Week 7, Fall ‘21
Our friendly fall cohort started up the week on Monday by harvesting trilogy beans, globe eggplants, shishito peppers, lunchbox peppers, and tomatoes. Marya split off into the corn fields for some good ol’ fluxing. In the afternoon Joey took over the fluxing gig and Eric went on a horticulture walkthrough while Marya, Isabelle, Maya, and Maranda packed veggies for market. In the evening Marya and Maranda made baba ghanoush, tabbouleh and spicy lentils with tortillas.
It was a rainy day on Tuesday and everyone (somewhat begrudgingly) trekked out into ATR to harvest filet beans. We listened to some scary stories while harvesting to properly reign in spooky. Maya drove the week’s order of produce down to Watseka for market before joining up again at the beans. In the afternoon Joey worked on building a new fridge door because he is a certified infrastructure king™ while Eric and Maya worked on some indoor horticulture and marketing tasks. Isabelle and Marya took soil cores in the Perennial Patch and were joined by special guest, Maranda, who made her debut into the realm of research. She measured the temperatures and pHs of the soil core holes all afternoon and now considers herself a woman in STEM. In the evening Maya and Maya made a cast-iron pizza with a tomato sauce and pesto topping as well as roasted squash and green beans.
Wednesday was a great day to be an apprentice and a bad day to be a trilogy bean plant. The horticulture squad, Maya, Maranda and Eric, met up in ATR, gave each other a knowing look, and proceeded to rip the plants out of the ground! Those pesky beans were taking too long to harvest and were getting seriously bug damaged. Part of running a farm is recognizing when we’ve planted too much and learning to balance the needs of the plants with our own mental and physical wellbeing. We are so grateful for the bounty of beans the earth provided for us, but it was time for us to cut back a little. Have no fear, we’ve still got plenty of filet beans. Whilst the great trilogy bean massacre of 2021 occured, Marya and Isabelle took horticulture soil cores and Joey fluxed. In the afternoon Joey continued building a new fridge door, Marya and Isabelle did an agroforestry walkthrough, and Eric, Maya, and Maranda finished up the bean harvest and worked on outreach and recruitment for the Spring and Summer cohorts. If you’re reading this and are considering applying to be an apprentice, this is your sign to do it now!! In the evening Eric and Maya made tofu, rice, soy sauce bok choy, red russian kale, and sauteed pea shoots. After dinner everyone gathered in the living room to watch Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1, and it was truly an indescribable cinematic experience.
On Thursday the crew spent the morning cutting up cardboard and mulching pine trees in our shelterbelt. In the afternoon Maranda worked on updating the farm journal (how very meta that I...I mean she... included this) while Maya worked on finance tasks. Joey bought supplies for the ongoing fridge door repair and Eric updated harvest logs. Isabelle and Marya embarked on a much needed squash sorting project which Maranda also helped out on because she is a Renaissance Woman. In the afternoon everyone regrouped for a lecture by Yale professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Maria Trumpler. She presented on the history of women and breadmaking and answered the fascinating question of why people stopped baking bread in their homes in such a staggeringly short amount of time. Marya and Maya were so inspired by the talk that they immediately revived the resident sourdough starter, Drew, and baked two delicious loaves of challah. In the evening the motley crew gathered in the living room to listen to the first installment of a three part lecture series on indigenous science. It was super informative, and we’re looking forward to next week’s presentation. For dinner Maranda and Lexi made a delicious pad thai that was perfectly sweet, spicy, and savory.
Friday marked the end of another busy and rewarding week at Zumwalt Acres. In the morning Maranda, Maya, Eric, Lexi and Joey harvested beans, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, kohlrabi and turnips. Our resident women in STEM, Marya and Isabelle, worked on the weather station. In the afternoon everyone gathered underneath an oak tree for a restorative tai chi lesson from JR. After this we researched how to prepare the CBD plant we harvested the previous week with Lexi. We’re looking forward to creating many salves and tinctures. For dinner Isabelle and Marya cooked a special Shabbat butternut squash gnocchi with green beans and of course, their famous challah.
