Week 2, Spring ‘21
It’s our second week back and our newly established community is becoming even tighter knit than Shachar’s impressive blanket-in-progress.
On Monday, after our morning dance, we kicked off our day with our traditional All-Hands-Team-Meeting. From completing administrative tasks to discussing our organizational values to reviewing the step-by-step process of a successful biochar burn, we really covered every topic! After our meeting, everyone put what they learned into practice with our second biochar burn of the season!
While we rotated tending to the fire, we had working group meetings to work on current projects and discuss goals for the future. Our farm management team took seed inventory and began planning seed orders for our horticulture production. In the afternoon, the policy working group joined on a call with the Soil Health Caucus Policy Subcommittee (ZA joined the Illinois Stewardship Alliance’s Soil Health Caucus in the fall). It was fascinating to learn more about initiatives such as the Fall Covers for Spring Savings program. Our education team brainstormed innovative ways of bringing our work and our research to a wider audience and ways of collaborating with our partners at Chicago Environmental Educators. During our research team meeting, Gavi gave an overview of her current research and laid out a plan for collecting and analyzing data this spring.
After a long day of work, we sat down for a beautiful dinner made by Jesse and Lilly of miso-braised carrots and turnips from our greenhouse, salad made from our greens, stir-fried tofu, and quinoa.
On Tuesday, we had a dance session in the sunshine before our lively team meeting. After our meeting, I began our biochar burn while Hannah, Sophia, and Lilly activated the past two batches.
While working groups met, we used our pH meters to test our research nursery where we will be planting strawberries when the weather allows. Meanwhile, we worked on cleaning up and planting more seeds in the greenhouse. After working in the greenhouse, we heeled the strawberries (a process of covering the seeds in soil to keep them healthy and alive while we wait to plant them until the last frost has passed). In addition to tending our strawberry seeds, we rooted our elderberries, which involves planting the bare-root plants in pots, where they will eventually be transplanted. Later, we volumed the biochar that we produced.
For dinner, Brendan and I made spaghetti squash, pesto from greenhouse greens, tomato sauce, and salad. After dinner, Brendan gave our first “hometown.” Hometowns are a beautiful way of building community and involve one person sharing about their life for an extended time. We all went to bed feeling connected and inspired.
On Wednesday, steaming mugs in hand, we gathered around the table for a quick daily goals meeting and went to work! With the Jewish holiday of Passover or Pesach, around the corner, our Spirituality, Judaism, and Interfaith working group set to work on planning for our celebrations. Keep your eyes out for a custom Zumwalt Acres Haggadah (the guiding text used at the Seder on the first two nights of Pesach)! We are so excited to find meaningful ways to engage in this spring holiday that celebrates the growing season and liberation.
Outside, we conducted more pH testing in our nursery (our new cohort members are pros by now), and took soil samples and pH tests from the plots where we will be planting our chestnut trees in our windbreak. Chestnuts are highly sensitive to pH and require the soil to be within the range of 4.5-6.5. We also built our hoops for our hoop houses which will soon house the strawberries.
In the evening, we had our first context conversation. We watched the film Sustainable, a documentary featuring Marty Travis, a 7th generation regenerative farmer in Illinois who we visited in the fall and who we continue to purchase all kinds of exciting produce and groceries from. For dinner, Gavi made a fabulous use-all-our-veggies lentil stew, roasted watermelon radishes and beets, cucumber salad, and a stunning sourdough loaf.
On Thursday, our morning check-in meeting was accompanied by savory oatmeal with sauteed greens from the greenhouse. After setting our daily goals, we set out to work! While some of us ventured into the gloomy weather to seed tomatoes, the rest of us hit our laptops.
We are so excited to begin planning a speaker series, Sowing Seeds and Spirits: Exploring the Intersection of Judaism, Faith, and Sustainable Agriculture. Through this educational series, we will be inviting speakers to share their perspectives with us and all our attendees. We can’t wait to learn from them as we grow as individuals and as an organization.
On the funding and policy side, our Policy Working Group explored Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funding opportunities to apply for. We utilized the NRCS shelterbelt cost-share program, alongside funding from the Lumpkin Family Foundation grant, to fund the trees we are planting this spring. Utilizing NRCS funding and increasing awareness around the opportunities for farmers in the Midwest is essential in pushing the needle towards regenerative practices.
Later in the day, our Education Working Group continued to explore utilizing TikTok as an accessible platform for sharing what we are doing with a broad audience and using it as a means of empowering young people to engage in regenerative agriculture and combating climate change.
In the evening, we drove down to Marty Travis’ farm, Spence Farm, to pick up our produce order. We were bustling with excitement for all the incredible local food! For dinner, Shachar, Gavi, Hannah, Sophia, and I all collaborated to make a big pot of hearty soup, roasted cabbage, cornbread, and salad with greenhouse greens.
On Friday, we woke up, danced in the sunshine, and reconvened to discuss our goals for the day. After our brief chat around the kitchen table, our apiculture team had their first meeting with JR to plan for beehive building and beekeeping. Meanwhile, our horticulture and agroforestry working groups collaborated to cover our heeled strawberries with a special cloth to protect them from the coming cold and root our apple trees (we will plant them in the ground when the weather warms up!). As these working groups teamed up, I began a biochar burn. Inside, Gavi met with her research advisor to discuss research progress.
In the afternoon, our apprenticeship working group talked through ways to support our incoming summer cohort, and began planning for fall recruitment! If you or anyone you know is interested in becoming an apprentice this fall season, keep your eyes out for our application!
In the evening, we activated our last batch of biochar and got ready for our second Shabbat at the farm. For Shabbat dinner, Gavi and Shachar made tahini roasted vegetables, couscous, split-pea soup, and zaatar challah. After singing Kabbalat Shabbat songs and eating a beautiful meal, we opened our fill jars and enjoyed our second oneg together!
It could not have been a more wonderful week at the farm! We accomplished so much and really got to come together as a community. It is so hard to believe that we’ve only been back for a week and a half! I feel so grateful to get to live, learn, and work alongside such an incredible group of people.
Shabbat Shalom!