Can you taste the fresh food yet? Feel the goodwill? See the smiles?

Hello there! It's 2012, and the second growing season of the Wendell Phillips Vegetable Garden Club is about to be upon us. Well, yes... admittedly, we have a few more months to go before spring, but don't fault me for getting excited! I can already picture starting our first plants from seeds in February...



There are lots of big changes planned this year; for one, we will be trying to get ourselves 100% off the grid with respect to water. For two, we will be growing a full season of vegetables (not just eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and melons, but pretty much everything you could imagine -- cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, onions, carrots... even potatoes!) Finally, the largest and possibly most significant change will be that we will be emulating a CSA model for our 2012 operation. The goal is to teach the students some of the aspects of running a farm-like enterprise, including the important part of what the heck to do with the yummy lovely stuff once it starts 'coming in.'



This means that for 16-20 weeks, the kids will be coordinating together with the club's adult members the seed-starting, planting, caring for, harvesting and finally packaging of 'shares' of fresh food from our plot, all the way through October. Maybe now you can see why we've upgraded our name from "Garden" to "Farm" :) Remember, it is your kindness and support that has allowed us to be so bold ;)

This year's operation will involve 8-12 tilled rows (not the simple no-till practices of before) and will likely take us end-to-end on the property -- utilizing the full ~1/2 acre. Are you as pumped up as we are? I certainly hope so!



SO WHAT'S NEXT?

Expect the next posting to include pics from our first club meetings. In the meantime, let me close by giving a special thanks to our 'Seed Donors' -- you know who you are! With your helpful contributions to our fledgling program, we will be able to get the starting supplies needed for this ambitious 2012 season. Let's hope that we can convince SGA Youth Services, the Midwest Dairy Association and the NFL -- three organizations that provide grant money for the sort of thing we are trying to do at Phillips -- to get on board as well!

Until next time,
Matt & the gang