Summer Break on the School Farm
Greetings, school farmily! Summer break may be over but summer itself is alive and well on our school farm sites. We had a super dry June and a really rainy July, but no amount of unpredictable weather will keep our plants from growing big and strong–certainly not if our steady farm crew has anything to say about it. If you’ve passed by the farm lately at either campus, surely you’ve noticed the abundance of green! The summer season means mega foliage–not just our food plants but weeds, too!–so Team Farm has been working hard to keep up with it all. We were lucky enough to be joined by quite a few members of our school family over summer break, including current students, former students, parents, teachers, and staff. While the farm team missed the bustling, vibrant energy of the school year, it is a lovely change of pace to work together in smaller groups and chat, sweat, shoo mosquitoes, snack straight from the plants, etc.
We are growing and harvesting many of our favorite summer foods, like lemon cucumbers, sweet and hot peppers, cherry and slicer tomatoes, and several varieties of basil. And it won’t be long until we’re eating other prized fruits like eggplant, watermelon, okra, and fall squash. We’re continuing to feed the birds and pollinators, too, with our zinnia, sunflower, nasturtium, cosmos, coreopsis, marigold, and Queen Anne’s lace, as well as all our flowering perennial plants. The luffa is really showing off, as usual, but it never gets old watching it make its way all around the farm. And before you know it, we’ll be picking up and sharing pawpaw (they fall from the trees when ripe!) and harvesting scuppernongs and muscadines.
As we kick off year four on our school farm, we’re starting to get asked the question we hear most: how can we help? Thanks in advance if you’re wondering the same thing! To that, I say:
- read the weekly Courier on Tuesdays for monthly farm updates, relevant information, sign-ups, and workday dates/times.
- check out the Farm News bulletin board in the lobby at EC.
- reach out and let us know if you have specialized skills, an interest in learning more about farming/gardening by working, or older students in your life that have volunteer hours to fill.
- eat school lunch! We grow this delicious, nutritious produce for our school meals, and while we certainly pick and taste things during class times and chore shifts, students are more likely to consume these fruits and veggies–and eat them again outside of school!–when they’re hungry and a thoughtful, scratch-made meal is served to them.
As always, please reach out to Nichole Lupo, K-8 School Farm Specialist, with any questions, concerns, or ideas to share–nlupo@atlncs.org or text 404.771/0402. We’re so excited to grow and learn alongside your awesome students again this school year!