National Alpaca Open House

Last Sunday was the Open House event to learn about alpacas and what we do with the fiber. The day was celebrated all across the country at alpaca farms. Perhaps you saw an ad for a farm near you that was hosting the open house.
We had sisters set up at different stations working on fiber. Here one of the sisters is using a tabletop loom to make a scarf. It was really easy to use (I think even I could do it). She had the scarf done by the end of the Open House (it ran from 1 – 4). Lots of little kids enjoyed learning how to do it.

Here Sister Ruth is doing a wall hanging with fiber. She has a picture sitting off to the right of her foam and she is combining two alpaca faces to create the picture of two different alpacas on her felted backing. By using a felting needle, with short jabbing motions, the fiber is pressed onto the backing and bound together. She is really artistic and has a wonderful eye for drawing and has made a lot of different items that are for sale in the center. She is the one who taught me how to dry felt the ornaments.

Ann is spinning fiber into yarn. She asked this little boy if he wanted to learn how to do it and he said “maybe when I get bigger”. She says that it takes quite a bit of coordination to get the hang of keeping the wheel going at the right speed and using your hands to pull the yarn as you go. On Tuesday nights the spinners meet in the center and I’m going to go this coming Tuesday to see if I can learn. I hope they have someone there who is really patient to teach me. I think it’s one of those things that if you can rub your belly and pat your head, you’ll be able to do it. I’ll let you know how I make out.

Sister Jean was running a big loom. It’s portable but much more complicated looking than the table top one. It reminded me of a pipe organ with all the different foot pedals. Each pedal raises a different set of arms so you can create intricate patterns. She was also working on a scarf but she can make much bigger items on this loom. In the back room, at the center, they have a giant loom that is probably 5-6 x the size of this one. Candace, who is the manager of the garden office, runs that one so perhaps when she returns from maternity leave I’ll get to see that one in action.
It rained the evening before our open house and the day started off really cool and damp so Sister Mo decided to have the activities inside the center. It didn’t seem to affect the crowd size though. We had a really good turnout with a steady flow of people all day. Some folks drove from several hours away to come and see the alpacas and fiber items. I worked the tomato stand and sold quarts of our wonderful tomatoes. We sold a little over 14 quarts which helped us get rid of some. They are still going pretty strong. We picked over 300# yesterday and there are still quite a few green ones. They are getting smaller in size and the slugs are starting to get ahead of us for doing damage but we’re holding our own. Yesterday we delivered two totes to both dining halls (these dining rooms serve the sisters). They made eggplant parmesan in the dining halls the other day, with our eggplant, and it was wonderful.
Tomorrow is one of the big fund raisers that the White Violet Center does each year. It’s the Harvest Dinner and much of the food comes from our gardens. I know the soup is Pumpkin Bisque (with our pumpkins) but once I hear the whole menu, I’ll update the blog with it. We’ve been sending over herbs and different items to the chef who is preparing the meal. He works at Indiana State University, here in Terre Haute, and I will be working with him tomorrow once he arrives here to start work on the meal. Today, Sister Mo, me and Bree (another intern) will decorate the tables in the dining room so they will be ready.
Not much else going on here. We are getting a little bit of rain. It poured yesterday for a little bit and again overnight. We sure need it….has been really dry the whole time I’ve been here. Temps this week were in the 80’s most of the time and it was really humid. This morning I awoke and couldn’t even see out my window cause it’s all fogged up with moisture. I had to go out to set some seedlings outside the greenhouse and it is really muggy out. It’s freezing in my room so I usually have a sweatshirt or hoodie on and if I don’t check my phone to see what the temp is outside, I usually am overdressed when I go out. I had Linda send me my heating pad so I can sit on it when it gets really cold in my room. Warms me all over….That’s the hard thing with retrofitting a building with AC that never had it before. It’s so hard for them to regulate the temps from one floor to the next. The first floor temps are very comfortable and most of the second floor (where the intern rooms are) tend to be ok but it’s our west wing area that you could hang meat in….dang it’s cold.
We started harvesting turnips this week. This coming Wednesday will be the last pick-up of food for the summer CSA folks. We’ll have a week off (from packing bags and picking for the CSA – not to lounge around and eat bon bons all week – no such luck) and then the fall/winter CSA program starts. We’ve been busy starting lettuce, beets, carrots, turnips, broccoli and other veggies for the winter group. All of these seeds get planted in the high tunnels so they will stay protected from the snow and harsh temperatures. The plastic on the roof and sides allows the sun to heat the interior of the space so the plants can grow. The plastic on the sides is mounted on a roller so you can raise or lower the sides. As the temperatures drop, we’ll raise the sides so the tunnel will be completely enclosed to keep the heat in. Right now they are part way open so they are not so hot to work inside of.
Well that’s all from the farm. Be sure to support your local farmers….Buy fresh, Buy local !

