On this day, the team harvested potatoes. Shiori invited two of her friends from Fayetteville to come over and help, their names were L.J. and Hirona. We also received McKenna, she came to us from Louisville Kentucky on her way west. I can’t forget our newest recruits, David and Marine, coming all the way from Toulouse, France.
Category Archives: season extension
How we spent our father’s day
Father’s Day, does it always fall on a Sunday? Sundays are our Farmer’s Market day, so we watched all of the daddy’s with their children, young and old. Channel 5 news was there, a local news outlet here in Northwest Arkansas and they interviewed Paul, Oliver and Isaac about Father’s Day and what they were going to do for their Dad. I have a link posted. We were the first to this market with tomatoes. Lest you forget we sell at the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks, every Sunday, from 9am-2pm. Also, I take that back about the first with tomatoes, that accomplishment was shared that day. Another vendor had tomatoes also, they weren’t quite ready, but it’s important to be first. The people are tomato hungry right now and I don’t blame them.
Paul and Isaac at the farmer’s market on Father’s Day.
Later in the day we sat and prepared garlic to cure. Here is Shiori doing an amazing job.
Action Packed Father’s Day in Washington County
Action Packed Father’s Day in Washington County. Here’s the link to our Father’s Day news spot. The clip at 10pm was much better, they gave a shout out to Ozark Alternatives. This must be the 5pm clip.
For Mr. Dale
I was really pleased to know that a neighbor of a friend of mine reads my blog. When I saw him recently the first thing to come out of his mouth was how I had a “buy local” sticker on my foreign automobile. The second thing was “You need to update your blog, and with close-ups of all of your hot volunteers!” I’ll try my best Dale, and for the record I think he meant hot, as in it’s hot outside and therefore they are hot…it’s just a guess. Like I had said before, on day one of the CSA we received Nora and Will from Brooklyn. Shiori and Keyohei were here as well. A few days after Will and Nora’s arrival, Hayley also arrived from Albuquerque.
Kyohei and Nora in the hoop harvesting potatoes.
Part of the “Take” before being washed.
Everybody, this is Will. He’s planting cucumber seeds.
sweatshirts? Yes, remember I’m behind in posting all of these lovely pictures. Nora ate as many peas as she picked, if not more. You would too, they were AWESOME!
Crew cleaning onions while Oliver just watches.
Kyohei and Isaac cleaning radishes.
You want to know what I love about Jonathan? He’s a thumbs-upper. Those are my kinds of people.
Hayley keeping it real…and forgive me girl if I misspelled your name.
These were some great people and great volunteers. Thank you Will and Nora for bringing Brooklyn to the farm, and to any future Brooklynites who are interested, BRING IT!
Car Accident
Today we were supposed to welcome two WWOOF’ers coming from Little Rock area, originally from Japan, Shiori and her friend Kyohei. Unfortunately someone hit her car as they were preparing to leave town. So, we will welcome them on monday instead. In other news, Farmer’s Market take two tomorrow. Paul, the kids and I will b e standing out in GORGEOUS weather hustling. I’m so glad the weather will be nice. Last week, if you read, rained and only a few people showed up. Hopefully the crowds manifest themselves tomorrow. Also, to all of the Mother’s out there, Happy Mother’s Day! I can’t forget to call mine tomorrow, I’ve been so busy, I didn’t even mail a card…I feel bad Mom. I LOVE YOU. It’s because of her that I have a green thumb. What a true inspiration she has been in my life. Shiori, Kyohei, we will see you Monday afternoon. To all of my other WWOOF’ers past, I hope your journeys are going well. Thanks for the post cards ; )
A Photo Essay
There has been so much tat has happened, so, I’m posting pictures…Come visit! I need more volunteers!
January-ish, possibly early February, greenhouse and gorilla(s).
Snow and freezing temps outside, almost 70 inside AND it’s not even insulated yet!
Inside Hoop house, snow on the ground outside.
See.
Lettuce on the inside.
A team of tree cutters came through and cut down a bunch of trees lining the driveway because they interfered with the power lines. This is a group of neighbors helping to clean up the mess that the tree guys left.
Back side of the greenhouse.
Paul and intern Johnathon putting up a gutter on the hen house to catch water for them to drink.
Rose, the first place volunteer in our ever-expanding group of volunteers and Grace, one of our latest WWOOFers getting rid of the lettuce in the hoop.
