2015 Summer Report Card
So How did we do?
I got back from Maine last week and finally had a chance to catch up with Josh.  The gardens are dormant and the last of the veggies are kinda done in the field.  The greenhouse is popping and a new crop of tomatoes, lopes and zucchini's are coming in.  What is really interesting is the tomatoes on the vine in the greenhouse.  Some of them are beautiful.  Some of them are splitting, some of them look beautiful but when you go to pick them they are rotting underneath.  We ended up tossing out a lot of tomatoes that otherwise looked promising.  But we are going to be picking tomatoes into November. With less activity in the garden Josh can spend more time correcting problems in the Greenhouse.

Last year we had crates of cucumbers and squash that we struggled to sell or to convert into pickles.  This year the harvest was a fraction of 2014.  I think it was a combination of trying to grow too much, not being able to oversee everything when problems arose, and planting beyond the garden in soil that was depleted. The sweet corn was not as sweet as we had hoped and the seeds were a gift that were a year old.  Next year we will be more selective on the seeds that we will buy and limit the acreage so that the bugs and deer are kept in check.  The lessons learned is that we need to stay within the garden fence, prep the soil more fully and try not to take on more than we can handle.  Farming is trial and error.  Leaning from success and learning from failure and....there is always next year.

The areas of tremendous success was with the potatoes, mushrooms, and with the abundant harvest of fascinated children.  Beyond the 40 campers that signed up for Harvest camp in week 7, we had more than a hundred more campers in the general camp help in the last weeks of the summer season.  So much more than interest, fascination is a more appropriate description.

And....Harvest clubs in our school year programs will begin on September 14th. Our goal is to have 20 to 30 children out each day from our after school programs from Monday thru Thursday and Friday will be devoted to bringing the farm to our programs that are too far away geographically make the trip in the limited timeframe of 3:30 to 6 pm.  Our goal is to run Harvest Club until the first week of December.  That is the beauty of a having a high tunnel. (greenhouse)

Unlike other farms, at Mountainside, teaching and learning outweigh the growing and picking.  The most learning is happening with yours truly, and this years mistakes will be shared along with next years corrections.

last post before the family reunion

So you might be tiring of potato picker photos but the potato patch truly garnered the most enthusiasm from my campers this year.  Everyone has seen corn grow.  Lots of people have a tomato plant on the back porch or in the family garden bed.  But... my kindergarten boys group seeing potatoes emerge out of the soil that I had just turned over, was akin to seeing gold doubloons on a treasure hunt.

The greatest benefit to having a vegetable garden at a summer camp is giving children a first hand, first time look at growing food.  Virtually every child who has visited Josh at the gardens this summer had seen something they had never seen before.  Heck I am 58 and I never picked a potato out of the ground until this year.  What is so compelling is the universal reaction of excitement.  Excitement is a strong word but it applies to what I have witnessed.

Granted, kindergarten boys digging in dirt mounds is always going to be a winner of an activity.  But I listened carefully to what the boys were saying and they said a lot.  When they found a pea sized fingerling the comment was "aww I found a little baby potato should we leave it in the ground?" Other comments went like this. "There is another one" "look at the size of this baby" "Oh my gosh there is a cluster of five I just found".  Most compelling was the fact that everyone was excited.  Not one child was bored or sat out.

Having been in the summer camp business there are a few universal facts I have learned.  1.  Swimming pools are essential to camp success. 2. You can never go wrong mixing children with a puppy. 3. Lasting memories are created when you expose a child to an activity or experience for the very first time. 4. With the right staff you can make any and every activity fun.  5. Campers enjoy seeing where their food comes from, especially those who do not grow up on a farm.

Summer is winding down.  This is the end of week 8 and Mountainside sends all of the summer camper home next Friday.  The good news is that the garden continues to grow and we will host Harvest clubs with our after school kids in 3 weeks.  Rock on.

Why my harvest camp is the best!

Though the title of this blog may seem a bit immodest I will attempt to justify the claim.

Firstly :(is that a word?) I have not 30 but 39 children signed up for harvest camp and added 3 campers who switched from the amazing general recreation camp here at Mountainside.  Unlike other camps most of the children are recipients of a scholarship or pay a nominal fee to attend.  Our parents have seen the value of what we are doing and have paid handsomely for their children to participate. Now if I can find a way to get scholarships for deserving kids for next year.