LiveJournal Tags: White Violet Center for Eco Justice,CSA,Harvest Dinner,high tunnel

We are all connected...

Linda saw this woman speak at the Mother Earth News Fair that she and Becky went to last weekend. Christy is a beekeeper with an interesting perspective (and I think a valid one) on the crisis with bees and has developed a new style of hive that more closely mimics what happens in nature. Linda also put my name into the drawing for her book and I won ! Spending this weekend reading it. Take a few minutes and watch the video to find out what has happened to the food system (and why) and the relationship to bees.

Fall is in the air….

Fall is in the Indiana air and the leaves are turning. Yesterday, in the tomato patch, it was downright chilly but not quite to the point of frost. I could see my breath as I picked tomatoes and they felt like they had been kept in a walk in refrigerator all night. They are slowing down though….only picked 274# yesterday.

I keep forgetting to tell you about the neat way that the convent creates their heat for HVAC purposes and hot water. They have a tractor trailer that picks up wood chips, that local landscapers and tree cutters have dropped off. There is a collection center across the street from Sisters of Providence and the tree trimmers just dump their waste there and the truck goes over and fills up and brings it back to campus. There is a metal shed type of building where the truck backs up and dumps the load. Inside are these conveyor tracks that very slowly pulls the wood in (they take all the wood left off and put it through a wood grinder to make sure it’s uniform in size). My understanding is that it goes into a furnace that heats the rooms and water for the whole complex. There are two huge brick chimneys coming out of the building where all this happens and the building is pretty large. Reminds me of the exterior wood stoves that homes have that can do the same thing….heat the hot water that is piped through it and also send heat to your home. This is just on a gigantic scale. I’ve been told that one tractor trailer load lasts for a typical day and 1.5 – 2 in the winter.

Here are some of things we harvested this week in the garden:

Look at all that celery….it was like loading a small tree into each bag. And it was so fragrant…Yum !

Beautiful Carmen and Bell peppers.

 

 

 

Bagged Swiss Chard…looks sort of like rhubarb but with beautiful stalks of pink, yellow, whitish.

 

 

 

On Thursday we had a potluck event for the CSA members. I finished work at 3:30 and then went to work with Sister Mo so she could teach me how to card the fiber I’ve been working on. This is the next step after skirting it. You take the tufts of fiber that are long enough and it’s laid on that ledge area so it spans the width of the carder. On the far right side is a crank that makes the drums turn and draws in the fiber. The “undesirables” are picked up on the small drum and the acceptable ones are wound around the large drum. When it gets covered to the point where you can’t see the belt seam and it seems full, the “batt” is pulled off the drum. You break the batt, with a large knitting needle type of tool, right at the belt seam. You just run the needle under the batt and pull up on it, separating it from the drum. As you turn the handle you pull gently to have the batt come off in one piece. You’re shooting for it to weigh (in its final weight) 1.0 – 1.2 oz. I had to run mine through twice to get all fibers running the same direction and looking nice and it came out at 1.1 oz…perfect ! The weight is crucial because if you use this to felt a hat, the layers have to weigh the same so it’s not lopsided when you put it together. That is what I’ll be learning next….how to make a felted hat. (This morning I finally finished skirting all the fiber on my table)….hallelujah ! So I worked on the carding till 5, went back to the dorm and showered and made my dish to pass and off to the potluck I went. Long day, beautiful night, great chats with the CSA members who came.

Friday, the new high tunnel got its’ roof installed. There was about 10-12 of us out there helping get the plastic on it. Ropes were thrown over the top of the roof and tied to the plastic. The way they did that was to wrap the plastic end around a rock or clump of dirt and then tie the rope around it. The wind came up as we started to do it and I asked Sister Mo to say a little prayer for us. She asked Saint Joseph to give us some calm so we could get this done and wouldn’t you know it, once we retrieved the end flap that had folded up over the peak of the roof, it got real calm and we were able to finish it up. We only wound up with one hole in it that was easily patched. Next week David will finish up the side and ends so we can get it planted. It’s huge inside and will hold lots of plants.

Tomorrow is Alpaca Farm Days all over the country and ours is from 1 – 4. I will bounce between the kids activity area and the tomato selling table, helping out. Should be a fun day if the weather holds out. We haven’t had much rain since I’ve been here but they are calling for about a 60% chance tomorrow. Hopefully it will rain early or hold off till afterwards.

End of First Month

Can you believe that it will be one month that I've been here at the White Violet Center for Eco Justice ? Wow, seems hard to believe but I'm finishing up my fourth week.

On Monday, we had a new little cria born (that's what the baby alpacas are called). It was a little boy, born to Dora. He's the gray and white one in this video. Dora is a first time mom and she didn't take to him right away so Tracy had to take him to the vet and they gave him plasma, by way of a tube into his stomach, which helped boost his immune system. From the looks of him in this video, he sure is perky now. The brown cria was born the next day (Tuesday) and she is a sweetie. Her mom has had a cria before so she knew what to do and she took good care of her except that her body temperature was too low so Tracy (the alpaca mgr) had to put the cria on a heated dog bed with a hot water bottle to try to raise her body temp. When I stopped down after work, her temp was coming up about a degree per half hour. She was limp as a rag doll though and in this video you can see that her legs were a little wobbly. It was so neat to stand there and watch all the other alpacas come over to meet and greet the new cria. They would nuzzle them and sniff them. It was really cute to watch their acceptance into the herd.

We picked 524 pounds of tomatoes today...a new daily high since I've been here. Holy mackerel but it's a lot of tomatoes. Rusty found this hornworm in the patch while we were picking. Isn't it weird looking ? This one was maybe three inches long but they can get as long as a hotdog. I don't think I want to see one that big. And talk about damage... They strip the leaves off the tomato plant. Look at the top of this plant. There's just twigs left on it.

Elsewhere in the patch, Rusty came across this male monarch hatching out. You can identify the male by the dot on his wings. When they are hatching out, they secrete fluid out of their abdomen. This one was latched onto Rusty's hand and it was so pretty. I hope he eats some of the garden pests.

 

 

We picked cranberry dry beans the other day and they are laid out on trays drying. Once they get dry we'll ask the sisters to shell them for us. Ann and I cut up tomatoes on Tuesday and made a big batch of salsa to give to each of the CSA members on Wednesday. All but one ingredient for the salsa came from the gardens here. We didn't have any cilantro but we had the seed heads. I didn't realize that the leaves are called cilantro but the seed heads are called coriander.I like the taste of the seed heads much better than the cilantro leaves. More of a pop of cilantro flavor than the lingering soapy taste of the leaves. We crushed the seed heads up and that seasoned the salsa.

Did you know that chickens require 14 hours of daylight to be at their peak of egg production ? We are now at 12.5 hours of sunlight so the production is starting to go down. Some chicken farmers use additional light sources to keep it at the 14 hours that is required but we don't.

This afternoon we went on a field trip to Rusty's land. His mom studied permaculture (wikipedia says that permaculture is "

Permaculture is a branch of ecological design, ecological engineering, and environmental design that develops sustainable architecture and self-maintained agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems.^[1][2].

^{They have taken their land and put in 2000 trees and a one acre pond. They did a thing called keylining, which is taking a plow and running it along the various elevations to make a ditch like depression to help with erosion and runoff. Their pond has a sandy bottom to it so the water is slowly draining from the pond and into a nearby creek. Here is a picture of the erosion where the runoff from the field goes into the pond. It's pretty significant. We kicked around ideas for water retention and ways to slow the erosion they are dealing with near the pond and near the creek (they lost 25' to erosion just in the last year on the creek bank). It was really interesting to see how the laid out the trees. They have all types of nut trees, paw paw, hard woods, maple and other trees. His land is about 45 minutes from here, located in Sullivan. It was a pretty drive through the countryside to get there.}

^{Well, guess that is all the news for right now. Our alpaca open house is coming up next week and the CSA pot luck dinner. Lots going on..temps are still warm but I'll take it for as long as it wants to last. Hope everyone has an awesome weekend !}

A Felting We Will Go...

Another week done....tomatoes are still prolific. We had a U-Pick night on Thursday that I worked and sadly we only had about eight groups/families come out for it. We had gotten some much needed rain Thursday morning so it may have scared some of the CSA folks off, thinking that it would be muddy in the tomato patch but it really wasn't that bad. Not like early in the week when the drip irrigation system sprang a leak or got left on....it looked like a rice paddy that day. We were walking through several inches of water in some places. Glad I had my work boots on that day. It was pretty sloppy.

I got Friday off because I had worked last Saturday for the farmer's market so I spent the day working on fiber. I'm working on Chauncay's blanket. This fiber is from the neck and leg areas so it's not the prime stuff. It's 2nds and 3rds and needs to be skirted. The 3rds have to be sorted out and the 2nds are used to do felting with.

I'm looking for fiber that is 2" long so thumb length;otherwise it goes in the can of 3rds. There is quite a bit of stretch to alpaca fiber due to the crimp so if you pull it, you'll get a little more length out it than if you didn't pull on it. Seems this whole bag of fiber is borderline in the necessary length so I'm tugging at each tuff to see if it qualifies for the 2nds bag. I also have to check for "vegetable matter" (poop, hay, foreign objects) and pull off any frizzy hairs. See how it tapers down to a point....that's the part where it was attached to the alpaca. Thank goodness for that little "handle" to gather up tufts of it to check for length. The pile on the table probably covers a 2' x 4' area...it seems really daunting and seems like the pile never gets any smaller. After I get all of this done, then Sister Mo will show me how to card it and then it can be felted. On Friday, Sister Ruth showed me how to do dry felting (she rescued me from the skirting process because they need to stock up on some items for the upcoming Alpaca Open House). I am making ornaments that can be hung on a tree or put on a keychain or whatever. There is a machine that does felting but we do it by hand. You use a felting needle that is about 4" long and has tiny little barbs on the tip of it. The fiber that has gone through the carder is used and you just take little tufts of it and place it in a mold of sorts. They look like cookie cutters but they had these made just for doing this. We place the form that we are using on top of a piece of foam. By poking the loose fiber with the needle (short strokes that don't go into the foam padding), it starts to bind the fibers together till you finally get a densely matted object. You keep turning the form over and poking each side till the object is uniform in density. If you get a weak area (like the neck on my one alpaca needed a little shoring up), you just take a little tuft of fiber and poke it into the weak area. It's really quite fun. I'm trying to help them get a bunch made for the Open House. I brought all the supplies back to my room and I've made 6 since yesterday afternoon. I work on it a little while, do some reading and then go back to it. Sister Mo does wet felting, which is used for hats, slippers and other stuff. I will learn that at some point. Sister Ruth, who taught me to do the dry felting is really artistic. She does wall hangings with the fiber, beautiful drawings on note cards and other fancy stuff. Since I don't consider myself to be an artsy person, this is something I can do and hope that there are other things I'm able to get the hang of.

Meanwhile back in the garden: In the older high tunnel, we've planted lettuce, carrots, beets and spinach for the fall CSA program. The new high tunnel is still under construction. That will be used to plant items for the winter CSA program. Fresh, local veggies all year round....Yum ! Guess that's all the news from the farm. Cooler temps are here. It was 43 degrees when I went for my walk this morning. 70 during the day. Oh yeah, I've got a new to me computer ordered. It should be here by the end of next week. My computer is doing the same thing it did before....black screen of death. It finally started for me yesterday so I could work on my project and do this post. It has to stay open 24/7 now till the new one gets here. The new one will be a Dell Business Edition. My computer guy says that the business models are built so much better to take hard use. He's got a 6 month warranty on it so if I don't like it for any reason, I can return it to him. It's a 2011 model with Windows 7 and Excel and Word installed. He said it will be fast so hoping he is right. $280 so nothing to lose at this point. I hated the thought of paying big bucks for a new laptop. Seems the price keeps going up with all the new fandangled gadgets on them. That's it from Indiana....

