At press time we're grateful for thunder, lightning and the ensuing rain Monday night. Still the fields need more!
One of the imperatives of our farm is to train farmers. We count ourselves in on that. Every year we're learning how to farm better. How to best take care of the soil and the plants and fruit it yields. In addition, we've got a staff member (recent Queens graduate) and a Coop student in Horticulture from Kingston Secondary School, working with us. And, there's many Workshares and volunteers who come out to get a taste of farm life.
Our staff and student have been learning crop succession over the past two weeks, using the soil-blocker and seeding trays of seedlings ready for the next round of planting. A hallmark of the market garden we run is we are constantly seeding and planting new crops from now until August, as we aim to have supply of food for our table and members shares all the way through until frost. While many gardeners put in a garden May 24 weekend and then look forward to a harvest after some water and weeding, a market garden is in a constant state of renewal, one crop replacing another in the bed space available (we use 40 and 60' beds).
While harvesting radishes last week, one of our Workshares remarked they had not seen radishes growing before, and interacting with them by harvesting was new to them. These insights into how plants grow and what crops look like in the ground shorten the distance between field and fork. They unite eaters and the earth. In such observations new relationships unfold between humans and all the other beings we live with. We delight in these insights.
May your interaction with the earth increase as you munch the fruits which came in your share.
