Harvest Day at the farm was fabulous. We started the morning
at 9 a.m. and were blessed with a beautiful sunny (but not too hot) June day. One of our volunteers
Sonam who just graduated with a Pre-Med degree, brought her two brothers to help
us navigate the parking in the mowed pasture. Charlotte and William did a great
job greeting everyone at the information booth. They signed in over 100 guests.
I met some wonderful families and saw some old friends. I even had a niece and
her two children from Colorado fly in to visit us.
It was no surprise to see the children gravitate toward the
chicken petting area and then soon after, thanks to John Andrews our tractor
operator, the families took hayrides from the farm to my neighbor’s place to
see his cows. They even got to see a baby calf, how exciting!
Michael, our multitalented local farmer/musician provided lovely
music for all and he brought beautiful
produce from his
organic farm for purchase. Our gardens were open for harvesting. Carie Olsen
who has been with us for six years and who is a natural at making things
grow, assisted everyone in the fields. We had cucumbers, corn, green beans and
peas, squash, zucchini, eggplant, rosemary and basil ready for picking. Thank
you to Ann and Sonam for assisting customers with weighing and packaging the
harvested produce.
Actually
we had almost all of the Olsen family here that day. Carie’s three daughters
Ana, Kera, and Maia handed out complimentary organic lemonade and apples to help
keep everyone cool.
Our guest speakers were the highlight of the day. Laura
brought an actual working beehive and she and Hal Ward gave such an interesting
and engaging talk on the habits and instinctual behaviors of honey bees.
My sister Pat discussed the science of vermiculture which is
composting with worms. She provided a live exhibit, a worm box that generates
worm tea. Worm tea is a rich natural fertilizer and our plants at the farm love
it!
Trey Lemon who is studying to be a biologist and also works
at the farm part time, explained to our guests our latest composting and
mulching venture with Gulfstream. Every Friday Trey collects several five-gallon
buckets of Gulfstream’s coffee grounds that are a waste product from their
employee cafeterias. We use the coffee grounds in our compost and also as mulch
to control the weeds. We are still in the discovery phase of this project but
are keeping our fingers crossed that we can recycle waste from our community
and at the same time improve the health of our soil.
It sure was nice to have an excuse to set aside the gloves
and hoe for a while to have such nice folks visit us. I wish all our box
members could have been here. I personally want to thank everyone who came out
to celebrate this special day.
My many thanks,
Shirley