Windows Live Tags: felting, fiber, CSA, White Violet Center

Daily Gifts

Even though it's only been three weeks since I arrived here, each day gets better and better. The sisters are so happy to have us interns eat with them at lunchtime and to learn about what's growing in the gardens. They almost are giddy just talking about it. It doesn't hurt that they have a plump slice of tomato on their plate that they're getting ready to sink their teeth into and they know it came from the gardens here.
The sisters are so funny and I learn so much when I sit and talk with them. They are so giving and open to any questions we have. Today I sat with some sisters I had never met before. Three of them are from a parish in Chicago and two of the three are actual blood sisters. As they said: "Sister sisters". We got to talking about the weather in the next few days which is supposed to go back into the 90's through the middle of the week. They were talking about how glad they are to not be wearing habits anymore and the following story came to light.
The oldest sister at the table, we'll call her Sister N (she's 91 and still works everyday and looks amazing !) said that their habits were made out of surge (not sure of the spelling but it's a material like wool). The material wasn't available during the war because it came from France. They wore full length skirts and the headpiece sometimes would cut into their chins and they'd develop sores on their skin. There was no air conditioning in the parishes or convents and she said they must have smelled pretty bad back then as much as they'd perspire and for as long as they wore their clothes. During the time of WWII Sister N was taking a train from Indianapolis to Chicago with a group of sisters and they all were in full habits. They had to move from the second floor of the train station to the first floor and then a short while later needed to go back to the second level. The skirts on the habits had evenly spaced pleats in the front and gathers in the back of the skirt. Her skirt was getting pretty worn and the pleats were wearing thin so she had turned her skirt around so the pleats were in the back. All of the sisters gathered their belongings and were headed up the stairs to the second level. Sister N had a suitcase in one hand and held her skirt up with the other hand. Part way up the stairs, the sister behind her fell forward and in trying to catch herself grabbed Sister N's skirt in her hand and it tore off. With the skirt in hand, the sister tumbled end over end down the stairs in the train station. Sister N stood there with just a black slip on and with all the commotion, all the soldiers hanging out in the train station came running. They rushed to the aid of the sister who was fine but laying at the bottom of the stairs, still clutching Sister N's skirt in her hand. The soldiers helped up the fallen sister and she proceeded up the stairs and handed the skirt back to Sister N, who did not have a spare skirt with her. Back then she said they all carried pin cushions with them so all the sisters circled around Sister N and they pooled all their pins so she could reattach her skirt. Only problem was that once they boarded the train, she couldn't sit down. She had to stand because the pins would poke into her if she went to sit down. Finally one of the sisters in the group offered the spare skirt that she had with her but since Sister N was so much shorter than this sister, it took a lot of "rolling down the waistband" several turns to get it so it didn't drag on the ground.
As Sister N was telling this story, our table was cracking up in the dining hall. Oh my, just when you think these ladies are straight laced and puritanical they come out with these stories that just kill me. Another sister at the table told about a sister, who was from the northeast and was shopping for a "cart" for the convent but with her accent the "T" was not pronounced....you know how those Bostonians talk. She called someone at the convent and asked who she should call about a "car" (I can hear my friend Larry saying it now). They gave her a phone number for a local dealer who she promptly called. Here's how the conversation went:
Dealer: Hello, may I help you?
Sister: Hi, I'm looking for a car(t).
Dealer: Yes, we have those.
Sister: Does it have 4 wheels?
Dealer: Yes, they all come with 4 wheels.
Sister: Does it come in white?
Dealer: Yes, we have them in white.
Sister: Does it come assembled ?
Dealer: Yes they are all ready to go.
Sister: Can I set a microwave on it ?
Dealer: I suppose you could set a microwave on it.
By this time the dealer knew that something was amiss and they got the whole thing straightened out and figured out that she wanted a "cart" and not a "car".
Too funny...once again our table was in tears and by this time all of the tables in the dining room had finished lunch and left. We were still sitting there hearing stories about smelly sisters in habits and whether cars come in white. These ladies are truly a blessing to me and so  much fun to be around. Here's a sign I walk by on the way to Sunday lunch and it cracks me up every time I see it. Who says that nuns don't have a sense of humor.

A Wrap on My Week....

