Welcome back for your second CSA harvest! We are proud to again share the fruit (and greens!) of our spring labor with you. The generous sun and a special foliar spraying of nutrients have yielded healthy, vibrant vegetables to nourish your body and soul.

Take a glance around the farm and discover that almost all of our beds are now teaming with baby, adolescent or full-grown plants! We have even begun to transition two beds, which have been fully harvested, to cover crop. What does this mean?

An essential part of organic farming entails the use of cover crops. Before we plant vegetables in each bed and after a bed’s harvest has been exhausted, we sow a selection of cover crop – such as sorgum sudan grass, buckwheat, clover, rye, oats or varieties of legumes.

Just like people need coffee breaks to rest and recharge, so does soil. If we were to repeatedly plant vegetables into our beds, it would deplete the nutrients by constantly drawing on them. However, when we plant legumes as cover crop, they “fix” nitrogen from the air into the soil… increasing the nutrients available for our next crop!

In addition, it also helps prevent erosion from wind and water, suppress weeds and reduce insect pests and diseases. When we are ready to plant our next vegetable, we simply mow and till the bed such that the cover crop is incorporated into the soil becoming a “green manure” (no, green manure does not mean that the chickens are on a spinach diet!).

My mama raised me to eat my vegetables… and I have fully embraced that practice! After studying Latin American Studies and Spanish at UNC-Chapel Hill, I moved to Atlanta to work for Georgia’s most famous US president on democracy and transparency initiatives in the Americas through the Carter Center. While I loved that work, my body yearned to be outside and my mind was curious to discover the wonders of the earth.

We are excited to announce that we raised enough money at the Health on Wheels bicycle race this past Sunday to dedicate 37 sq. feet of produce to local soup kitchens through our Healthy Food for the Hungry program! During this ongoing fundraiser, a dollar buys a square foot of soil and all its harvest is donated to food banks and local charities.

Children from the event scrambled onto a farm hayride and helped seed the bed with squash, cucumbers and zucchini! This is an important initiative to us, as we are glad to provide fresh, organic produce to those who may otherwise have trouble affording it. As we launch this new fundraiser, we’d like your help in spreading the word and increasing the amount we can donate.

Signs our fields are beginning to suggest that winter is becoming more distant as spring flies quickly by: