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Hello Hub Farmily!
As the spring season departs and summer starts to settle in, the garden welcomes many new crops and bids farewell to the cooler weather. This new abundance of summer plants has us all very excited for harvest time and sweet melons by the pool. In the meantime, the weeding and maintenance of the farm is keeping us busy and our appetites high!
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Companion Planting: The Three Sisters
We've decided to use an ages-old method for our corn, beans, and squash this season. When planted in tandem these three plants are known as "The Three Sisters." They are the three main crops of various Native American groups in North America and have been planted together by the Iroquois since at least the 1300's. In Native mythology, the plants were said to be a gift from the gods, to be grown, eaten, and celebrated together.
As the Old Farmer's Almanac also describes, each sister contributes to the planting:
- "As older sisters often do, the corn offers the beans needed support.
- The beans, the giving sister, pull nitrogen from the air and bring it to the soil for the benefit of all three.
- As the beans grow through the tangle of squash vines and wind their way up the cornstalks into the sunlight, they hold the sisters close together.
- The large leaves of the sprawling squash protect the threesome by creating living mulch that shades the soil, keeping it cool and moist and preventing weeds.
- The prickly squash leaves also keep away raccoons, which don’t like to step on them." -The Old Farmers Almanac
We are very excited about this rich historical context of planting corn, beans, and squash and look forward to sharing our progress!
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Life on the Farm with Montessori School of Raleigh
For those who thought the Hub Farm was only open to DPS students, you'll be glad to know that the farm is open to ALL students in and around the Triangle for field trips! We had 4th-6th grade students visit us from the Montessori School of Raleigh this month and explore the many areas of the farm. We designed this field trip a little differently than usual, sampling after our EcoBloom setup. We divided the group up into three smaller groups and assigned a Hub Farm educator to lead each group around the farm for the entire 3 hours. We encourage this learning style because it allows students to develop a relationship with their educator and feel comfortable to be part of the discussion and ask questions. We explored and learned about our chickens, bees, garden, the forest and pond ecosystems and ate lunch overlooking our beautiful pond!
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Carrington Field Trip and the EPA
The Carrington 8th-grade students and teachers joined us for a field trip at the Hub Farm this past month in collaboration with the EPA. Teachers, Hub Farm and EPA staff helped lead students through four rotations, including a garden harvest, macro-invertebrate exploration, water quality activity, and geology lesson. This field trip was designed by DPS science teachers to be used for all 8th-grade students in Durham Public Schools, and we are planning to have more 8th-grade groups out in the fall!
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Time to Celebrate!
A check in the amount of $24,000 was officially signed and passed over to the Hub Farm from the Town & Country Garden Club for our very own greenhouse that we hope to build in spring 2018! We had a beautiful breakfast prepared and catered by the Northern High School Culinary students and we were joined by our wonderful community members to celebrate this incredibly generous donation. We were also joined by local artist, Guy Solie who donated the beautiful mobile sculpture in our front entry space! Many thanks to all those who came out to celebrate with us.
Click here to read our feature in the Durham Herald Sun!
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Gettin' Down to Bee-siness
Justin from Bee Downtown came out this past month to open the hives and do a full inspection with the Northern High School Horticulture students. He gave an intro to beekeeping lesson with these students last semester, so we thought it was only appropriate to have them put on official bee suits and meet our pollinator friends up close and personal. Our bees are looking happier than ever and our beekeeper, Stan Holt, is planning to split one of our three hives in the next few weeks!
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Volunteer Spotlight
Stan Holt is the volunteer beekeeper for the Durham Public Schools Hub Farm. He is an active member of the Durham County Beekeepers Association and coordinates the club’s apiary which is at Duke Campus Farm. In his professional life he is a Vice President at United Way of the Greater Triangle. He works with nonprofit organizations to build collaborative partnerships designed to solve some of the most complex social problems in the Triangle. He lives in North Durham, and when not working or keeping bees, he might be knitting and watching Netflix.
Read on about Stan's great work within the Durham community on page 20 of the Durham Magazine!
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June Workday
Thanks so much to all the wonderful volunteers that came out to the farm this past Saturday! With everyone's help, we were able to weed and mulch much of the front entry space as well as the ozone garden. It's volunteers like you that help make the farm as special as it is and we are always grateful to those we dedicate their time to us and the students we serve!
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Our next volunteer workday is on Saturday, July 1st from 9 am-12 pm. Please email dpshubfarm@gmail.com to RSVP!
Hope to see you all out at the farm this summer!
~The Hub Farm Team
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