Week 4, Fall ‘21
On Monday the squad took to the fields to start the week off strong. Maya, Maranda and Eric did a walk-through of the farm to see what needed to be done in the upcoming week. Eric then split off to deal with a drip irrigation dilemma while Maya and Maranda harvested tomatoes, jalapeños, shoshitos, eggplants, and lunchbox peppers. Joey, Marya, and Isabelle worked on soil cores and ph measurements in the strawberry patch all morning. One thing we’re all learning: research is rigorous! In the afternoon Maya and Maranda packed up a plethora of produce for market while Eric pruned tomatoes. Isabelle, Joey and Marya continued doing soil cores. For dinner Maranda and Marya made a rescue dinner of veggies that weren’t pretty enough for market. They made radish green pesto, stuffed eggplants, roasted potatoes, and sauteed rainbow chard. All veggies deserve love!
Tuesday morning the team split up to get a few tasks done: Maya drove to Watseka to drop off some produce, Marya and Isabelle teamed up to take some soil cores in the strawberry patch, Eric pruned the tomato plants, and Maranda got to work weeding and thinning the beds in Goat Garden. Later in the morning, Maya and Eric got on a zoom call to work out some market-related questions. Then Maranda joined them (woohoo horticulture squad all together!) for a composting webinar, which has got us pondering the best way to implement compost into our lives and our farm. In the afternoon, Isabelle and Marya began setting up a weather station and a dust monitor, both of which will be big! for our research. Maya and Eric turned their attention to the drip irrigation system in ATR garden, which had been, well, not dripping. So, they uncovered all the lines, inspected each line for damage, and patched up the holes they could find. Inside, Marya began working on mapping all the trees on the farm--we are very excited to hopefully one day share the maps she creates! For dinner, we had rigatoni with fresh tomato sauce, roasted tofu, and a loaded kale salad prepared by Maya and Marya.
On Wednesday Eric harvested tomatoes, watermelon, okra, and the last of the summer cucumbers before beginning the big task of weeding and mulching the snap peas in ATR. Maya and Maranda brought a bounty of watermelon, eggplants, and bell peppers to the Sheldon Food Pantry while Marya, Isabelle, and Joey fluxed. Right before lunch everyone met Eric at ATR and helped weed because #teamworkmakesthedreamwork! In the afternoon Joey continued fluxing and Marya did an agroforestry walk-through. Isabelle attempted the arduous task of building a weather station and dust monitor. If you thought building IKEA furniture was hard, try building a weather station from scratch! Maranda, Maya, and Eric continued weeding and trellising the snap pea rows, and then Maya fixed some more holes in the drip irrigation system to make sure our veggies get the water they need and deserve. After work the crew paid a visit to our friendly neighborhood cows to feed them grass and cucumbers. Nooch/Shlomi hung out with the cows too--frolicking through their pasture and catching dragonflies along the way. For dinner, Maya and Isabelle made a loaded kale salad with winter squash, roasted tofu, seared oyster mushrooms, and chickpeas as well as potato and onion Bourekas which are a traditional Sephardic Jewish/Israeli dish that Isabelle’s family makes on the eve of Yom Kippur. Big thank you to Isabelle for sharing her yummy tradition with us! We finished the night with a screening of the film Twilight -- a cultural touchstone that certain members of the cohort had not yet been acquainted with. New Moon is next, and Eric and Joey are very excited about the prospect of a movie centering werewolves.
Thursday we took the day off work so that those fasting for Yom Kippur could observe the holiday. For the break-fast dinner, Maya and Eric made carrot and butternut squash soup with fresh focaccia (using a dough that Maya had been meticulously tending for two days--an endeavour which yielded her first successful bread of the month!). And Isabelle threw in her family’s traditional break-the-fast kugel.
Friday morning most of the crew -- Maya, Maranda, Lexi, and Isabelle -- set out on a harvesting mission. Shoshito, bell pepper, tomato, eggplant, and Jalapeno galore! Joey and the trusty Field King ™ backpack were on pest control duty (not today squash bugs!). After the harvest, Eric led the group out to ATR to weed and mulch what was formerly the cucumber bed to make space for our snap pea babies. They will be growing tall and strong up the trellises in no time! In the afternoon, Eric, Isabelle, Joey, and Eric continued on snap pea bed preparations in ATR, while the communications team (consisting of just Maya and Maranda -- hi!) put their heads together on some very important instagram and facebook work. After that, we made time to prepare the sukkah for our upcoming Sukkot celebrations and harvest festival. Maranda and Eric made beans, rice, and guacamole for our Twilight themed Shabbat dinner, which was complete with a hearty debate on werewolves vs. vampires which soon branched out into team Edward vs. team Jacob (vs. team Alice??).
