Week 6, Fall ‘21
Before we get into the regularly scheduled farm journal content, we would love to tell you a little bit about our incredible Sukkot Harvest Celebration we hosted on Saturday 9/25. During this interfaith event, we invited a small group of community members and friends to join us for lunch in the Sukkah, and we gave a farm and research tour. During golden hour, we gathered around in a circle on the front lawn and had a West African drumming and dancing lesson led by Victoria and her friends from New Rhythm Arts Center in Rogers Park. We learned about the history of the djembe and dundun drums and how to play them all together. Thank you so much to Victoria for sharing her expertise with us! After drumming and dancing, our neighbor and friend, DeAnna, presented us with a tablecloth with the Zumwalt Acres logo printed onto it as a gift. Inspired by her Wicca circle’s tradition, DeAnna recommended that we all sign the tablecloth and use it every year at Sukkot to create an ongoing physical commemoration of the holiday and our community. Thank you so much DeAnna! For dinner we ate chili, corn bread, zucchini bread, chickpea salad, and rice in the Sukkah. Cantorial soloist, Leah, led us in prayer. For dessert we shared a scrumptious pumpkin cake that DeAnna made. After dinner we made a campfire, and Leah led us in a havdalah ceremony and folk songs. Sitting underneath the stars with our voices joining in harmony, the glow of the campfire and the strength of community warmed our hearts. Overall, our inaugural Sukkot festival was a success; we hope to do it again next year. To top off the already eventful day, a tiny black kitten followed Marya home from a late night walk. We named her Phoebe Lilith, and she is now a welcomed member of the ZA family. Stay tuned for Phoebe content on our Instagram page along with our regular Nooch/Shlomi and Goop/Moishe pics :)
On Monday morning, everyone helped out for our favorite activity….harvesting green beans! After harvesting, Marya and Isabelle got material quotes and tested out pH probes for research. In the afternoon Maranda, Maya, and Marya packed an order for market and sorted 20 pounds of….green beans! Those legumes are quite a handful, but the people want the beans, and we must deliver. Joey and Eric worked on harvest logs, and Isabelle fluxed, before everyone joined up to finish packing beans. It’s all about the beans! Maranda has set the intention to be gluten and dairy free “for the week,” so, for dinner, she and Maya went for big veggies -- blistered shoshitos, roasted eggplant & onion, garlic green beans (!), and soy sauce bok choy -- with quinoa and marinated tofu.
On a misty Tuesday morning Maya delivered a hefty market order to Grey’s Farm, while Maranda, Eric, and Isabelle harvested tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and winter squash. After harvesting, Marya and Eric measured the growth of the trees in the agroforestry project. Isabelle and Maranda pruned the perennial patch--munching on some strawberries along the way. All the while, Joey was out in the corn fluxing the day away. In the afternoon Maranda, Maya, and Joey worked on some maintenance pruning in Goat Garden. And we are proud to announce that Maranda now knows how to drive the lawn mower. Whoohoo, go Maranda, queen of the locomotives! Marya and Eric continued their agroforestry measurements, and Isabelle fluxed. Later in the afternoon Maya, Maranda, Eric, and Joey worked on fall crop planning. We can’t announce our official fall crop plan yet, but let’s just say there are some serious salad greens in our future. For dinner, Marya and Eric prepared a chickpea-tomato-couscous stew and roasted trilogy beans. Yes, this does mean that Maranda broke her gluten and dairy free intention early, but, hey, you know what they say: it is always better to over-promise and under-deliver.
On Wednesday, Marya and Isabelle drove off to the Sheldon Food Pantry to distribute our produce, while everyone else harvested trilogy beans, shishito peppers, and tomatoes. Maranda was on music duty during harvesting, taking us on a melancholic and twangy musical journey through Gillian Welsch’s greatest hits. In the afternoon, Marya did some SARE work on persimmons, Isabelle continued the arduous task of constructing a weather station and dust monitor, and Joey and Maya worked on constructing a new fridge door. Eric continued the fall harvest plan, while Maranda and Lexi continued pruning the kale in Goat Garden. For dinner, Isabelle and Joey cooked a yummy meal of spiced TVP, peppers and onions, rice and perfectly crisped kale chips.
Thursday was a busy day for our plucky fall cohort. In the morning Maranda sprayed neem oil on various crops in all the gardens while Isabelle, Marya, and JR staked research plots in the corn fields. As a perk to the job, they got to hitch a ride on the combine! While all of this was happening, Maya bounced back and forth between helping Joey build the new fridge door and helping Eric and Lexi plant spinach in ATR. Marya, Maranda, and Isabelle finished their tasks early, so they set out on a rescue mission to collect the ready-for-harvest acorn squash that was hiding under the hay in ATR. In the afternoon, everyone began prepping for the Harvest Daze Festival (more on that later) before gathering for a context conversation with Lexi about indigenous knowledge and ways of relating with the land. We listened to a chapter of “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer and discussed reciprocity between people and land, criticisms of the scientific method, our experiences with academia, and more. Thank you, Lexi, for an engaging context convo! In the evening, Maranda and Lexi made pasta mixed with sauteed rainbow chard, onion, roasted squash, and herb oil. Autumn is here, which means we will be finding many creative ways to eat squash within the next few months.
On Friday, the team got busy harvesting daikon radishes, three different varieties of kale, eggplants, rainbow chard, green beans, squash, watermelons, and jalapenos as preparation for our farm stand at the Harvest Daze Festival on Saturday. After the big harvest was complete and all the produce was sorted, cleaned, and bunched or bagged, the group gathered for some Friday afternoon programming led by Lexi. Gathered around a CBD plant, extracting its seeds, we listened to and discussed passages on Jewish herbalism and partnership with the earth. For shabbat dinner, Isabelle and Maya made spring rolls with many filling options, including tofu, peppers, radishes, jammy soft boiled egg, rice, scallions, marinated onion...and more!
Maya, Maranda, and Isabelle spent their Saturday peddling veggies at the Harvest Daze Festival in Watseka, Illinois. The farm stand was colorful, the veggies were fresh, and the festival-goers were excited for the produce (and overwhelmingly in search of rainbow chard??). We met many wonderful folks, sold lots of produce, and had a fun time. Overall it was a great success; we hope to do it again next year.
