Being a lesser experienced grower, I discovered a trick from Rich for harvesting lettuce. In the past, I have picked the largest leaves on the lettuce, letting the plant continue to grow until it was a long, vine-like, scraggly, and bitter plant, no longer resembling the head of lettuce you might pick up from the grocery store... I was pleased to learn that there is a better way; If you chop off the top of the lettuce just above the base of the head, then it will grow back in about 8 days!
The result:
Though doing this rather than ripping out the plant from the ground (and selling the entire head rather than loose leaves) causes the lettuce to become more bitter the more times you chop it, it saves seeds and makes the process much easier and less labor intensive. I was super excited to tell my mom about this, and I hope that she passes on the knowledge as well!
Harvesting the Golden Chard was one of my favorite tasks of the day. Cutting this plant with scissors makes this really satisfying crunch sound, and this type of chard is just so beautiful! The leaf is green in color, but the stem is where the plant earns the right to be called "golden." I could not get over the amazing yellow color....
It became apparent to me today that City Farm is more of community center than a private entity. At 8 a.m., Chris (the Children's Garden Coordinator for Southside Community Land Trust), Sean (Rich's apprentice), and I were the only people there. As the day continued, more and more people trickled in, coming to volunteer. Soon, there were 6 other people helping out with the harvest. We all sat around in the shade cleaning produce, chatting, and laughing (...singing Lady GaGa...). Around noon, even more people stopped in, including Raul, the head chef of the nearby Friendship Cafe, a place where Rich started delivering produce just last week. People came and went; some who were familiar with the farm stopped in to say hello, others new to the area curiously peeked over the fence until we invited them in for a closer look.
Around noon, it became even more apparent that City Farm is a community center; Sister Holly and Tyrone appeared at the farm, looking distressed. They had come in search for Rich because their nearby community garden (just recently established) had been vandalized during the night. Someone had trampled through their beds, breaking tomato plants and smashing chards into the ground. When they first started the garden, Rich had provided some plants and they were hoping he would help them again in rebuilding the collection of plants lost from this tragedy. Soon enough Rich presented them with trays of tomatoes, squash, and cabbage.
It is sad to think that so many days of good work could be intentionally destroyed in seconds.
Kale plants look very strange once they get large and take off flowering. Out of the top grows the flowers and bunches of seed pods, shooting out everywhere. Today we also chose the best kale plants to save seeds for planting next year's crop. Rich explained that his judgment for picking the best plant is choosing the one that has the most seed pods and the least amount of leaves. The reason behind choosing one with less leaves is that it must have produced the largest leaves (those which are now gone, having been harvested). When determining which plant to save the seeds from in your own garden, make sure to keep an eye out for the plant that seems to give you the most produce with the best quality.
Kale flowers and seed pods.
I also was able to learn another trick for composting: When composting weeds, throw the weed scraps into a bucket (or trash bin for large amounts) full of water. Let the weeds decay for a couple of weeks in the water, and the seeds will actually swell and become unable to germinate. Then, use a pitch fork to scoop out the green matter to put as a layer in your compost bin. When your compost is then ready to be put into your beds, the weeds won't start sprouting up from having weed seeds in your mix. You can keep reusing the water in the bucket, but be careful not to get any on yourself- this stuff gets awfully pungent!
More tips: Do you have a cutter worm problem?
Cutter worms love chopping off City Farm's tomato plants. A natural pesticide? Closely place two toothpicks on either side of the plants stem, about halfway into the earth. The cutter worm won't like trying to bite through the wood and will become discouraged from biting into the stem:
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