Secondly : I got Josh, or perhaps I have Josh, or I have Josh as an employee.  This is posted publicly and my Journalism teacher God rest her soul would haunt me with improper usage.  He really is amazing with food and with children.  Valinda, AJ, Sam and all the other counselors and JC's keep the kids engaged and moving.  Oh yeah (not proper English) and there is a ton of stuff to do and pick.

Thirdly : I mentioned Valinda but she gets a second prop (also not proper English) because she makes such wonderful food from that which the children just picked.  Those curly cue fries yesterday would beat the heck out of Thrashers at the beach.  The Salsa the day before would make any Mexican restaurant proud.

And the Kicker :  I have a pool within 100 feet of the greenhouse.  Yesterday felt like summer in DC. Low 90's, humid, little air movement, and the heat index close to 100 degrees.  As excited as the kids were to see the potatoes popping out to the ground they were good for 45 minutes tops.  Potato picking is fun and you are supposed to get really dirty.  However fumbling thru dusty mounds in searing heat was good for only one row of potatoes.  These campers started wilting in the sun like my petunias.  Solution,  a hop in the pool not once in the day but twice.  We split the campers into groups of cookers and pickers.  The first group went swimming minutes after picking and then they went a second time after cooking.  Wanna (not a real word) keep children excited about farming, give them a break and let them cool off.  All I could think of were kids learning about farming somewhere else that was equally hot.  With no pool, there would be far less enthusiasm and productivity sprinkled in with a little misery.  Even if you took the children to a local pool it would be a one shot deal and a lot of time lost.

Look, parents want their children to learn and have unique experiences in the summer months now a days. Playing with friends and making memories is no longer enough.  Of course "Harvest Camp" is appealing to them.  But they are working in an air conditioned office somewhere cool and comfortable and don't care if their kids are hot and miserable.  They are not out there sweating and dirty.  They do care about sunburn, but that is it. Our campers learn, eat extremely well, learn how to cook, make friends, get to swim and have fun all in the same day.

I challenge any other Harvest Camp to top that!!!!

Everything is coming in at once

Today Josh had me hook up the one plow blade on the back of my tractor and had me follow him the to potato field.  He told me to center the tractor right over a row and put the plow down, and drive.  Now this is actually my second year of farming and I am not a rookie anymore but I have never harvested potatoes before.  My question to Josh:  Won't the plow destroy the potatoes?  Answer: Rookie!  That is how you dig them up.  You could use this pitch fork thingy but that could destroy a lot more potatoes than the blade on  the back of a tractor and would take 10 times longer.

Because harvest camp is not until Monday we only did a sample digging on each of the 6 rows and evaluated the yield of each variety.  We have fingerlings, purple Peruvians, Yukon Gold, and a few others with the understanding that some varieties would out perform others.  The Purple Peruvians were the most disappointing, and the fingerlings are abundant.  We had three camper volunteers help pick thru each trough I dug with the intent to leave the bulk of the harvest for our Harvest campers next week.  It is easy to find volunteers and the three of them had so much fun.  Man are those kids going to be busy next week.

Cucumbers, peppers, sweet corn, potatoes, tomatoes, egg plant, onions are ripening as I write and we have to get everything out of the ground or off the vine as promptly as possible.  Valinda is at the ready to make the veggies delectable and of all the weeks to do harvest camp next week will be the best.

I am truly gratified that the farm and harvest camp is exceeding expectations but all I can think about is how to get underserved or impoverished children to benefit from this endeavor.  Next year I am going to work hard to find scholarships or grants to allow for 5 or more weeks of harvest camp with at least 2 of those weeks dedicated to deserving and disadvantaged children.  I will cut the overall tuition for those kids but I cannot afford to absorb the entire cost.  The way I am currently thinking is that $7500 per week would enable me to host 30 kids.  I provide the transportation, provide lunch and teach them that they never need to go hungry.

The farmers markets are going well but I think we will target Kensington, and Bethesda for next year.  Our farming associates at Linganore and Frederick farmers market tell us that is were the real profits are.

