We did! We pulled it off! All of our hard work we put into the squash was worth it. We harvested all of our squash yesterday for the Dinning Hall and boy did we have a lot! Our estimated weight is around 740 lb of squash! We had literally a tuck load! Bennington College, I hope you really like butternut squash..
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School started here about three weeks ago, and so a lot of our focus has shifted from the garden to schoolwork and other projects.
But there has been a lot of great things going on. Every Sunday, we have had a solid group of volunteers out to help us.
Here’s a picture from last Sunday! Bryan and I and student volunteers and tons of produce.
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It was two weeks ago now that Julia, the awesome media specialist from over in the Communications office, visited the garden armed with her cameras. When the new website launched last week, Bryan and I discovered ourselves just a few clicks away. Bryan’s picture is featured on the A Bennington Education page (that’s him in the side bar), but much more pertinent to our discussion here was the link to the to the college’s Flickr page. Julia took a lot of really great photos while she hung out with us and we showed her around the garden. So check them out!
She’s also making a little video about us, but that will come much, much later, considering all of the video footage she has of us to wade through. We’ll keep you posted, obviously!
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Even before we started growing things, we knew that last year there had been some problems of students – who are welcome to harvest from the student garden on their own – harvesting from other plots in the community garden. This past week, in preparation for students coming and hopefully being in the garden and eating our food, we made some signs to clarify things. We really hope they do the job.
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The week started, and the weather forecast has stayed about constant:
Yesterday, it rained from when I woke up until I went to sleep. Which was great; being a Portland, Oregoner, I often miss a good downpour if it has been more than a few days.
The rain does keep us out of the garden, though. But yesterday, unlike other rainy days earlier in the summer, we were not at a loss for things to do. We have more ripe vegetables in the garden than we can eat, more than we can sell, and more than we can give away. There is only one more thing we can do, and that is preserve the veggies. So off we went to Hannaford for extra large jugs of vinegar and some spicy peppers, and by the end of our time yesterday we had 4 jars of dilly beans.
Today, the preserving continues. But what’s next? Pickles? Zucchini relish? Green tomato chutney? Any vinegary, preserved goods you students, staff, or faculty have a hankering for? Let us know!
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Yesterday we had our first market day in the courtyard of the Barn. We had a lot of people stop by, and a few even donated some $$ for the vegetables they picked up. We had a pretty cute spread, and all in all it was a very successful little market. We sold: cucumbers, zucchinis, greens, beans, chard, tomatoes, kale, basil, and some flowers. We’ll be there the rest of the Tuesdays and Fridays this summer, from 11 am to 1 pm.
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Of course we will have a market when students arrive, too, but the schedule and location will change. We’ll keep you posted!
Retrospectively, when we were ordering our seeds from High Mowing, we must have been in a purple kind of mood because a lot of the crops we planted are purple. We have planted piles of purple carrots, and two of our bean varieties are purple-hued: the burgundy bush bean and the rattlesnake pole bean.
I am happy to report that both are now ready for harvesting. We’ve taken handfuls off of the bush bean plants, but haven’t harvested enough of the pole beans to make it back home! Both varieties are really attractive, even if they turn totally green when they are cooked.
Rattlesnake pole beans on the vine.
Burgundy bush beans: purple on the outside, bright green on the inside.
