Sunday's work day was a big success. We had about eighteen volunteers, including a returning member of Children's Discovery Museum's Summer of Service program and members of Indigenous Permaculture, a San Francisco-based organization dedicated to community food security through sustainable practices. There was talk about having them help us out this spring by leading a workshop on their growing practices and/or using their techniques in our garden. Many other new faces have also been appearing, mostly by word-of-mouth and via the internet.
A common topic of conversation among volunteers this week was the excitement felt over how quickly everything is growing. Each week everything looks so different. The corn and sunflowers dominate the garden with their increasing height, seedlings we've sewn are now plants reaching for the sky, and there are always more and more tomatoes (side note- the tomatoes are absolutely delicious).
At times there almost seems to be more food than we can handle. We have been harvesting about 60 pounds of tomatoes 2-3 times a week. But we always find them a home at Martha's Kitchen or Good Karma and during our lunch break on work days, where we feast on the fruit of out labor.
New to the garden this week are three varieties of radish growing among our freshly planted Swiss chard, lettuce planted among the broccoli, and a trellis for peas to climb up with rows of carrots planted alongside of them. A couple volunteers even dedicated part of their Labor Day to return to the garden and make sure all the new seedlings and transplants had enough water to make it through the heat and continue.
Our small section of earth is really growing now as we are all coming together over common interest and creating a community of food.
written by Ryan Smith
On Saturday the Mercury News printed an awesome article about us! They even posted a video! Check it out:
http://www.mercurynews.com/homeandgarden/ci_9998306
... and eating and eating and eating. We have been harvesting about 100lbs (total) of cucumbers and zucchinis every week! The tomatoes are slowly starting to produce (my mouth is watering just typing about tomatoes). There haven't been enough yet to donate to Marthas Kitchen, but any week now the tomatoes will join the ranks of the cukes and zukes (which are being donated regularly). Also on the way are green beans, corn, peppers, and watermelon.
In other news, we are having a big workday this Sunday! Yeah, yeah we do have workdays every Sunday - but there is soooo much to do right now. We are going to be building a worm bin, planting broccoli, turning the compost pile, double digging, and having a great time! So if you have never been out to the farm, this would be an excellent time to get off your butt and come out to the park! You can find more info and directions on the get involved page.
On Tuesday we hosted a great group of middle schoolers from Summer of Service at the Children's Discovery Museum. They got lots of stuff done, including harvesting about 50lbs of zucchini which we promptly donated to Martha's Kitchen. The staff at Martha's Kitchen was very excited to receive our fresh produce, since they usually they get old leftover stuff.
There were urban gardeners (thirteen of 'em) all over the farm yesterday. We prepped the walkways with layers of newspaper and wheel barreled loads of mulch to spread out. The farm is now weed controlled and has a delightful woodsy scent.
You could hear giggling and see lots of smiles as we gazed on how quickly the farm is growing. The tomato plants are so tall that gardeners disappeared among them.
The sunflower by the gate is now knee high and is growing the green part of its floret. The zucchinis are growing in abundance and will be ready for harvest by special guests.
The snacks were very tasty, too. Thank you, Erica, for the snappy peas and tangy apricots. The juicy cantaloupe and goodies were refreshing treat brought to us by Annie. Hannah's homemade cookies were very delicious.
It was great seeing new faces at the farm such as Judy, Daniel, and Christina. Returning farmers, Mike, Jessica, Mason, Angela, Mark Anthony, Lisa and Kari, flexed their farming muscles, too! Thanks a lot...Go Team!!!
Oh yeah! The hike afterward at Grant Ranch was awesome!
Food What?!! You got to say it with attitude and soul, try it. Doron Comerchero runs this project under the Life Lab Science Program located at UCSC. We were very honored to go see them in action on June 2nd. This wonderful group of fellow farmers are empowering the youth by using sustainable agriculture as a vehicle. It was so inspiring to witness the High School students making awesome decisions that guided us through each project. We played an ice breaker game at the beginning which got everyone to have fun with each other without hesitation.
We got to harvest spinach, wrestle blackberry vines, strategize against the flea beetles, walk through the zoo garden, be constantly refreshed by the ocean view and energy that each person exuded.
The spinach was used to make Spanicopita (spelling?) This was one of my favorite parts. There is an outdoor, fully equipped kitchen and we all prepped and rolled up the yummy spinach blend in the filo dough and it cooked in the clay oven, while we reconnected with each other with "Straight Talk."
Now, Veggielution has been buzzing around with joy all day with them and we want to jar up a little piece of that and bring it into the city, back to our farm at Emma Prusch. We know that this can help blend the lines of socio-economic class and bring everyone onto the same ground, where we have just planted some more sunflower seeds.
Come out and farm with us!!
This is Kari Olandese, one of the Americorps volunteer. I am a little nervous to write this blog and I will try to not babble you to sleep! I will try to get to the taproot of each subject...Food What?!! Experience---Growth spurts---and a little more.
The past two weeks have been intense at the farm.
Sunday, May 25
We spent the day planting yarrow along the fence. The yarrow was donated by Curtis Horticulture, a native landscaping company that is providing a lot of support to our project in the form of consultation for our drip system and native pollinator plants.
We also built our new tomato trellis out of t-posts and recycled twine. That day, the trenches were also dug for the irrigation system, which entirely consumed the coming week.
This Past Week
This was the first week that our new Americorps volunteers Kari Olander and Monica Lisa Benavides were on board with the project. They are already doing an amazing job, having helped Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday building the mainlines for the drip system.
The drip system is built is using 3/4" valves and pvc mainlines and pressure compensating dripperline. Materials were purchased at Lane Irrigation in Campbell. The staff at Lane have been very helpful in making sure we have everything we need.
In addition, San Jose Conservation Corps
Yesterday
Around 10 volunteers came out to help with assembling the rest of the drip system, filling in trenches, and other tasks. The system will hopefully be working this week, after some minor connection and water pressure problems are resolved. At 7pm, some volunteers arrived for a planning meeting where we began the group conversation about our organizations Long Term Goals.
Though it was finals weekend and many volunteers weren't able to come out, we still got a good deal of work done this past Sunday. Several of us worked 7:30-11:30am and 5-8pm preparing a bed, planting cucumbers, watermelons, and a ton of flower seeds along the fence.
Basically, all the major crops that we'll be planting for now are in the ground. But this is where the work really begins. Now that summer's starting, it's a great time to come out and get involved!
Check out our volunteer page.
This week's heatwave has been a dangerous time for our new zucchini, tomato and pepper transplants. But it looks like everything is gonna make it!
We have a lot of work that needs to be done this Sunday. We will be transplanting watermelons and cucumbers, as well as watering, weeding, double digging and seeding sunflowers.
We will have two shifts on this Sunday to avoid the midday heat:
Morning: 8am-11am Evening: 5pm-8pm
Please arrive on time so that we can work together as a team!
Update on the plants
The compost that we're using is a little bit "hot" still - meaning that it isn't completely composted. Because of this, our plants were not getting as much nitrogen as they needed and were beginning to yellow. With the heat, we needed to do something quick
Tuesday and Wednesday we fertilized using organic fertilizer and a seaweed foliar spray. We've been watering deeply, and the plants have bounced back. In fact, the tomatoes are growing like crazy! Hope to see you all this Sunday.
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