It Takes A Community

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Kiwi Berry Flowers

We got new bees today.  Honey bees are so crucial to our food system as one of our pollinators.  Our kiwi berry flowers were blooming and the honey bees were helping us by moving from flower to flower, cross pollinating them so the berries can form.  Their busy community then produces incredible honey that they share with us.  Raw local honey is full of seasonal pollen and is fantastic for folks suffering from seasonal allergies.

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​Two weeks ago Holy Spirit Catholic Church brought over their 2nd grade class to help on the farm and they planted about 900 kale plants in 20 minutes! We also got tons of help planting this week when 16 kids and 5 adults from Cheryl Stockwell Academy came on Wednesday and spent 4 hours on the farm.  The extra 80 hours of work that day allowed us to plant ½ acre of potatoes and a ¼ acre of Brussels Sprouts and Kale.  We were so excited to finally get our potatoes in the ground!!!  We are hoping they will come back in the fall to harvest the potatoes so they can see the final results of their hard work.

Elizabeth

Beth and Mary

This time of year is nutzo crazy and we are constantly behind trying to plant tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, summer squash, potatoes, basil, kale, rutabaga, kohlrabi, winter squash, potatoes and so much more.  Besides planting we are still harvesting lettuce daily (we planted thousands of heads this year), filling wholesale orders and doing two farmers markets a week.  This is where our community makes a huge difference.  We have about 60 working share members on the farm.  They graciously agreed to work on the farm doing every job imaginable in exchange for our organic produce.  These folks are multi generational, from 3 years old to 78, and we absolutely LOVE and DEPEND on their help.  We couldn’t run this farm without them!

 I am also fortunate to have awesome employees working here.  THANK YOU Beth, Gina, Nydia, and Frank!!!

Nydia

Frank carrying 6 bulb crates of lettuce!

Gina

Muddy 3 years old boys. Do I need to say more?

Recommended Viewing:   Regenerate Magazine is a new publication one of my A3 coaches, Sandra Malhotra, recently started.  The May/June edition had loads of insightful articles that I enjoyed.  One of the articles talked about Michael Pollen’s documentary on Netflix called “Cooked”.  I had a chance to watch it this week and loved all 4 episodes which explored the history of cooking with fire, water, air and earth and the communities that have flourished because of these cooking methods.
 
Did You know that 150 people appears to be the maximum size of a village before it splits into a smaller community?  Dunbar’s number explains his theory behind this magical number of 150.  At Stone Coop Farm we have chosen to keep our Community Supported Agricultural members to about 150 because we want to personally know all our members, remember their names, and know what some of their favorite produce items are that they prefer to buy.