I spent part of Labor Day working with Bree, feeding the caring for the alpacas. They get feed, hay and fresh water each day. Alpacas create  just a couple of spots in their pasture area where they poop so it's easy to clean up after them (they poop out little pellets). It's important to clean it up so that they don't pick up diseases. Erma Bombeck always said that the grass is always greener over the septic tank...well that's sort of close. Here it's ...The Grass is Always Greener Under the Alpaca Poop". When you have a big pasture, as some of ours our, you look for the tallest grass to find their bathroom spots. It was fun working with them...they are quite the curious creatures and they sure love the feed that they get. One came into the shed, when he heard me scooping it up, and wanted to stick his head right in the can to get some. I had to shoo him out so I could finish getting it ready for them.
With the long weekend the tomatoes were sure ripe and ready to be picked on Tuesday. We picked almost 400 pounds ! We pick into red totes and once the product is washed or prepared for CSA or market, they go into blue totes. They are washed with straight vinegar each time they are used to kill any diseases or fungus that has come in from the field. Wednesday was CSA day and I took the orders to our "South" location and handed them out to the members as they came in. When we set up the room to pack bags, here is the set up.

Ann looks at the list of CSA members , hands us a member's bag and tells us what extra items someone might get.

Starting with the heaviest items, we start filling the cloth bags. This week, these totes had onions and apples. Notice that some things are in red totes when they should be in blue. We had so many tomatoes in blue ones that we ran out of them so had to use red ones.

We work our way around the room, and the lightest items are at the end. We also put the items that not everyone is going to get, which this week was ground cherries, eggplant, swiss chard and peppers.

That's the process ! We have 62 CSA members. Some are 1/2 shares so they don't get all of the items. We usually have about 10-12 dozen eggs each week so those get distributed in some manner too. Sometimes I don't know how Ann keeps track of everything. It gets really confusing sometimes to figure out who gets what. So back to my story about being at our South pick-up: I got to talking to one of our CSA members, told him I'm a fulltime RVer and turns out he is shopping for an RV. He would like to go full-time but can't right now. He and his wife do shows (they are artists) and they bought a Smart Car so they can tow it when they buy their motorhome. They want something about 25' in length so we talked a while about that. Then somehow we got to talking about Ithaca, NY. I told him I lived there for a bit and that my son was born there. Turns out he was just there four days ago....went to the bird sanctuary on Sapsucker Woods Rd which is where I used to live. Wow, small, small world. It was fun talking to him...he found an object laying in the parking lot that he wants to incorporate into a piece called "The River" that he's working on. He uses items he has found on the river while boating or kayaking. Love these chance encounters to chat with people !

Oh, here's another neat thing that happened just yesterday. A guy named Norbert came by with this trailer to show us. It was a race car trailer and it has two entrances into it, in addition to the ramp door in the back. The side flaps go up so apparently someone used it as a concession sales trailer. It's going to be used as a mobile market for fresh produce. It will go into neighborhoods in Terra Haute, where low income folks or retirees live who may not have a car to get to the market and sell fresh produce to them. Our interns (me included) will take turns working with Norbert in nearby areas. Sorry I don't have a picture of the inside of the trailer. I was in awe of the whole thing that I forgot I had my phone with me till after he had closed it up. The outer walls of the trailer are lined with commercial storage racks, held in place by tie down straps hooked to the walls. You can see the AC unit on the roof so it can be kept cool

LiveJournal Tags: White Violet Center for Eco Justice,Terra Haute Farmer's Market,Wabash Valley Mobile Market

. There are two different refrigerated cases in the front, left corner so things like fresh cheese or whatever could be displayed there. In talking to Robyn, at White Violet Center, there is something being created called The Hub that will be a central place where farmers can bring and sell their produce so they don't have to try and find an outlet for it. This unit will hit the streets next month, I believe, to get the word out. Offerings will be light this year but once farmers hear about it, they can increase the amount of crops they grow for next year. The woman in the picture is Tracy, our alpaca manager.

Well, that's about it. Tomorrow I need to water the chickens and collect the eggs. We have basil in the food dehydrator and the trays will need flipped in the morning. I'm going to start working on my project, which involved crunching some numbers and doing some research. Hope everyone has a great weekend !