     

Apologies for no posts

Ok so much is going on and I haven't had a post in 4 weeks.  Not cool.  In fact we have concluded week 6 at camp and our last week of Harvest camp starts Monday.  35 campers are signed up and I won my bet with my son Joe that in at least 1 of the 3 weeks of Harvest camp we would enroll 30 campers. It is a bet he was happy to lose.

The corn is over 11 feet high.  I would like to say that I have never seen corn stalks this tall ever, but I have never lived so close to a corn field before.  Still I have never seen corn stalks this tall.  So much early summer rain and now abundant sunshine will truly make for a bumper harvest for the field corn.  We planted two varieties of sweet corn with one a 65 day variety and the other a 80 day.  There were supposed to be 6 rows of each surrounding my house and only three rows germinated.  No matter, we have so much corn to pick it will be a challenge to sell and eat all of it.

One of the true joys of summer is the smell of a corn field ripening.  There is a sweetness that fills the nostrils.  It only lasts for a couple of weeks but it is unmistakable.  Put that crop within 20 feet of your bedroom window and I savor enjoy every inhalation.

One of the other oddities with the corn crop is that the view of my camp from my patio has disappeared.  Three weeks ago I noticed that I could barely see the soccer field.  Then the baseball fields fell out of view.  Now I can only see the top of my son Drew's house.  We are completely enclosed and will be until October.  Last year, our first year in the house we had soy beans.  I feared that corn could cost me the view and it certainly has, but at least I am not claustrophobic.

So this post will be about the corn and I have another coming about everything else that is growing.

First week of Harvest Camp in the books

Week two of summer camp and the first of three Harvest camp weeks just concluded as a resounding success.  Truly I worried that campers learning from Josh might become bored or distracted by the other activities going on at Mountainside.  I have major attention problems and I constantly find myself looking around to see if I am missing out on something cool.  I feared some children would defect to the climbing wall by day three knowing that their chance on the tower was reserved for Friday.  Not so.  In fact we got a resounding thumbs up from all the harvesters of every age.

Day one started with introductions and learning about good bugs and bad bugs.  The bad bugs ended up in paper cups filled with soapy water that lent to a clean death.  Of course each day was filled with planting, picking and eating healthy.  Broccoli slaw, stuffed green peppers, fried green tomatoes and cheese cake were some of the delicacies the children enjoyed.  There was some measure of envy from staff and regular campers alike as they watched the kids feast on Valinda's specialties at the end of each day.  Everything the kids ate came from the garden and along with a lot of learning came a lot of fun.  It helps to have a swimming pool just yards away from the garden and a Ga Ga pit to enjoy at break time.

This first session in June will be so different from the week two in July and week three in August where the harvest will be more varied and much more plentiful.  We had 24 campers working, learning and playing with Josh and KK, AJ, Sam and Valinda.  Even the staff that were assigned to harvest camp with no prior experience or pronounced interest in farming loved it.  I could not have hoped for more satisfied campers and a program that delivers to parents exactly what we promise.

The best way to tell this story is thru pictures... so here goes.

Farming is about anticipation

Geez you plant seedlings in February, transplant in April and wait and wait and wait.  Now that it is late June the wait is over.

For the past month we and other farmers have had the same offerings.  Lettuce, swiss chard, some carrots.  Ahh but now we have tomatoes, well ahead of the curve and a new batch of Shitake's.  Today should be a big day and next week is our first Harvest Camp.

The snow days put a huge dent in our first week of summer camp.  The Frederick County school system added 3 1/2 days to the school year which effectively gutted our first week of camp at Mountainside.  That said, we had campers in the garden every day this past week and the interest level is just like last year.  The kids are truly eager to learn and now they can help pick the fruits and veggies off the vine.  So much fun.  50 years ago I would never have considered picking tomatoes to be something that was fun.  Now I do and so do my campers.  How times have changed.

What is equally amazing is just how good farmer Josh is.  Ok so I am attaching a picture of a not yet ripe tomato that looks more like a pumpkin.  I know the technique all fishermen use when taking a picture of their prize catch.  Hold out the fish well in front of you so that the size of the fish is distorted to look bigger than it is.  My hand is underneath the tomato so there is no exaggeration of the size of this baby.  I will have a follow up picture in a future blog when it is ripe.  Ok it is probably time to stop, I am revealing just how far off the deep end I have fallen when it comes to farming.  But it really is fun.

