Our fourth meeting...

Hey everyone,

Most of our student members are seniors, and they were taking an AP test last Thursday (I think it was the Biology test). I hope they did well. One of the senior members did make it down -- Jarquise McComb -- and, together with a friend tagging along, got some garlic I had leftover from last year's farm share started in a water bath.

It was her idea to try the garlic both ways -- half with their husk still on, the other half peeled. I checked in on them today and they're sprouting and growing roots:



It looked like a few with the husks were trying to get moldy; these I moved to another tray. Hopefully Jarquise can use the results of her little experiment to figure out what the safest way to start garlic bulbs is!

Sophomores and junior members were curiously absent -- but this was the first week that I didn't go on the intercom to remind students, instead sending them messages from the day before to their phones.

Meeting # 3

We started meeting # 3 with a little trouble as we noticed our plants not getting enough light... Even though they are beginning to sprout beautifully we had to get a little more light on them..

Here you see Mr. Mikulski using his super strength

We used string & knot tying to lower our lights enough to hit the plants just a little bit more.

And here are the babies

As you can see, the left side of the Mammoth Cabbage were the only side with availability to sprout because of the high light setting we once had.

Despite our minor problem, we all enjoyed looking at a new machine that was going to help us make a miraculous garden!

The feeling of planning was new to us as we sorted through planning schedules & layouts for our garden.

We're almost ready to put it into action!

Until next time :)

The Second Meeting in 2012

Today was an wonderful gathering at the Phillips Veggie Club as new faces and new plants took order. We was able to get a great start on new vegetables.

Cabbage , Cauliflower, and Broccoli are just a few things to name to what we are starting to plant this wonderful season. It was great to see our instructors face as he reiterated how to start the soil for the plants.

Hands were messy and fingernails were dirty as members

crumble the dirt chunks for the soil! HOORRRAAYYY!!!

Finally it was time to make places for the seeds!

Poke! Poke!

Our meeting resulted in at least 2 egg cartons of each veggie: Cabbage , Cauliflower, and Broccoli!

The other members and I are so ready for more!!!

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