Week 5: Advertising and Growing

This week Alexa and I worked on advertising the veggie stand throughout Easton. On Tuesday, we dropped off flyers at the Boys and Girls Club and the Health and Wellness Foundation, to be handed out to families visiting both locations. On Thursday, Alexa went to a pub night meeting with members of the cooking matters team. Cooking matters is a program run by Easton’s hunger coalition to teach cooking lessons and provide cooking utensils and food for families to reproduce the meals at home. On Thursday night, I went to the summer nights event held at the Easton Area Community Center by the Kellyn Foundation. I was able to handout flyers to the families in attendance there. We are both very excited to be able to get the word out about the Veggie Stand.

At LaFarm, we have spent a lot of our early mornings harvesting for the dining halls. In the later part of the morning, Alexa and I have done a lot of weeding to prepare the beds for being covered with straw (cucumbers and watermelons) or compost (potatoes). On Thursday at LaFarm, we learned harvest procedures such as weighing, washing and storing the vegetables. The vegetables we used were for the dining hall, but the same procedure will be used when we harvest for the veggie stand. We also, picked up and labelled are totes for harvest. It’s exciting to know that distribution is only two weeks away!

At the Urban Farm, Alexa and I have done a lot of bug scouting on the swiss chard, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini and squash. Lexi has taught us which bugs are important to squish in order to keep the plants healthy and growing strong. We have continued with tomato stringing; getting better and better each time! On Wednesday night I visited the Urban Farm and Lexi was there with two other volunteers building a wash station using the water from the neighbothood center. This is very exciting news for us because if we can wash right after harvest, then we do not have to use the sinks in Farinon. The wash station will also make the Urban Farm more self sufficient.

We have recently been in contact with Kelly Allen, the master gardener of East 40, which is the farm at Northampton Community College. Mr. Allen is interested in donating to the veggie stand and we are very excited to be in contact with him. Hopefully, as the summer continues Alexa and I can make more connections like these and gain more volunteers for the program!