Chocolate cake batter

Today I found myself back in the high tunnel tilling the soil where we just harvested the purple carrots.  Josh is readying the area for two more rows of peppers and his shoulder is healing and he is still unable to man the tiller.  I may be 58 but I am sure I have a few more good tilling years in me.

The soil in the greenhouse is pretty soft having been turned multiple times since December.  We till the weeds and plant remnants into the soil to enrich the dirt that already has organic fertilizer worked in.  Josh's previous boss at the blueberry farm used to tell him to get the dirt to look like cake batter.  Four passes with the tiller had the soil looking almost edible and ready for an egg and oil. The high tunnel allows for perfect soil conditions.  The thunder storm that hit tonight turns garden soil soupy only to be followed by hard packed cracks during drought periods.  Not so in the high tunnel.  Irrigation lines give the perfect amount of moisture at all times.  Thus you get cake batter for dirt every time you turn over the soil for crop rotation.

Camp opens in less than two weeks and I found myself happily tilling dirt.  There would never have been time to engage in chores like that before Joe III took over the helm with Bar-T.  I would have been pouring over bus routs and last minute staff changes.  I am happy to assist him whenever I'm needed, but an hour later I made a trip to Southern States for 6 foot stakes to be pounded into our cucumber patch.  I'm just in such a different and calmer place now than I was just a year ago.  Don't get me wrong, I will be heavily engaged with my campers this summer and every summer I am able to walk hereon but I just do not mind turning the majority of the responsibilities to Joe, and my great directors.

Josh and I are finding that unique produce pays dividends and the farmers markets.  You can get orange carrots and red tomatoes at Wegman's.  But indigo tomatoes and purple carrots are just what the customers are looking for at farmers markets.  Mushrooms, ground cherries, and wasabi arrugula are the order of the day and you really have to offer something different at these markets in order to stand out.

Now the just be consistent with a steady supply of unique from week to week.

The Maters are coming! the Maters are coming! Soon!

And so are beautiful colorful peppers, purple carrots, potatoes, broccoli snow peas and some other stuff within the next 2 weeks.  Cantaloupes, water melons and squash a few weeks later.
                         
OK I have to admit it but I am something of a tomato freak.  Chocolate too! But there is nothing like a plump juicy August tomato.  I eat tomato sandwiches, tomato salad, heck I virtually subsist on tomatoes in the late summer.  Ha! I get to start of my tomato gluttony in about two weeks because of the High Tunnel.   In Freaking mid June!!! Those plants are taller than I am and we clip the ever growing plants to a string that stretches 9 feet above the plant.  The tomato plants will climb(with help and a lot of pruning) all the way to the top of the string and back down.  Dude I am getting weirder by the minute.  I was having so much fun helping Josh prune the plants and clipping them higher and higher on their string.  When you touch the leaves or stem of the plants the scent clings to your fingers.  I love that smell.  Am I going off the deep end?

I had so much fun following Josh on his evening tour of the gardens.  Every day he goes around and inspects every row and virtually every plant.  He checks for deer damage, insect damage and the progress of the healthy plants.  Figures out what to weed and the just what needs the most attention each day.  Unfortunately there are thousands of plants and it is almost impossible to get to everything that need his attention.  It is hard for him to get to everything and some plants just get away from him.

Indigo tomatoes that are purple on top and red when ripe

With camp opening in less than two weeks we are trying to get the word out to parents on what is available to purchase and how to go about getting their produce.  We had hoped to form a CSA but we are still trying to gauge just how much produce we are going to have and if we are going to have an over supply or not.  The important task is to let as little a possible go to waste.  The stuff Josh grows is so beautiful and tasty.  Anyone can come out an pick and purchase,  campers at Mountainside will have to opportunity to order on line and have the veggies go home with their campers.  If we have ample supply we will serve families at the Ranch as well.

All Heck is about to break loose (actually more like bust out of the ground)


                                                                                                   broccoli head emerging from the plant

A Picture can be worth a thousand words.

