Great day on the farm!

I worked on the farm yesterday. Green Earth Institute that is. We started out with harvesting kale. Pulling the big healthy leaves off the plant and wrapping a rubber band around em when we got a good bunch. There were hundreds...more like thousands of mosquitos out and I do not exaggerate when I say that I have about 30 bites just on one arm. I am a scratchy mess and I look like I got the chicken poxs again. But it was worth it.

Next, we went out to the onions and pulled them from the dirt and laid them down on the grown for them to dry out. They smelled so wonderful and it only took a small tug for them to come right out because the soil was moist. The farm has a bunch of tiny toads the size of a silver dollar hopping around. When no one was looking I put my hand to one and he hopped on a few times and hopped off. A few minutes later I saw a big toad! He saw me too and hid in a hole an onion had previously been in but he let me pet his back with two fingers. He was so soft and his skin was very bumpy and loose. I never thought much of toads...but they are really sweet little things.

Then we harvested scallions and patty pan summer squash. The patty pan was hidden among giant green leaves and beautiful yellow flowers. When I would find one I would cut it off with a knife. Their skin is so soft and they are very dense.

Patty Pan image from Skippy's Vegetable Garden with a summer squash bread recipe as well. :0 )

After lunch we hoed the newly planted beet bed. I found out that by hoeing, you break up the surface of the ground killing grown weeds, and ones that were getting ready to show themselves. I will admit...I did not like doing that much.

Then we planted new kohlrabi plants. The tractor had seats for two people to sit on and while the tractor slowly moved down the bed, a part on the tractor created holes every 8 or so inches and the people in the seats threw a kohlrabi plant into the hole. Then we got behind them and packed the dirt around the kohlrabi. This is how they get them evenly in a straight line. I never new. We also planted lettuce this way.

The last thing we did for the day was collect all the onions from earlier that morning. Their skin had dried and the toads were hidden from the sun.

I came home with baby watermelon, cantaloupe (which I can smell right now), peppers, and a wee eggplant. I'm so happy to being volunteering at Green Earth Institute.

Here is a few more images of the cards I created to promote my artwork at the Packer Schopf Gallery on Friday, August 19th, 5-8. I will make about 40 more tonight and tomorrow morning and pass em out one last time. Next, is the BFA show!