Using the power of the sun and the power of our volunteers!
June is always a busy time for us at G2G: Getting the last of our early-season seedlings in the ground, directly seeding more carrots, amaranth and greens, getting the kinks out of our irrigation system, and trying to keep up with all that mowing!
Just as we think, “Are we going to make it?”, our summer interns arrive to give us that much needed boost of energy and enthusiasm. This year Josie and Margaret are joining us to learn about our no-till and regenerative farming methods. Our goal is to share with them the experiences and knowledge that we have accumulated over the years and give them something new to take away every day. The other upside to this arrival of new crewmembers is getting to personally know them and share laughter and ideas about the world around us, and of course those fabulous Friday potlucks!
We threw them right in on their first day to experience some gleaning. They helped us harvest more rhubarb to add to Amelia’s mobile food pantry truck. This year’s rhubarb total weight was over 300 pounds.
Another June task is terminating all that winter rye cover crop that we planted last fall. The rye looks so glorious when you drive down the driveway to the farm. On a day with a bit of a breeze it reminds me of what the prairies must have looked like out west, an ocean of grass! Ok, I digress from what needs to happen to that lovely vision. It has to be terminated. Our seedlings will get planted directly into that blanket of dried straw mulch. Josie and Margaret crimped a plot of rye grass and because it was going to be 82 degrees that day we solarized it with clear plastic.
If all goes well, it will be killed off in ONE day instead of two weeks with occultation (a black plastic tarp). We have always wanted to do this and all of us were so excited it worked! Here are some photos of our accomplishment!
We had 15 engineers from Wright-Pierce in Topsham volunteer at the farm last week. I had a vision for our new annual beneficial flower garden. How does my right brain convey to 15 left brain engineers what I would like to see happen? A diagram with measurements is what I thought might be useful. When they arrived, I explained our plan for the morning, and told them about my diagram. “We love diagrams!” I added that I have measurements too. “We love measurements!”
The results are fantastic and here are more photos to prove it. Thanks to all of the Wright-Pierce team for making a blank slate turn into what will be a burst of color for everyone, including our beneficial insect volunteers.
On Saturday we planted 100 winter squash directly into that solarized rye plot. This is so great because it gives us an extra two weeks at the other end of the season to not have to worry about a possible early frost. Thanks to our Saturday regulars for helping get those seedlings planted and the start of our watermelon plantings before the rain storm.
As I mentioned earlier, June is a busy month. If any of you have a spare couple of hours to help us finish up our plantings, we would greatly appreciate it. There is a continual growing need to grow fresh local food for our community. We could never do this without all your help, so thank you ahead of time.
It’s hard to look beyond June given all there is to do, but July will be busy too!, Our Farmyard Jam is happening Saturday, July 20th. Read more about that (and buy tickets!) HERE.
Always grateful,
Theda