It was a week that went smoothly in spite of a few possible challenges– two of us three interns were on vacation (though 2/3 of us were back in time for the stand). In spite of this, the labor shortage was more than made up for with the additional help of volunteers at the Easton Urban Farm and employees at LaFarm with harvesting, and Miranda and Doc M helping with veggie transport on Thursday. Mark from the Urban Farm strategically had us harvest most of the produce meant to go to the stand on Tuesday rather than on Thursday morning as we usually do, since we had a larger group of volunteers earlier in the week and that provided us with more time to clean the produce on Thursday. So we were still able to easily harvest just as much as we usually do– and maybe more, since tomato season has officially started last week at the farms, and the three rows of plants at the Urban Farm alone have been steadily producing several harvest bins’ worth of tomatoes every day.

Weather for Thursday was the next challenge since it was forecasted to rain that night. After watching it downpour at around 2:30, double- and triple-checking weather forecasts, we checked in with Doc M and decided that we were still a go for stand night. And though it rained intermittently during the stand, it didn’t pour, leaving our spirits undampened. The neighborhood also wasn’t too fazed by the weather, with around 35 people showing up that night.

Easton Hospital had a table set up for our stand activity for the week, handing out samples of kale chips and plates sectioned into recommended serving sizes for children. Everyone was excited about tomatoes (and the flower bouquets from LaFarm that Lisa thoughtfully added to her harvest), and we somehow managed to have some left over, probably due to the large harvest and to the lower turnout. Undoubtedly, though, the next time that we have good weather for a veggie stand, we’re going to have much higher demand for tomatoes.