Photos from our last share harvest + fresh pasta cookout!

I was sad that more of our members didn't make it out, but glad to find that it wasn't too difficult to get our outdoor stoves roaring and to make a delicious meal right on the site of the garden. Of course, Doro had a lot to do with the 'delicious' part of it; she did a terrific job of making a sauce from freshly picked tomatoes, peppers and herbs (plus the onions and garlic that we brought).

I wanted to give a special thanks to Jasmine, Chuck, Leora and Mark for joining Doro, Josie and I, for some fun cooking out and chowing down!

We'll have to do more stuff like this next year... maybe even expand it to invite people who are passing by. If there is one thing our garden can never have enough of (... *cough*... "eggplants..." =) it is goodwill in the
surrounding neighborhood.

NB: This Sunday, Oct. 6th, is our last planned harvest. 18 weeks of food was pretty good; while we understand that the first few boxes were a little slim, we should be able to fix this next year via increased spring greens production. For this final harvest, I'll be doing all the picking at the garden as usual, but won't be dividing up the gathered food into boxes. Instead, it will be brought to share pickup and you can take what you'd like.

Will these radishes ever
be nibbled?

Will these salad greens ever            
get munched on?

[!!! Also, on the Thursday prior to harvest, a potential new member of the garden club stayed after school and helped me plant a few plants that had been growing indoors. We basically wanted to see if the mustard greens, radishes and onions that were recently started inside will have enough time to grow into food. I'm doubtful but, hey --experiments are fun! ]



It may be worthwhile to let you all know how we are planning to change our share distribution for next year. The idea is to sell 27-30 shares, equally divided between immediate neighborhood, citywide sponsors, and teachers. That means that friends of Doro and I that want to sponsor will have access to up to ten shares (up from the eight that we sold last year). This year's trial members will have a right to first refusal on buying in to next year's operation (as a small thank you for your participation this year).

Current shareholders, be on the lookout for an email inviting you to provide feedback on how you felt this year went. We want to try to make our first year's formal share pricing strong enough to enable this student training program to be sustainable, while also responding to what you all felt was great or needs improvement.

until next time!
Mr. Mikulski