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Happy December,
Hub Farmily!
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This month has been one of fluctuating temperatures, school groups, and planning for the future! As the weather finally cools down, we are getting ready for winter here at the Hub Farm!
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Notes from the Garden
This month has brought change to the garden! We harvested sweet potatoes and cleared out arugula—which left us to choose between planting those beds, or resting them until the spring. With this temperamental weather, it's a gamble! Our season extension tunnels have been helpful in keeping our plants nice and toasty, and will continue to do so as the temperature dips below freezing this coming week.
The frost has left its mark on our parsley, collards and other greens by making them sweeter! The carrot bed is looking fuller, and we even pulled up a baby root with some preschool visitors earlier this month to confirm they still had more growing time ahead of them. Our turnips, radishes, kales, collards, and salad mix continue to provide us with steady harvests of tasty treats. The beets still haven't seen a first harvest, although the spinach was sampled by some helpful Northern Students just last week.
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Visitor Spotlight
This month, we were graced by the presence of some 4-year-old farmers! The Latino Education Achievement Partnership (LEAP) brought two classes to come visit the farm. They saw some bigger, more grown up versions of the plants they're growing in their school garden. After a tour of the beaver dams and lodges, we took the LEAPers for a hike on our forest trails, and for a tasty-time tour through the garden. They helped us harvest some root vegetables and some herbs like cilantro! We talked about the different parts of plants—how we eat the roots of a carrot plant, but the leaves of cilantro. We don't often get to host preschool students, which makes the visits from LEAP all the more special!
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Our December workday (so okay, not technically November, but darn close!) was a hit! We had about 30 volunteers come out—individuals, families, and two student groups! DSA's Octagon Club took the title of trailblazers and worked all day to maintain, spruce up, and blaze our trails! With the fallen leaves, it was getting hard for this farmer to stay on the trail—not to mention those with less experience in our friendly forest! We are happy to report that our trails are now more navigable. Girl Scout Troop 1034 joined the rest of the group for work in the garden and collecting leaves for the compost. We are so pleased with the hard work and lovely community members that we got to work with last weekend!
Our students often get overlooked as volunteers—they don't usually join us for workdays on the weekends, but they do come nearly every week to help the farmers out with a task around the farm! Northern's student volunteers are in the spotlight this month as they've helped plant garlic, harvest roots, and mulch beds. It is such a pleasure to be able to work with the same groups of students from Northern's CTE classes throughout the seasons. We're already looking forward to their next visit!
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Here's hoping your November holiday was well spent! Goose the Turkey came out to tour the Hub Farm the week of Thanksgiving and now lives in the barn. If you missed our Instagram story featuring Goose the Turkey's tour because you don't follow us on Instagram, be sure to change that! Find us @dpshubfarm to see the inside scoop on daily activities and visitors at the farm! You might as well follow us on Facebook while you're at it.
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Our next volunteer workday is on January 6th! Come on out, brave the cold, and celebrate the New Year at the Hub Farm! Please email dpshubfarm@gmail.com to RSVP!
Hope to see you all out at the farm sometime soon!
~The Hub Farm Team
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Recipe of the Month
Got collard greens coming out of your ears? Don't have a ham hock or bacon handy? This recipe is for you!
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