To our beloved friends and garden volunteers:
You are the wind beneath our wings. Seriously, you all keep the garden moving forward and enable the ever increasing breadth of our community outreach. That's important work and you all are loved and valued, as are all that pray for us and show up in so many varied and beautiful ways! Thank you, thank you!
Now for happenings and updates, largely from our very own The Amazing Heather who is so graciously using her abundant gifts and graces to hold down the fort and while many of us other garden peeps are away for a little while.
Here is a lot of what Heather had to say about this past week:
This week we got a lot done! Seriously everything has blurred together into one day and I honestly don't even remember what we did yesterday! ( we all know THAT feeling) The onions we hastily harvested before rain a few weeks ago were getting compromised by humidity in the barn, so we spent a morning peeling dead skin and bringing them outside to dry. We harvested tomatoes from the hoop house and pruned the suckers and dead leaves from our plants. The plants grew from tiny seedlings to massive plants and by pruning the dead growth we redirect the plant's energy to producing more fruit instead of sustaining dying leaves. (A note about our Natural Farming Methods: Under Francis' experienced guidance, we believe in doing what is right and good for the plants and the earth as a basic and core guiding principle and practice of our entire presence as the church in the world and as a working farm. That is why we take the time to care for the plants in this way. Our tomato plants will be healthier and produce more fruit for a longer time because of the care they are given) This week we harvested a massive amount of pinto beans! Come and get some and pick some more!! Our medicinal/ culinary herb garden and Mexican garden are growing wonderfully thanks to some evening watering/weeding love (shout out to Lilly the garden dog has been a crucial source of support in this particular endeavor). Our plants are already producing peppers and we introduced fifteen new seedlings to our herbal garden this past week. We plan on offering informal classes in the future, let us know if you have interest! ----- Right now we have an abundance of tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash and potatoes available for our volunteers. Our watermelons have grown tremendously well! Our total yield is 26. Butternut squash is currently curing in the barn. We can use all the help we can get this upcoming week with much of our team away. Please reach out to Heather 919-813-9672 with any questions. We'll be weeding multiple beds, harvesting any remaining carrots and, as always, tomatoes! We'll also be harvesting our squash and zucchini consistently. We also have quite a list of daily maintenance tasks with which we would appreciate any and all help! -------- Total harvest this week: 293 LBS Total volunteer hours this week: 51 hours Total donations this week: 170 lbs Thank you all and thank you Heather!
A few things to please note in general and for the upcoming week:
Please come out and help if you can. All the work and tasks detailed above continue this week! Feel free to bring friends and neighbors!
CSA signups (and volunteers!)are incredibly important to assure our sustainability. Please spread the word by speaking with folks you know, and sharing social media posts and emails with your friendship and family circles and communities to get the word out
NO EVENING HOURS this week. Work times are: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday 9-12. If you would like to come another time, contact me or Heather to work it out!
We have so much produce to share. If you know of someone in need FOR ANY REASON, please take some for them.
We will eat lots of watermelon each work day!
Our website is fully updated for CSA signups and payments and we now accept VENMO at our farm stand
I remain grateful for you all and the gift of being in service to the garden and the community with you all!
Patti Jean (PJ) Spinillo CSA Coordinator, The Garden at Spring Forest csa@springforest.org http://www.springforest.org https://www.facebook.com/prayer.work.table.neighbor/ Instagram & VENMO: @thegardenatspringforest 336-266-9475 cell