Week 10, Spring ‘21
By Remi Welbel
It’s our tenth week here and our ideas are budding like our fruit trees.
On Monday, we dove into a new week with our All Hands Meeting! We shared our goals and plans for the week, determining what planting, weeding, and organizational development should happen. After adjourning, we set out to build trellises for our peas, pH the strawberry test plots, finalize our summer orientation this weekend, and organize the shed.
For dinner, Gavi and Shachar made chickpea stew, zaatar buns, and curried rice.
On Tuesday, we gathered around the table for a quick meeting and then set to work! First, we prepared for transplanting by bringing plants out of the greenhouse to harden them. When we harden plants, we bring them outside during the daytime and bring them back in at night to adjust them to the outdoor climate. Then, we headed to work on weeding the Gan Ha’Ezim (Goat Garden), strawberry plots, and Gan Nes (Miracle Garden). For research, we collected soil cores from the corn and hay test plots and then extracted water from the samples. Inside, we continued working on updating our Work Handbook, which will serve as a guiding tool for our incoming summer cohort of apprentices. In the afternoon, the article I wrote about the genesis of Zumwalt Acres for Alma got published! It is so exciting to be able to share our story!
For dinner, Tuomas and I made baked falafel, hummus, spinach, and chopped veggie salad from our garden, and roasted sweet potatoes.
On Wednesday, we met for a team meeting and then headed outside to conduct pH testing in the strawberry plots and continue weeding all the beds. Then, we began transplanting kale, broccoli, cabbage, and romaine lettuce from the greenhouse into the Gan Ha’Ezim. Inside, we continued updating the Work Handbook and prepared our water samples for alkalinity testing. We also met with the Chief Strategy Officer of Dayenu, a Jewish climate activist organization, to share our work and learn how we can bolster their work. We will be starting our own Dayenu Circle, which are small groups of people working on climate action, at Zumwalt Acres. If you are interested in joining a Dayenu Circle near you or starting your own, check out these resources. At night, Sophia and Jesse led our context conversation on the U.S.’ role in climate action, Biden’s Infrastructure Bill, and how we can be agents of change in the movement. Check out the Daily podcast “Can the U.S. Win Back Its Climate Credibility?” and these two articles from the Grist and Young Evangelicals For Climate Action on climate change from the perspective of evangelical Christians.
For dinner, Brendan and Sophia made vegan enchiladas, black beans, spiced rice, and cabbage salad.
On Thursday, we gathered for a brief meeting and returned to transplanting in Gan Ha’Ezim and Gan Nes. Then we headed to the research trees in our food forest to measure their growth and pH of their soil. These trees have varying application rates of biochar in their soil mixes. In continually monitoring their growth, we can learn about the impacts of biochar on tree health and soil pH. Inside, we met with our research advisor to talk about titrations and titrated all of our water samples from our soil cores to determine their alkalinity. Then, we finished updating our Work Handbooks and wrote and submitted two grant applications. In the evening, we celebrated JR’s birthday with an asparagus-themed surprise party! We had dinner outside complete with asparagus decorations and asparagus seedling centerpieces.
For dinner, Gavi and I made flatbread with fresh pesto from our garden and watermelon radishes, chickpea and lentil stew, salad, and fruit salad.
On Friday, we shared our goals at our team meeting and set out to work on reinforcing the fence in the Gan Ha’Ezim. Then we prepared a bed across the road and planted wild perennial flowers. From the greenhouse, we took out more kale and lettuce for hardening and finished transplanting from yesterday. In the afternoon, we got an email from Kate Wersan from the Savanna Institute updating us on the agroforestry policy memo we wrote in the fall. The policy memo is a prep document that was used by agroforestry experts at a recent conference held at Harvard University. Kate explained that our memo is now percolating through D.C., and the Savanna Institute was contacted by policy analysts from the House Ag. Committee interested in knowing what can be done to expand agroforestry! It is so exciting to see the impact of our work and we are excited to get more involved in policy work in the future.
For Shabbat, we sang Kabbalat Shabbat songs and Shachar and Hannah made Israeli couscous with dried cherries and chickpeas, spiced potatoes, lentil soup, cabbage salad, squash and chickpea salad, and challah.