Josh is tilling the soil in the high tunnel and getting ready for 5 of our after school programs to come to Mountainside this week a part of a pilot gardening program. These kids will visit each week on a given day, they will pick carrots, kale, broccoli, and lettuce that is still growing in the garden, they will plant a section of the high tunnel and then they will spend about a half hour roasting sunflower seeds or making salads with our wonderful neighbor Valinda. The idea is that by late winter most of our after school programs will have gardening clubs with to or three schools coming out each day. The ultimate goal will be for a May parent dinner in which the kids will pick, prepare and serve their parents vegetables that they grew in the clubs. Pretty cool idea huh.
I have been researching ways to heat the high tunnel in the deep winter months and keep it moderately productive while we get ready for spring. We may keep it simple for the time being but the ultimate goal will be to have our growing facilities completely self sustaining will no use of fossil fuels. Right now we just want to get thru our first winter.
I must mention that our real farmer Jason harvested 45 acres of soy beans and he was pleased with the harvest despite a lot of deer damage. He estimated somewhere in the range of 1700 bushels of soybeans for the season.
Lots more info and pics next week as the greenhouse gets going
