Week 4, Spring ‘21
By Remi Welbel
It’s our fourth week here and we are feeling as rooted as our newly planted strawberries.
Before I delve into our regularly scheduled programming, I want to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who has contributed to our Spring Tree Dedication Fundraiser. Truly, it means the world to us to have your support and kind words of encouragement.
On Monday, we kicked off our week with our All Hands Meeting! We went around the table and shared our goals for the week, how we’re feeling in our working group roles, and, most importantly, what crayon color we feel captures our essence. After adjourning, we ventured outside to start a biochar burn and root our currant shrubs alongside our growing apple saplings. While we rotated tending to the burn, the rest of us got to work planting our baby strawberries. Truly, we brought new meaning to “divide and conquer.” While Jesse spaced out our test plots, ensuring that the plants were equally spaced, I uprooted the heeled in strawberry plants, Brendan dug small holes (six per plot), Shachar filled each hole with a scoop of compost, Gavi began planting the strawberries, and Lilly covered each planted strawberry with a layer of compost. After six hours of alternating planting roles and listening to Lilly’s strawberry-themed playlist, we finally finished rooting all 285 plants! We worked together so seamlessly and had such a wonderful time getting our strawberries in the ground.
For dinner, Shachar made kasha varnishkes with roasted broccoli, boiled up the leftover sweet potato gnocchi Lilly and I made on Sunday and made a big salad.
On Tuesday, the glorious sunny weather of Monday did not stick around, but we were determined to weigh, volume, and activate our biochar, and conduct our test plot pH testing. After finishing our outdoor work in the drizzling rain and looming storm, we returned to the house. Inside, we got to work on shelterbelt planning. Originally, we were going to plant chestnut and white pine trees in our shelterbelt, but after extensive soil testing, we discovered that our soil may not be conducive to supporting chestnuts that require well-drained soil. Our new plan is to plant pecan trees, pawpaw trees, hazelnut trees, serviceberry shrubs, American Basswood trees, and pine trees, with some experimental chestnut trees. Later, we had a meeting to discuss future farm planning, including the potential of bringing on chickens or bees. For dinner, Brendan and Jesse made sweet and sour tofu with rice.
On Wednesday, we gathered around the table to share our goals and got to work! In the morning, we finalized our environmental and regenerative agriculture-themed Haggadah, and sent it to get printed. We are so excited to begin our Pesach celebration at our seders on Saturday and Sunday night! In the afternoon, we took measurements for our newly planted trees. We will be taking measurements once a month to monitor their growth and compare the growth rates of trees that are planted in differing concentrations of biochar. Later, we harvested spinach from our raised bed and thinned our growing asparagus. At the end of the workday, we met with our research advisor to learn about our new research equipment, a flux chamber that measures CO2 emissions, and a soil sampling tool that simultaneously pulls a water sample while leaving behind a dehydrated soil sample to be analyzed for soil organic carbon content and calcium, magnesium, chloride, phosphorus, and nitrogen content.
On Thursday, we came together for our morning meeting and discussed our daily goals and what our favorite sounds are (rain and cooking sounds seem to top our lists!). Then, excited to try our new research equipment, we ventured outside to gather soil samples in the fields, and conduct pH sampling in our strawberry test plots. Back inside, we made progress writing grants, organizing our farm budget, getting everything in order for our shelterbelt, updating our website, and planning for our Shiitake mushroom cultivation!
For dinner, Lilly and Gavi made a chametz-packed (leavened food that is prohibited during the Jewish holiday of Passover) meal complete with miso tofu, Chinese-inspired pancakes, and stir-fried cabbage and mushrooms.
On Friday, we woke up ready to eat all the chametz in the house in preparation for Pesach. In the morning, we all got to work on anything that needed to get done before beginning our celebrations. In the afternoon, we all worked together to clean and Kasher the house for Pesach and get ready for Shabbat dinner.
In the evening, we had a FLOUR POWER themed Shabbat dinner! Jesse made challah and Shachar and Hannah made chametz-filled focaccia, falafel, hummus, and Israeli salad. We ate and sang together outside around a blazing fire.