a couple of methods to increase our production of amaranth and sweet potato leaves. She lost all her sweet potato plants to cold weather, so we shared some cuttings from ours with her. Sivi is from the Congo and is learning how to grow vegetables in Maine. You are not the only one, Sivi!
On Saturday, our friend Brigitta came by to volunteer. She and Libby finished wrapping the blueberries. Mary and Amy were laying cardboard for weed suppression, while giving me their best faces? Wendy, Karin, and Andrew helped uncover more plots of squash. Thanks, gang.
We tackled lots of boring weeding jobs, too.
Erik took the saplings Burnham brought us and tackled the willow arch. It’s a great start, and we can now walk through it again. Thanks, Erik and Zuko.
It was a mixed bag of weather this week, but we were grateful for the morning cloud cover. It’s so hard to be productive in the heat and humidity.
Lastly, we have a volunteer, Amanda Vogler, who is offering yoga at the farm for the next few weeks. Starting on July 21, she will begin offering yoga classes in the red barn at the farm, and she is giving a discount to Growing to Give folks! Classes will be offered on five “Summer” Fridays, from 7:45 – 8:45 am: July 21, August 4, and September 1, 15, and 22.
The per session cost will be $15, but $10 for anyone who will be working on the farm that day or anytime that week, including volunteers, interns, and staff (props will be provided, but not mats). Amanda is an RYT-200 yoga instructor registered with the Yoga Alliance (and a volunteer at Growing to Give). FMI, please contact Amanda at coddiwompleyoga@gmail.com, on Instagram @coddiwompleyoga, or cell phone at 315-460-0931 (or John Newlin at 207-831-3259 if you have questions about the facilities, parking, etc.).
It was another busy week. Thanks to all of you who helped make it happen.
Always grateful,
Theda