It is hard to describe the phenomenon we have experienced introducing children to gardening at Mountainside.  Phenomenon is a bold word but children are really into what we have been doing and Josh is a really good teacher.  Today was the last day of Bar-T Harvest Clubs for the Spring.  School is winding down, summer camp is gearing up and during the final days of the school we will be hosting 5th grade and Middle School end of the year parties at Mountainside.  The staff will be stretched to the maximum hosting these groups so the Harvest Clubs are shutting down.

So the last group of children came to Mountainside today to pick some lettuce, wash it, put it in a vegetable spinner, and bag the green goodness to take home.  The farmers markets to date have been a little disappointing.  Everyone is after our mushrooms which is great and we need to harvest a lot more in the future...but, as beautiful as our mixed greens, tennis ball lettuce and Nancy lettuce (that is actually a variety) are, we are not selling much.  Our hope is that our parents will see how beautiful and healthy the lettuce is and we hope to have our summer campers take it home with them on the bus.  The pictures below tell the story better than I can.

                                                                 edible pom poms

                                                       tennis ball lettuce great for wraps

Mounding Potatoes?

So here is the deal.  With this farming thing I am learning something new every day.  Some days I learn several new things.  I would never have admitted this when I was a teen but I love learning even at 58 when you think you know everything.  The difference between crochity 58 year olds and 14 year old "know it alls" is that 58 year olds forget what they know faster than they know it.  Enough for the tangent.

So yesterday Josh hooked up this small disk apparatus on the back of my tractor.  Big tractors have disk things that cover 15 feet at a time.  We are a small farm so ours was just two feet.  He instructed me to drive the tractor dead center over our potato plants (which are growing very well) with the disks on either side of the plants. The disks pushed dirt up to and nearly covering the nice green plants.  The task would have been a lot easier had Josh planted the potatoes in a straight line. It was easy to center the front of the tractor over the plant but the disk was 8 feet behind the front and he constantly barked commands to me to "go left" or "hard to the right".  We are going to work on straight planting for next year.

Ok so it makes sense that you mound the potatoes. They grow underground and no one cares about the leafy plant above the surface.  I did not know but kinda figured that potatoes have a leafy stem above the surface.  How else would you know where to dig?  It also makes sense to nearly bury the plant under a mound so that the root vegetable can grow and is easy to harvest.  All very understandable but still new to me but I did not know what the disk thingys actually did
until yesterday.  Another new thing I learned.

The big revelation came from Josh.  I am amazed on how much he knows but I want my readers to do some research on this fact.  He told me that Potatoes that get exposed to sunlight can turn green and become poisonous.  Really!  I asked him twice if this is true and he emphatically said yes.  Potatoes can be poisonous?  How many Irish people had to learn that lesson the hard way.  If any of my readers can refute this information I would like to hear from you.  Josh is a graduate of West Virginia after all so we can't take this information totally on his word alone. He knows a lot mind you but I do not want my blog to be like Wikipedia.

Racing to get everything into the ground

This past week we planted over 2 acres of sweet corn that were kindly donated to us by my good friend Mike Dixon from "Seeds of Life Nursery".  While Jason Wood was planting 50+ acres of field corn we strategically selected the acreage closest to my house for the sweet corn.  The neighboring deer can make short work of sweet corn, so our hope is that my here-to-for useless dogs might be able to ward the corn predators off when they are not napping.  It is notable how very expensive sweet corn is.  It comes in small bags that barely large enough fill to bottom inch of a corn planting bin.  Each bag is $50 and is comparable to opening a bag of chips that contain more air that chips.  Since the corn was planted on Monday we have yet to see any appreciable rain.  In fact we are getting off to a very dry start this Spring which does not bode well for the hotter months to come.

We also laid 8 plastic covered rows, each roughly 200 feet in length for our pumpkins, watermelons and lopes.  Marlo Leafty,  another generous friend, lent us a plastic row layer (I know that is not what it is called) that enabled us to prep the rows in less than an hour that otherwise would have taken a full day and back straining work and shoveling.  The plastic inhibits weeds from taking over the rows so that we grow only what we want.  The cool thing about Marlo's attachment is that it lays down irrigation line in the center of the row at the same time.  Even if the summer is dry we will be able to get the plants the water they need.  Last year we enjoyed Josh's amazing yellow watermelons which were planted on less than 100 feet in our garden.  We should have 5 times the number of melons this summer.