Terra Haute Farmer's Market

It's been a busy week, between the CSA on Wednesday and picking to get ready for the Farmer's Market on Saturday. It has been really  humid all week but I started wearing shorts and it has made it much more comfortable to have less fabric clinging to me when I'm hot and sweaty. I went with Rusty (another intern) to our "South" pick-up location for those CSA customers to help him hand out bags and see how things are done. It's nothing fancy...just us handing out the bags out behind Caboodles cupcake shop. Rusty bought a dozen cupcakes to take back with him and gave me one. I've seen these gourmet cupcake shops popping up all over in our travels and I must say at $2 a piece, it should be pretty profitable for them. They were way too sweet for me. This shop even has gluten free ones to choose from.

On Thursday we started out the morning by visiting the chickens. There are 24 of them and they are free range chickens, who also share the pasture with the alpacas. They are also heritage breeds which means they come from a long lineage of the old breeds that have been around a long time. Some breeds of heritage animals are also on the endangered species list since so few of them remain. There are groups that are dedicated to preserving heritage breeds of different kinds of animals, which I think is so important to do since many of these breeds are ideally suited for small farmers.
We gathered the eggs and filled the water dispensers. I got a look at the fancy timer that is connected to the little trap door on their coop. There is a string connected to a motor (see picture on the left) so that when the timer goes off it opens the door at a preset time to let the chickens out in the morning and then when you want them inside for the night, it lowers the door. They are $106 on Amazon if you want to set up a curfew for your cats on their kitty door. Pretty neat, eh ?
Thursday night there was a U-Pick tomato night for the CSA members and about 20 people showed up. They could pick all they wanted for free and they did a really great job of picking the whole area, since we hadn't picked it since Tuesday. The ones they didn't get were in the middle of the plants or down low, where it's hard to see them. We still picked 6 totes worth on Friday morning so you can imagine how many we would have had, if they hadn't come the night before.
Friday we spent the morning picking for the farmer's market booth which I worked with Ann, the assistant garden manager. After lunch, we cleaned everything and loaded the tent into the van to get ready for leaving Saturday morning. I met Ann at the office at 6:45 and we loaded all the produce we had prepared and off we went. The farmer's market is held in a parking lot across from the factory that makes Clabber Girl baking powder. I've never heard of it but it's been around for a really long time and is still produced in the plant across the street from where we were. The area where I took this picture of all the old style tins is where there is a little coffee shop and museum type of area. They've restored all the old woodwork and there are tons of displays set up. Too bad I didn't have more time to check it all out. Maybe I can take time another day to go see it. It makes a great setting for people to spend their Saturday morning's at the market and then gather for coffee and a danish in their coffee shop.
We had a busy day at the market. It reminded me of when I was 12 and had my roadside produce stand. You meet the neatest people at places like this. I spent some time talking to the vendor next to us, Jason and his wife Kathy. They have a 100 acre farm where they do grass fed milk. Kathy also makes homemade Kombucha, which is a fizzy, fermented drink. I've tried the store bought ones and didn't care for it at all. Kathy gave me a sample of her Hawaiian Tropic flavor and it was really good. She makes about five different ones and even sells the kit so you can make your own. They sold all sorts of items and I really enjoyed visiting with them. They said that the interns have come out to their farm before for a tour. I hope that we get to go while I am here. I'd be interested to see their operation. They make all sorts of products like cheese, soap and cottage cheese, plus they have an acre planted in vegetables.






At our booth, we sold all sorts of items, including a sunburn cream and bruise salve that Robyn made. We had two different types of okra and I got to cook with that when I came home from the market since Ann gave me a leftover CSA bag and there was a bag given out to each member last week. We also sold soft and hard neck garlic, which I am not familiar with. It's almost time to plant that since it gets planted in the fall and harvested in the spring. The soft neck garlic keeps longer than the hard neck.
We had some Asian pears, which were super sweet and delish. We had tomatillos, cherry tomatoes, jalapeno, bell and anaheim peppers, apples, garlic, onions, purple and green beans, eggplant and beautiful flower bouquets. It was fun and I came home with a large loaf of zucchini bread from a nearby vendor. I had to water the chickens when I got back to White Violet Center, before returning to my room to relax and do some reading. I'm reading Beekeeping for Dummies, which is an interesting book.
Last night some type of disturbance came through and the winds came up. I found a number of tree limbs down in the park this morning
where I walk and this one was pretty big. I'm hoping that no car had a close encounter of the worst kind last night when it came down on the road. The hot spell is moving out and we should have cooler temps this week. We are still off work tomorrow but I'm hoping to catch up with Tracy, the alpaca manager, who's working tomorrow and learn more about their care. Hopefully she'll let me tag along while they feed and care for them. Hope everyone is having a restful holiday weekend with family and friends. This weekend always signifies the end of summer so we need to enjoy the nice weather while it still lasts. The almanac is calling for a cold and snowy winter, here in Indiana. Wouldn't you know that the winter I come here will probably break all sorts of records. Let's hope not !

