Thursday, December 16, 2010

Resting Farm

We’re finally putting the farm to rest for the winter. We harvested the last of our protected winter and African squash fruits. Now they’ll cure at least a week so their sugars develop and the fruit will be even tastier. The severe frost this past week bit many of our lettuce and cabbage plants. In the spring, we’ll break up and mix in the decomposed plants that belong in the Brassicaceae (Mustard) family to increase the health of our soil. Cabbage, collards, bok choi, and broccoli all belong in this family.

We appreciate the folks from Slow Food Le Cordon Bleu and Slow Food Emory!

Julie Shaffer, Director of Southern region Slow Food, is helping prepare veggies for market.

They mulched most of our farm paths with wood chips, and donated two bags of composted cow manure. Thank you! All-star volunteer Laquita finding worms by the handful. Thanks goes to our beautiful compost.

So now it’s time for our cover crops to take over. We have Johnny’s Fall Mix out in the field. I just took a soil sample so we know what amendments need to be added so our soil and plants will be healthy. Want to test your own soil? See the University of Georgia’s recommended steps: http://www.caes.uga.edu/Publications/displayHTML.cfm?pk_id=7440

Friday, December 10, 2010

Farm Stand Update

Our farm stand at The Atlanta Friends Meeting is off to a successful beginning. It's exciting to hear from repeat customers who are enjoying our greens at home during the week. Bunches of customers were happily buying greens for their family feasts. The Burundi women are doing a great job of setting up our farm stand, keeping track of inventory, taking payment, making change, and breaking down the farm stand. Our salad mixes and bok choi have been fast sellers. In the coming weeks, we'll be giving out a recipe for arugula pesto. We hope to see you there soon.