For the second time, middle schoolers from San Francisco’s Cornerstone Evangelical Baptist Church have taken time out of their annual summer trip to Santa Cruz to help us.
On a hot July day, these kids and their wonderful chaperones offered us their willing spirit and hard work to accomplish lots of tasks around the farm. With gloves on and tools in hand, they assembled benches, painted raised beds, spread compost on our planting beds, and unrolled and installed hundreds of feet of deer fencing. We were so impressed with these generous young people who worked without complaint. After lunch and a bit of ice cream to cool down, they were right back at it, dodging chickens and finishing up.
Little by little, our farm is taking shape thanks to volunteers like these. All of us at Costanoa Commons thank them and their chaperones for getting so much done. Their parents can be very proud of raising kids with such kind hearts who were willing to spend a beautiful summer day working to help people with disabilities and others grow healthy food and build community. Thanks Cornerstone kids!
Happy Hearts bring fun to the farm
Our emerging farm is alive with energy this season! Kids attending Happy Heart Summer Camp start their day with yoga on our large deck, practicing poses and learning mindfulness techniques with gifted teacher, Ilana Ingber. The farm is transforming with color as the children decorate our wooden raised beds and hang their tie dye shirts out to dry on the fence.
They spent breaks collecting eggs from the chicken coop and sometimes building fairy houses along the creek. Even Summer, our farm dog, got a tie dyed shirt custom made for her!
Ilana’s talent and warmth are a wonderful addition, and it’s been fun figuring out how Costanoa Commons farm can help nurture children in our community to grow, learn, and create. We look forward to four more weeks of camp and all the surprise art projects that we will continue to enjoy throughout the year.
Thanks Ilana! Thanks kids! We are pleased to welcome you and hope you’ll come back again next summer.
Let the learning begin
Thanks to local Master Gardeners Gloria Nieto, Diane Mahan, and Karen Cozza, shown here, our farm has been selected as an official project of the UC Master Gardeners of Monterey Bay! For Costanoa Commons Farm, this means we can move forward with educating our farm volunteers as well as hosting master gardener workshops here on our farm.
We’ll announce our first public workshop, all about composting, soon. Otis Johnson, an expert on both composting and vermiculture, will be our teacher. Otis has already been here to walk the site, discuss optimal locations and conditions for composting on the farm, and best ways for us to set this up for the long term. He is also an experienced chicken farmer and can teach us more about how to improve soil fertility with our chickens.
Last month a group of our staff and volunteers visited the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden in Watsonville and learned a lot from Art Nathan about irrigating raised planting beds.
Thank you, Master Gardeners of Monterey Bay, for extending a helping hand to Costanoa Commons farm! We are excited to host educational workshops and eager to learn all we can from you.
