Over the past 16 years my family has been connected to Blackberry Meadows Farm- we subscribe to the CSA, shared a share with friends, subscribed to the Garden Share, and been very involved with learning about food systems, as well as, supporting small family farms.
This year we took the plunge and joined the Farm Club. What’s Farm Club? We actually worked a small 1500 square foot farm plot on Blackberry Meadows organic soil in an unused section of the farm. Blackberry Meadows helped with the tilling, provided the seedlings and seeds, supplied water, and also provided some much needed advise. We provided the labor and the love. Our goal was to see how successful we could be while just farming two times a week- once on Wednesday and once on Saturday. We also missed a full week (much to the joy of the weeds that quickly took root). Last week was an exciting harvest! We started at 6:30 pm on Wednesday night. As the sun was setting, our bushel basket and tote bags of tomatoes were overflowing.
We weighed our pickings and we were shocked to see we had 50 lbs of food. This season we planted potatoes, onions, tomatoes, peppers and beets. As first time farm-scale gardeners we were a little overwhelmed. The watering, the weeding, the work, and the weekly commitment was not easy but the joy we felt last week made all the difference in our world.
Next year more folks will have a shot at being part of farm club. I think it would be fun to have others to share in our experience. It would be nice to have a group to cook together, to can together, and to share success together. This week we ate tomato pie, a tomato quiche, salsa, gazpacho, tomato soup and tomato sauce. We are happily sharing our huge bounty with friends and family.
