Robbins Farm Garden

A Cooperative Learning Project

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The Garden is Open – 2014

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Not much to look at, we thought…until we looked a little more closely, and found the spinach under salt marsh hay had wintered over pretty well, and the rhubarb was just starting to show.

      

But the kale didn't do so well.

The garlic is ready to take off, so we lifted the heavy salt marsh hay, puffed it up, and spread it back down more lightly to keep the soil temperature even. We did the same for the emerging spinach.

We covered the bed where the lettuce will go in to help warm the soil. When we arrived this morning at 9AM, the soil was barely above freezing.

 

 

 

And the best surprise was that lots of parsnip kept well in the ground, and should be sweet as sugar. Our first harvest of 2014!

 

 

2013 Notes to the future

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General things to consider for next year:

  • Leveling more beds with stones
  • Raised beds and non-grass path
  • Mulching more crops
  • Expanding irrigation to beds
  • Starting earlier in spring
  • Move rhubarb plant
  • Rethink edible flowers
  • Using radishes to mark rows
  • Making smaller planting boards
  • Planting husk cherries

Field Day Report

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We had LOTS of visitors, more than I think we had last year. Our table samples of cherry tomatoes, radishes, salad turnips, carrots, and even Jerusalem artichokes ran out — the carrots ran out first.

We had people of all ages, from hand-held toddlers to seniors. We gave out lots of advice and got some in return! The scavenger hunt [coordinated by Oakes] required kids to get a leaf or weed from the Community Garden. Weed? Hard to find those! We had the kids try different leaves to find one whose smell or taste they liked:  spearmint or peppermint, lemon balm, sage, and when I got desperate, stevia and chives. One kid I couldn't satisfy!  

We also had some young adults visit us from Tufts, where they did their own gardening. They may steal some of our ideas for themselves (mediocre artists borrow, great artists steal), and may stop by next year to visit or get their hands dirty with us. Several other people were interested and may try us out next year. One even volunteered her son who she says loves to dig! Thanks to Alan and Sue and especially Elisabeth who heroically stayed until about 4:30pm.

Next year, I'd like more things for the kids to pick please — especially root vegetables. Somehow, the carrot you pick yourself just tastes better — just ask them! We could leave them salad turnips and radishes perhaps, as we won't have enough carrots? Also, I think there's some extra delight they take when they pull something out of the ground, because they don't know exactly what they're getting — surprise! — until it's out.

–Steven

P.S. You have to be impressed with the young girl who could tell the difference between dill and fennel!

Food Awareness Field Day at Spy Pond Field

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Though not about our garden, I submit the following as being entirely consistent with our outlook about food and community. It appears I'll be giving one of the talks the story refers to, but for the record, I was already pursuing the story when Kareem, the organizer, suggested I speak.

 

Two years ago, Kareem Bouhafs, 23, of Arlington would have been wary of someone who wanted to warn him about genetically modified organisms, the use of pesticides on foods, or the many additives present in today’s food.

 

Saturday, he’ll not only be one of those people, he’ll be doing it on a grand scale by not only presenting but underwriting the first Food Awareness Field Day, scheduled for 1-7 p.m. at Spy Pond Field in Arlington. The event will combine children’s games, a young-adult-focused slate of concerts interspersed with brief talks about food issues, and, surprisingly, not much food.

The event is the first production of Project U-Knight, which Bouhafs conceives as a recreational events company that promotes causes. “I’m trying to make it a nonprofit, so we're still filing IRS paperwork. It’s not just about food. want to have festivals, field days, concerts… It can be a very profitable business, but take the profit out of it and add the awareness aspect and you can have very cheap events that serve a mission.”

Entry will cost $5 ages 13 and older; for those younger, entry is free until 4 p.m., when the fee changes to $2. For younger visitors, games will include Red Light, Green Light, Capture the Flag, and a scavenger hunt for toy bees that will have been salted around the site.

“We’re trying to inject information amid all these fun things. In terms of the hunt, we’re trying to present the information that a lot of bees are dying as the result of pesticides being used on food plants,” Bouhafs said.

Bouhafs, a former deejay at the Middle East nightclub in Cambridge, has also assembled a roster of musical acts that he hopes will draw his contemporaries. Performers will include DJ Doubletake, rappers, Philly G and G-Riot, and the band Score the Record.

To spread the word to families, about the event, Project U-Knights has been leafletting, putting up signs, and going door-to-door. Bouhafs said he is relying on social media, including a roster of e-dresses he built during his time at the Middle East. “I have a network of people who like to go to concerts. I have probably over a hundred people trying to promote it on social networks.

Typically, such events use food — very often heavily weighted toward high-calorie indulgences — not only to help draw crowds but to encourage spending, but not the Food Awareness Field Day. Only two options will be available: Dean’s Beans organic coffee will be sold from a truck outside the grounds, and Skinny Pop Popcorn, which has been donated by the manufacturer and will be parceled out for free. The corn is free of genetic modification, its owner says.

Bouhafs partly attributed the lack of food purveyors to relatively late approval for the event by town fathers. “We had to jump through a lot of hoops with the town, and food was a big issue. It had to be approved by the board of health. We just decided we would go to the vendors directly and let them deal with the Board of Health themselves.“

“We got the thumbs up from the town less than 2 weeks ago — we weren't even sure of the date two weeks ago.”

Bouhafs said he decided to start with a food event because beginning a couple of years ago, “I kept seeing more and more news articles, more and more studies, more and more on Facebook, and I started clicking on it. I wasn't the first, and I'm not the last.

“It's alarming, that's what it is. Once people know about it, they don't forget about it. That's why I’m doing this, to add to that pool of people who know about what’s happening with food.”

Michael Prager, a member of the garden, writes most often at michaelprager.com/blog, where this story first appeared.