Farm and Schools Blog

Hello Everyone!

Thanks to Devon, Vince and Sharon for coming and helping at the Community Night at the Farm.  We were small in numbers, but I am certain that Sharon is the reigning queen of the Toro Tiller!  Vince tried a "baby" carrot and said they were delicious!  I do think that having to find the beets by using the DR Trimmer in between the rows constitues a weed problem!  We have found the beets and actually harvested some and thinned a few as well.  Devon and I were covered in weed bits after weed wacking for two hours.

Today was an early morning at the Farm.  At 4:40am the garden is so quiet and serene; watching the sun come up and geese flying low right over our heads was really a treat. Erik Loney and his KXLY 4 cameraman helped me pick some  produce this morning between live segments for Good Morning Northwest.  It was a great opportunity to brag about all the supporters of the garden, especially the kids and we picked 15 lbs of tomatoes, 10 lbs of peas, some broccoli and two cucumbers! Thanks gentleman!

Yesterday we had a visit from Young with the Inlander who took some pictures of our summer school students picking peas.  And Craig came to do a piece for the Hearald.  I love talking about the farm and all the opportunities it provides for our community and students!

There is still so much work to be done!  If you have an extra hour on your hands feel free to head out to the garden and weed a row or two, or three, or four!  August 20th from 9am to noon is our next community work day.  Come on out and bring your friends; many hands make light work!

See you at the farm!

Lynette

Hello everyone!

What a busy summer at the farm!  After a rough spring, the farm is now starting to give up some produce.  Sixty eight pounds of lettuce went to Second Harvest two weeks ago and the first 9 lbs of peas was delivered on Tuesday with many more peas to pick and deliver this week.  Thanks to Greenthumb Nursery and Jean Oglesbee, in the last three weeks we have transplanted at least 400 plants; bring on the sun!

Thanks to Lowes employees for their wonderful help Monday at the garden.  In addition to their help, the equipment they brought is going to serve the farm so well!  A new tiller, lawn mower, weed wacker, and walk behind brush trimmer, pain, composite decking and lumber are now happily residing at the garden and ready to get dirty!

The Kiwanis members continue to do a wonderful job watering the field.  Thank you so much!

Summer school students have aided in weed control, planted their own raised bed and are soon to help in the control of our potato bugs with chicken!  Jeff Boyd is a wonderfully innovative teacher and the kids are lucky to have him!

We are planning two community work day at the garden in August.  Set aside Wednesday Aug. 10th from 5pm to 8pm and Saturday Aug. 20th from 9am to noon to come help out!

See you at the farm!

Lynette

Hi to all!

Potato bugs are back.  I sprayed again on Friday and hopefully this will take care of them.  If you see bugs on your personal plant, feel free to just squish them.  With the few plants that many of you have, that is a good way to get rid of the hatched bugs.  Look on the underside of the leaves for gray or orange eggs and squish those too.  You can also pinch off the leaves that the eggs are on and put them in a bag to throw in your garbage or burn.

The wheat was looking stressed and so after three hours of hauling pipe and fitting pipe (I swear I will never get the irrigation thing down), it is going to have a good watering today.  It shouldn't need more than that.

We have a wonderful summer school program at East Valley for Ag Related experience.  Jeff Boyd and his students will be working in the farm on different projects learning about all the facets of farming.  What a great opportunity for the 16 students that are in the class!

See you all at the farm!

Lynette

Hello everyone.

I have been waiting on some news before writing an update, but the news isn't forthcoming so I'll write about what is going on now.

The raised beds look great as do the family plots.  We have had several families that have had to give up their plots due to illness or other trials.  Dang it if life can't be tough sometimes.  Hang in there!  If you see a plot that is not being tended to, you are welcome to use it; just ask which plot you would like and I'll make sure it is not being worked.

The warmer weather has been a blessing.  So much rain has rotted so many rows of seeds in the field, yet made the weeds grow by leaps and bounds.  Eldon tilled up a previously planted section as nothing came up.  Thanks to Desert Jewels nursery, we have filled about half of those rows with the plants they donated.  The other rows will be filled  ASAP.

The shed is coming along.  Mr. Close our shop teacher is working on it and doing a great job.  Thanks, Bill!

We have two groups coming out this week to weed-just in time, the weeds are taking over again.  You know the saying, "They only sure things in life are death and taxes"?  I would like to add "growing weeds" to that saying.

I had a hilarious experience irrigating at the farm on Saturday.  Let's just say that my shoes were like big blocks of mud and just as I was hosing the muddy rear end of my jeans off, someone came to water their plot and I'm sure left wondering who the crazy lady was giving herself a bath fully dressed!

Hope you are all doing well!  See you at the garden!

Lynette

Hello Everyone!

We had a great Saturday at the farm with the Fairchild AFB Airmen Leadership School.  Twenty five people can make a big dent in the amount of work that needed to be done!  They weeded, tilled, mowed, weed wacked, planted seeds, and worked on irrigation.  We even endured a little rain!  The Glenewinkel's have loaned their big tiller to the farm this year and we are putting it to good use!  Having the tiller dig up the weeds is so much easier!

In addition to all that work, you may also notice that there is a new structure on the site!  Thanks to EVHS shop students and their teacher Bill Close for starting the shed this winter.  With the help of the Tim Lines and Dennis Berezay and their boys, Bill moved the shed "parts" out to the farm and now we have a super shed that is almost complete!

Spokane Valley Kiwanis has once again offered to irrigate the farm this summer.  THANK YOU!!!  There is still more work to be done and we welcome all the help we can get!  If you have a group that would like to come to the farm and help out, let me know and we will put you to work; every little bit helps!

The family plots look so great!  I love to see how different every one planned their space! There is still more room in the raised beds and it's not too late to plant short season crops!

Check out Facebook (East Valley Farm to School Program) to see the pics from Saturday! See you at the farm!

Lynette