As the month of July came to an end, we celebrated the return of groups of children experiencing Growing to Give. Two of our Bowdoin interns, Grace and Tucker, gave farm tours and talks on food insecurity. Cooking with the produce they picked on their tour, the kids experienced the exceptional taste of freshly picked vegetables. I heard comments about Swiss chard and zucchini not being fan favorites, but Carrie won them over with her zucchini noodles and every plate was clean! One little person had a “sample bag” of the vegetables she had cooked and eaten so she could go home and recreate the dish for her mom. I think we might have made a lasting impression.
We also had a group of Hannaford interns spend most of Thursday with us. Some had never spent any time working in a garden. The interns harvested and cleaned the rest of our beautiful Music garlic. This garlic will be saved for our October planting, for sale, and for donation. We had broccoli ready as a succession crop for that plot. That is now planted and hopefully ready for a September harvest. Thank you, Hannaford.
Our tomatoes are beginning to turn red, yellow and purple! It is always so satisfying to send these out into the community. To me, tomatoes are one of the fruits that taste best eaten right off the vine on a warm summer day. Sending these off with the gleaners makes everyone smile. WIth the ripening of tomatoes comes the daily ritual of looking for those darn tomato hornworms. Carrie has a unique way of collecting them which I had to share. Yuck.
Onions are now being harvested and added to donation boxes. Last year we grew a bunching onion that flowered and we saved the seed to start seedlings this spring. It seems to be growing just as High Mowing Seed described: tall, dark green, vigorous stalks. It was listed as a perennial, but the plants I left in the ground did not overwinter. I hope to be able to collect seed again and try some in one of our new tunnels.
Well, July flew by and I can’t believe we have already started to plant cover crops to prepare for next year! But, we still have lots more summer to enjoy and lots more veggies to pick! Let’s do it!
Our fundraiser is coming up next week starting on August 10th. More info on the website and it’s not too late to join. The week ends with our Farmyard Jam: an annual celebration at the farm for all ages. We still need some help with the Jam so if you would be able to volunteer for a 2 hour shift, please email our Development Assistant, julia@growingtogive.farm!
Thanks and I hope to see you next week!
~ Theda