For those of you less knowledgable,(which include me) pumpkins and watermelons spread out and are not susceptible to deer and rabbit damage.  Since there is no need to plant the seeds in the deer protected fenced garden, we have a lot more room for other veggies.  To date; half of the fenced garden is currently planted, the greenhouse has lettuce and spinach ready for picking, the 6 rows of potatoes and sweet potatoes are already sprouting and the 8 rows of Melons and lopes get planted this week.  If all goes well, should quadruple our output from last summer with sweet corn and potatoes added to the mix.

We concluded the week with our first farmers market in downtown Frederick.  It is early in the season but we did pretty well selling mushrooms and spinach for about $250.  It is a start.

                                           

Jason with the little $50 bags of sweet corn

                                           Plastic covering attachment for the melons and pumpkins

Bring out the reinforcements

There is so much going on this time of year.  We have more than doubled the area we are growing compared to last, and there just is too much to do.  Helping hands with the MAC kids, our garden clubs who really do pitch in an work (not just learn) are all essential if we are going to be successful this year.

Yesterday we brought out the "Calvary".  Jason Wood, this kid who is rapidly becoming a good friend was out with help to get our pumpkins and melons started.  Jason is my guy with supplying me with corn for my furnace and he also dug the trenches for our rain garden project last week.  He is also the one who grows the field corn and will plant our sweet corn this year.  I really can't do very much without him.

Anyways, Josh wanted to plant the the melons outside of the enclosed garden area.  They spread out and take up so much space and we do not need to protect them from deer the way we need to with other vegetables.  So instead of one tractor we had four.  We deep tilled, disked the soil and had to bush hog the ground before we got started.   It is remarkable how farmers help one another.  Lawyers and politicians should learn how to work together the way farmers do.  Bottom line; if all goes well we will have 5 times the number of watermelons as last year and a bunch of pumpkins for our Fall fest.  Having said that the reality is that farming comes with no guarantees.  As much work as we are putting in we are still dependent on the weather and subject to insects and disease.

As as newcomer to all of this I have yet to experience the disappointment of a lost crop,  food and income.  Farming is a labor of love.  With so much effort and anticipation I am beginning to realize the sense of loss when nature turns against you.  Mountainside is not dependent on a successful crop the way most farmers are but we start the season with hope and roll the dice like everyone else.
The Greenhouse is the only area that we truly can control and the tomatoes are kicking it.  But the area is so small compared to the acres of crops everywhere else.

The farm is teeming with life and visitors

We are moving into the very best time of the year.  The unpredictable month of April is behind us and the forecast for 80 degree temps is consistent.  Jason Wood will be planting field corn this week which will include roughly 2 acres of sweet corn surrounding our home.  The reason for putting the sweet corn so close to the house is with the hope that my useless dogs will keep the deer away.  I did not know this previously but deer don't care much for tasteless field corn but will decimate the corn you and I like to eat.  More than likely I will be the one protecting the sweet corn while the dogs sleep.

The mushrooms are popping, the high tunnel is flourishing and Josh could not have enough hours in a day to do all that needs to be done.  I hope to have produce within the next two weeks which will make me happy to not need Giant for the majority of my groceries.  If only we could grow avocados.
We are finishing up our web site for the Mountainside CSA and farmers markets start on the 17th. We might actually be able to start paying the company back for all this stuff within the next 2 weeks.  Having said that, our farm operation is still very much a labor I love.

For me the most exciting goings on at the farm is all of our visitors.  Last week we had a local High School magnet program out to install rain gardens, two elementary schools doing stream studies, our harvest clubs out every afternoon, youth from the Frederick County department of social services spending the weekend, all adding to Mountainside After School club children and the local little baseball and lacrosse league on our ball fields. Oh yeah we also had a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday evening.   More and more people are seeing the potential benefits Mountainside has to offer and Summer camp is still 6 weeks away.

