upcoming events
Sa
Sunday, September 9, 2012 1 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Come volunteer some time on our beautiful organic farm, take a farm tour, enjoy a community potluck, and view the family-friendly documentary “What’s On Your Plate”. Don’t forget to RSVP!
www.accokeekfoundation.org
turdays
Hello CSA Community!
For details on any event, please visit www.accokeekfoundation.org.
Wee lass Kathleen Dempsey displays her bouquet of flowers harvested at last week’s UPick!
Volume 17 | Number 14 | August 24 & 28, 2012
Ecosystem Farm at Accokeek
1pm
t i s i V s! u
field notes
9-
Ecosystem Farm Volunteer Day
ers Mark arm
et
Join Alice Ferguson Foundation Naturalist Chris Ordiway as he introduce you to the backyard birds of Maryland. Basic birding skills will also be taught.
Waldorf F
Backyard Birds
Saturday, September 8, 2012 10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
wrestling with plants reaching out more more we are tag teaming harvest Farm Manager Becky Seward Apprentice Farmers Susan Cook Sky Harman
It has crept up on us again. The dwindling light and cool mornings signal the beginning of the end of summer. We are still feeling the effects of the drought and heat, mostly in the form of disease and pests, but have a number of gorgeous blessings to count. The fall fields are underway; the seedlings leafing out. We have learned so many lessons about this space and continue to apply them, every planting a little more skillfully done. We miss the faces of those who are off of the farm. Take care of each other and eat great food! Love and low light, Becky
Farm Intern Crystal Proctor Farm Assistant Sarah Carts
Summer Drama Pick List: cherry tomatoes • heirloom plums • zuchinni • limas • peppers
Lessons Learned By Sarah Carts You have all probably met me, but I think are intrinsically biased in this respect. It is that few of you know my involvement at the in surrounding ourselves with trustworthy Farm. I would like to share with you a little people who are honest enough to tell us about myself and some of the lessons I have when our ideas stink that we find hope of learned in my time here at the Farm. becoming wise. Now 21, I have been contributing to the Farm since I was 15 years old. As part of my preparation for my Confirmation - a sacrament of initiation in the Catholic Church by which the graces we receive at baptism are matured and sealed within us - I was required to do a certain amount of community service which I chose to complete in part here at the Farm. Thus began a romance which has no foreseeable end. At that time, there were two farmers here: Will Allen and Erin Hoffman, Skip’s daughter. Well, the two of them had just taken over the Farm from Shane LaBrake, who had been farming this piece of land from the get-go some twelve years before. With Will and Erin I helped to work the Farm. I learned how they did things and how I should do things. The most memorable lesson comes from a day when Will’s patience had just about disappeared. The problem at hand was how to make sure that there were equal shares between the two pickup days… mostly a problem because salad greens and other things didn’t have enough time to grown in between the two days. Will had a eureka moment after much contemplation, “Why not move the first day back to Monday, and have the second day on Saturday?” As hilarious as this seems to us now and seemed to Erin and me then, if we take a step back there are two things that we can take away for further contemplation. The first is derived from the overall situation – make do or do without. This is a lesson that in subsequent years I have learned over and over again. You can’t make something out of nothing, and yet the second share must have an equal amount to the first share. The second point of reflection is in the actual eureka moment. We all think our own ideas are brilliant – but then again, we
After Will and Erin left, Shane returned to the land. I took to Shane well and was somewhat surprised to transform smoothly from one boss (or rather two bosses) to another. Then I realized that Will and Erin both had their original introduction to farming from Shane. It is in this that I learned the extent to which our first teachers – those who are our first introduction to a subject – impact the way we view a thing.
the educational mission of the Farm with an aptitude that rivals even Shane’s. It is fitting then, that not one, but two of the lessons most frequently at the forefront of my mind was learned from him Choose your tools wisely, and take care of them. Mike Snow was here for two years, but I only attended the Farm for one of those. My sister, Laura, replaced me that last year of Mike’s but she too has had to move on from the Farm.
Courtney and Collette came after Mike, and for the first time in four years there were no Cartses at the Farm. The situation had to be amended, of course, so I was only too
happy to come back under Becky. I have learned a lot from Becky, Sky, and Susan, but I find that often times my most profound thoughts come with reflection. To that end I have reflections to share, but I will invite you to contemplate with me the meaning of life. I suggest that it is to enjoy the people around us: family and friends. Well, now you know of my involvement at the Farm and some stories about it. Enjoy your vegetables and the most precious fruits: the people. Peace & Love, Sarah
Will and Erin had taught me to do things the way Shane had taught them to do things, and maybe someday I will teach a young farmer hopeful to do things Shane’s way too. But that’s not the lesson! No, the lesson is that I – that we – must be excruciatingly careful of what we do, because we may unknowingly be someone’s first teacher. We must be careful that everything from the way we go about fixing the sink, to the words we say to those around us expresses our hope for a peaceful and respectful world. Who knows who is watching and learning their first lesson from us. Shane had an apprentice at the Farm, David Arthur McDaniel. David was a Buddhist who had previously been a head ER nurse. He had a fiancé from Canada – she was a vegetarian. David had been eating solely organic food for over seven years – the time it takes for every single cell in your body to be replaced. Therefore he was a 100% organic human being. David taught me more things than I can remember. He taught me how to argue: peacefully; he taught me that even if you catch the one you love dancing to ABBA, love can prevail; he taught me that you can use straw bales as insulation; and most interestingly, he taught me that Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is basically Mad Cow, but for deer. After Shane came Mike Snow. Mike is a very friendly and gentle guy. He is a teacher by trade, and a farmer by choice. He embraced
Sky Harman, Ecosystem Farm Apprentice, sperads compost.