Week 5

Monday, June 15 2015

MORNING WORKERS: JAMES, BOTA, CYRIL (6.30AM-10.30AM)FARIDA (7-11AM), RACHEL (812PM)
We have a new slogan for the farm: pick strawberries till your hands fall offThree
rows. 10 garbage bags of rotten stuff. 6 ziplock bags of good material. Level of
sanity close to zero.
We made strawberry preserves!!!! (7 half pint jars, recipe on page 39 of the Blue
Book. The Nutrition Lab is awesome)))))
AFTERNOON WORKERS: BOTA (11-3PM)
Weeded the herb garden and attempted to clean up the second flower bed from the
grass. The flowers that we have planted about 3 weeks ago have sprouted very
nicely. Time and good conditions and these babies will bloom)))
Freezing the rest of the strawberries.
Tuesday, June 16 2015
MORNING WORKERS: JAMES, CYRIL, BOTA (6-10AM), RACHEL AND FARIDA (7-11AM)
Picked Raspberries both at the farm and the garden
Weeded potatoes and melons at the farm
Picked the blueberries
Weeded around the rhubarb
AFTERNOON WORKERS: BOTA (11-3PM)
Pulled the grass away from the blueberry bushes
Froze the berries that were picked in the morning.
Notes:
When freezing blueberries and raspberries you want to
first freez
+++++++++++++++e them on baking tray to avoid
chunks of frozen nothingness. Once the berries are frozen
you can transfer them into a bag.

Watson has been tilling the pumpkin beds on the farm and
used the lawn mower to cut along the blueberries.
Wednesday, June 17 2015
MORNING WORKERS: JAMES, CYRIL (6-9AM), BOTA (6-10AM), FARIDA AND RACHEL (7-11AM)
Weeded around beans and peas
Picked Strawberries
AFTERNOON WORKERS: BOTA (11-3PM)
Cleaned-up the old mushy leaves around greens
Cultivated onions and Lettuces (Thanks to Rachels help)
Made a Garden Map
Green and red signs to mark the rows ready for picking
FACULTY YOU-PICK-IT DAY (ALL WORKERS FROM 6-7PM)
Notes: Some of the people arrived as early as 5.30pm
We had a pretty good turn-out of about 30-35 people
throughout the evening.
Here are the things that were important when talking to
people:
-explain the green vs red row marks. Green means
ready to pick. Red (and orange, since we run out of red
color) means it is not ready yet.
-teach HOW TO PICK the produce. For example with green
vegetable you want to either use a knife or scissors to cut
the leaves at the very bottom (swiss chard)
- take leaves from multiple plants and not from ONLY one
plant.
-when guiding people through the garden it was beneficial
to mention the cooking possibilities with some of the
plants (kale, mizuna)

-Marilynn brought fried kale, spinach and swiss chard

leaves. It was such a hit! For the future we might want to
have samples of cooked produce from the garden.
-Rachel wants to talk to Vivian and see if he would be
willing to play music that their SOFIA project wrote in the
past. There are some songs about gardening))))
In general, people really enjoyed the event. It was a lot of
fun to have everyone talking, exchanging gardening stories
and enjoying each others company.
Thursday, June 18 2015
MORNING WORKERS: JAMES AND BOTA 6-10AM, FARIDA, RACHEL, CYRIL 7-11AM
Picking Berries (strawberries. Raspberries, blueberries)
AFTERNOON WORKERS: BOTA (10-2PM)
Transferred blueberries and raspberries from baking trays to bags in the freezer
Weeded peppers, eggplant and potato beds
Put cages on peppers
Weeded garlic bed and put stakes to support some of the soft neck garlic
Friday, June 19 2015
Morning Workers: James, Bota (6-10am), Cyril, Farida, Rachel (7-11am)
Farmers Market (7-10)
Tilled Asparagus bed and weeded first two rows
AFTERNOON WORKERS: BOTA (12-4PM)
Raised hills on the asparagus beds