The High School students are part of a Magnet program that focuses on Global Ecology.  They were studying the potential benefits of rain gardens but had no place to actually try to install one.  The very best way to learn is by doing.  Of the many topics we teach, "Slowing the Flow" of storm water into our wetlands is one of my favorites.  We showed the students the conventional storm water management practices that were implemented at Mountainside when it was initially constructed and why those practices are failing to protect our watershed.  Then we dam up some culverts and trenches and we planted blueberries and asparagus.  It was a fantastic opportunity for these students with the prospect of doing dozens more in the coming years.  Included is a time lapse.

PHS Global Ecology Day 2.AVI

Farmer? Proud Parent? Babysitter?

So Monday morning we had 70 2nd graders out to the farm to and poor Josh was more than a little nervous. They toured the high tunnel, planted seedlings they grew in their classrooms, created a compost bin, hiked the stream and woods identifying habitat of our two, four, six, eight and our hundred legged neighbors and pulled weeds in the garden. It was the pulling weeds in the garden that had Josh on edge. Of the many job responsibilities Josh has at Mountainside, the primary one is growing food, the other big responsibility is teaching.

Often teaching and growing conflict with one another. You never have enough time to take care of the tasks at hand and teaching can consume some of that precious time.  Teaching can also mean that plants are mistaken for weeds and weeks of effort can be undone by one class.  I am happy to report that most of our plants are still in the soil and not compost.

But observing Josh on Monday was a bit of a revelation.  He really looks after his seedlings as if they are his babies...thousands of them.  As tedious as weeding is, he tenaciously keeps bully weeds away from his family.  Last night with the temps falling into the 30's Claire (a teen volunteer) and I helped him spread covering over his tomato and pepper plants in the green house no less to keep them warm and healthy. It is a labor of love and when he snips a leaf of swiss chard or spinach to give me a taste his eyes brighten with pride. It really is compelling.  So much effort for the satisfaction of a flavorful salad or side dish.

Babysitter is not adequate to describe what the produce means to Josh.  Eat what he grows and you can almost almost taste the love that goes into what he does.  It really does taste better and I will never take a salad for granted ever again.  Proud parent seems more like it.

Our Annual Springfest

So we have been hosting a Springfest/ Earth Day celebration every Mid April for the past 7 years.  The idea is to showcase some of the environmental practices on the property, bring out vendors, have live music and let people use the Ziplines and high ropes.  More people on the property means more campers, and more business right?  Not sure it is worth all the work and expense but yesterday was amazingly beautiful and we still had hundreds of visitors.

For me I wanted to showcase Josh and the great things he is doing in the high tunnel and in the gardens.  Charlie my mushroom guru was there and with my assistance we did a mushroom log demonstration with the hopes that some mushroom lovers would make logs and pay to take them home.  So he takes wood dowels and inoculates them with mushroom spawn.  Drill holes in a log, pound the dowels in and voila! You have mushrooms for years to come depending on the girth of the log. Not surprisingly most people were more interested in the vendor tent and zip line.  I have to remember that I am crazy interested in the farm but most people do not share my enthusiasm quite as enthusiastically.  We still have thousands of inoculated dowels if anyone is interested.  We are also seeing Oyster mushrooms blooming in our mushroom shed.  We picked about 10 pounds today.

Mid April is a pretty busy time and the high tunnel is already showing a lot of promising plants.  Tomatoes should be ready for picking as early as May so I will not have to wait until August to enjoy a great tomato sandwich.  Josh is also growing Wasabi lettuce.  I do not think that is really where Wasabi comes from but dang if it does not taste just like Wasabi.  There has to be a market for it.

Speaking of markets, our job is to insure that we have plenty of customers to sell our produce to.  The idea is to market to our 2000 Bar-T families and to local restaurants and farmers markets.  Our web site is still a work in progress but the veggies are on the way and we will be picking before we know it.

The last item for this post is the "Life Cycle of a Plant" field trip we are hosting this week.  Six 2nd grade classes are coming to visit our garden and greenhouse and transplant the seedlings we helped them to start at their school 5 weeks ago.  It will be the culmination of several weeks of work and months of planning.  Our hope is that these students will have a much better grasp of what it takes to put food on the table.  Most children think that food comes from a grocery store.  Little do they know, but these kids will come away with knowing lots.  Pics and a report on the lessons will follow in the next blog.

I was afraid to post pics with my first blog so here goes

Pics of the plant trays and the mushroom shed.