Courtney, WWOOFer #2, keeping it real, building potato beds in Carharts. And to all of my Humboldt homies, she’s wearing a “Drive thru Tree” hat from Leggett California.
Johnathon, Grace, Courtney, Amanda making potato beds.
Courtney and Grace stayed for a month volunteering for us.
Stuccoing the Greenhouse was part of the agenda.
Ike took this picture.
Lettuce out, potatoes in.
Plantin’ ain’t easy.
MORE POTATOES!!!!
John and another guy, I don’t know his name. But, he came for a day to volunteer.
Tractor came to plow it up.
MORE POTATOES!
Zack. Says he’s “WWOOFing”, but I’m not so sure. He has a strong back, but if he could only get up before 2.
More tractor action.
This is Courtney and I getting ready for 26 high school students to come and volunteer. We’re straight up bustin’.
These students were from all of the area high schools. They are a part of a program called “Upward Bound”. Their supervisors found our farm through a volunteer list serve via the University of Arkansas. I was worried that these kids wouldn’t be into it, but was pleasantly surprised at how into it they were.
So we are turning over the dirt that the tractor plowed, to get rid of the grass and roots.
I gave them a greenhouse tour. See the girl in the blue? She was the only one who was not into this farming thing. She picked at the same clump of roots for two hours. It’s cool girl, that’s why you’re in that program…you’re a somebody who has options. Farming isn’t for everybody.
We had them plant potatoes too. We have about 2000 sq. ft. planted.
The girl with the sunglasses on told us her sister was “impregnated”. It was random, and funny, but that’s Arkansas for you.
This patch was tilled up to eventually plant sweet potatoes but for now, it will be an irish potato patch…because the theme of this photo essay is POTATO.
This is Alyssa, she visited us from Ohio for her spring break.
Here’s a better picture of Alyssa. Thanks for your help girl, it was fun having you.
Here’s some community garden action happening. The group dug a trench and is laying pipe for water spigots throughout the garden.
GO TEAM!
And this was this morning, when Grace and Courtney were leaving. They are off to Texas, continuing their farm tour of America, and we are keeping on here on the farm. Best of luck Ladies, you were an awesome help!
It felt good
Synergy, in general, may be defined as two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently.
We had an unbelievable day today. Well, I cannot speak for Beth and Franchy, but to me it felt good. We finished what we started yesterday. We were widening a row by a few feet. That’s how Franchy had his accident : ) We pitch-forked the Bremuda grass up and then shook the soil from the roots. This morning we finished that chore. Franchy continued to work up the grass the next row over and finished it. Bet raked the first row to even it and we started planting more cilantro seed. It felt great getting dirt jammed under my fingernails. As Beth and I were scratching dirt over the holes we drilled with our fingers, Beth said “Scratching Mother Nature’s back”. How apt. It felt really good to have my hands massaging the warm soil. You should try it sometime. Then we watered in all the seeds. Good work team! We broke about 1:00pm for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a salad. Never had a meal tasted so good. I felt so exhausted and dehydrated. I had to sit still for a while because I had too much sun. I don’t know about the weather in your neck of the woods, but in my yard it’s in the high 80’s/low 90’s…it’s brutal out there come 12:30 pm. We took the rest of the day off. Still ore to do, but tomorrow is another day.
As of this morning
As I sit here, drinking my morning cup of coffee, letting my interns get their last ten minutes of sleep, I’m just realizing all of the work we still have to do before we can plant any seeds. Trying to write it down on paper, to have some sort of game plan, so we’re more efficient out there. Today, I think Franchy will wear shoes. He learned a lesson yesterday and I didn’t have to talk to him like his mama…I can come off that way a lot, (right Monica). But, I just thought I’d drop my readership a line to let you all know there is hard work to be done today, so please come over and show your face, pitch in if you wish! TTFN.
Again…2010 Workshops
Click on this to view our upcoming 2010 workshops!
The Farm will be hosting a series of workshops that are all coming up for the Fall season. You don’t have to live here in Northwest Arkansas to attend. Tell your friends!
ATTENTION NORTHWEST ARKANSAS
The Farm will be hosting a series of workshops that are all coming up for the Fall season. You don’t have to live here in Northwest Arkansas to attend. Tell your friends!