Week 5, Fall ‘21
On an overcast, stormy Monday morning it was all hands on deck for a bountiful harvest of eggplants, lunchbox peppers, shishito peppers, tomatoes, jalapeños, bell peppers, okra, and our newest crop to sprout….trilogy beans! When the harvest was complete, Isabelle headed out to mail some very important soil samples to Yale (#researchgirlboss), and everyone else finished weeding and mulching our snap pea sprouts in ATR. In the afternoon Maranda and Maya first did a horticulture walkthrough and inspected every garden bed thoroughly before packing up a plethora of veggies for market. Fun fact: the entire discography of Phoebe Bridgers is the perfect music to accompany the sorting of tomatoes and washing of potatoes. Isabelle and Marya worked on rhizones while Eric continued harvesting. He then met up with Joey to crunch numbers and determine just how many pounds of produce the farm has grown and harvested since its inception. You’ll have to attend our upcoming virtual ZumGala to find out just what the number is but, spoiler alert, it’s a lot! In the evening Joey and Marya made a delightful couscous salad with roasted eggplant, red peppers, and zucchini as well as crispy oven baked tofu.
Tuesday was another rainy day so the crew took the time to do important indoor work. Maranda worked on community outreach and social media initiatives, Eric did seed inventory, Joey made harvest logs and garden bed logs, while Isabelle and Marya did titrations in the good ol’ shed. Maya delivered produce for market and then worked on garden bed logs and updates to our website. The vibes were productive and cozy all around! In the afternoon, Isabelle and Marya finished up their titration work, while Maya and Maranda worked on some communications and media tasks and planning. Then the horticulture team (helmed by Eric and filled out by Maya and Maranda) took advantage of a brief dry window to head outside and take measurements for fall crop planning. For dinner on Tuesday, Maya and Isabelle made roasted eggplant and tomato soup, fresh bread, and jalapeno poppers (yes, we know that is a dissonant meal, but the folks wanted the poppers!).
Wednesday morning, Maranda, Maya, Eric, and Isabelle began (and finished!) the tedious task of harvesting green beans, while Joey and Marya did an agroforestry walkthrough to check in on all our little tree babies and then harvested eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers (yes, the two of them did all of that while we were still harvesting green beans…). Once we had finished up with all the harvesting, we headed inside for a restoring lunch before our canning workshop. Lauri headed over to teach us the ins and outs of canning (or rather mason-jarring) tomatoes and before guiding us through the process. We spent the afternoon sorting, cutting, blanching, peeling, mixing, and jarring, and we came out the other side with twelve (!) jars of tomatoes that will keep us going once our tomato plants have stopped producing. For dinner, Joey and Eric made fried rice with sauteed kale. And then after dinner, we all gathered in the living room for an exclusive (ooo la la) screening of the documentary Seasons of Change on Henry's Farm and then Q&A with the filmmakers. We highly recommend you watch this film when it becomes widely available.
On Thursday Maranda, Eric, Joey, Marya, and Lexi got to work on some needed garden beautification-- weeding, pruning, mulching, spraying, you name it, they were doing it! Meanwhile, Maya (resident film guy) began filming folks speaking about life and work here at ZA for a fun and funky video we are putting together. The whole endeavor really brought to light Joey’s knack for background acting, Isabelle’s potential for a children’s science show hosting gig, Marya’s talent for voiceover work, Eric’s impeccable ability to memorize lines, and Maranda’s future as a stage mom. The filming continued into the afternoon, but the crew simultaneously got to work on storing hay, fluxing, and fall crop planning. For dinner, Maranda and Lexi made a tuscan kale, tomato, white bean pasta dish with a lemon and sage oil.
On Friday, everyone harvested in the morning because those veggies weren’t gonna pick themselves! We harvested the usual tomatoes, eggplants, and a variety of peppers as well as filet beans and trilogy beans. After the beans (the most tedious of them all) had all been harvested, we split up. Marya, Maranda, and Lexi continued to harvest, and Maya, Joey, Eric, and Isabelle began the task of preparing beds to seed radishes that will be used in our basalt application research in ATR. It was hard work, but we gladly did it all in the name of brassicas and basalt. In the afternoon, we went on a surprise field trip led by JR to the old preserved schoolhouse that his great grandmother was a teacher at. “I was scared by some hooligans,” said Maranda Raskin when asked her opinion of the historically fascinating yet spooky schoolhouse. She was, of course, referring to her fellow fall cohort members goading her into a jump scare, those silly geese. Overall, it was an enriching and interesting experience. Thanks JR! When everyone got back from the trip, the crew split up again to attend to some important tasks. Isabelle, Joey, Eric, and Marya finished up radish planting in ATR while Maya and Maranda completed some last minute communications work. For dinner, Maya and Isabelle made brie, tomato, & basil pasta, and a fluffy crust cast iron pizza. Italian cuisine galore! Mamma Mia!