Hot Hot Hot

The forecast for this week was for temps in the mid 90's and high humidity. So far the weatherman has been right. Yesterday, I learned how to make soil blocks. You take a device that you compact a potting soil mixture into the bottom of so that when you push the plunger it  pushes out five blocks of dirt, ready to plant a seed in. It takes the place of little seed starter pods that you buy. The potting soil has to be just the right consistency....not too wet and not too dry for it to work correctly with the seed. Get it too wet and when it dries, it gets hard as a rock. Too dry and it won't germinate the seed. We started some broccoli and cauliflower plants for the winter CSA program. We did this in the greenhouse where it was REALLY hot. Glad we didn't have to do too much in there.
Yesterday and today we picked tomatoes. They are going crazy in this heat. Today's weight was around 285# and yesterday's was a little less. Wow ! On Thursday the CSA members can come to a "U Pick night" to get as many as they want. After the amount they'll get tomorrow, they may not want any more. We did deliver Roma tomatoes and regular ones to both dining units today so that will make a dent in our massive quantity on hand. In the last two days we've also picked okra (red and the usual green), green beans, cucumbers, ground cherries, apples, berries, parsley and cilantro. We spent the tail end of today cleaning the cilantro...Yuck..I can't stand the smell of that plant. I can't even put my finger on what it smells like to me but it's so strong.
Yesterday while we were in the tomato patch, two male alpacas were fighting like crazy in the pasture near us. One brother was screaming at the other brother, spitting, throwing his neck into him, chasing him, trying to bite him, etc. I don't know what got into them but they must have carried on like this for 15-20 minutes. Ann said that they fight like this a lot. They actually split them up for a while but they both got so mopey that they put them back together again. The other two males in the pasture with them, just kept a wide birth while the show went on as if to say, "There they go again...."
Tomorrow will be the hottest day of the week, with temps of 95 and a heat index of 105. Our day now starts at 7:30 so we can beat the heat a little bit and finish up earlier. Tomorrow is CSA day so the afternoon will be spent indoors packaging the fruits and veggies for pick-up from 4:30 - 5:30. Probably will have the farmers market to work this Saturday, since we didn't go last week. Working out in the bean patch at mid-day made for hot work....someone turned on the spigot running down my back. It was sort a like Chinese water torture of the drippy kind.
We also got a bed ready for fall lettuce. Since lettuce needs cooler temps to germinate, we put shade cloth over the rows, which will get the soil to cool down 8 or so degrees from the surrounding soil. Hopefully the temps will cool off a bit next week to aid in cooling it down to where it needs to be by the time we plant the seed.
I'm starting to formulate what my project will be. All of the interns need to do a project while they are here. Mine is going to be tied to Sisters of Providence' land ethic...(go here to read it http://spsmw.org/sp/about-us/green-projects/land-ethic/ ) and how it relates to the food plots and sustainability here. I hope it will shape up into a usable document for the sisters to have moving forward.
Bree's friend, Andrew is volunteering here with us this week. He is interested in sustainable agriculture and wanted to check out what is done at White Violet Center. It's so nice to see young people, without a background in farming, showing an interest in agriculture. It gives me hope that our food system can be turned around if enough people get involved.
That's all from Indiana. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week !

I Survived the First Week....

and I'm sure glad it's the weekend. Yesterday was a busy day of weeding here. My hands are so sore from pulling 2-3' tall weeds. We spent the whole morning in the high tunnel, getting rid of the weeds. Here is the "after" picture. From right to left we have strawberries, swiss chard, melons and cantalopes. Picture the rows in between with tall weeds that were really stubborn and hard to pull out. In a high tunnel, you plant directly into the ground and there is no additional heat source. It allows you to extend the growing season for veggies and fruit. The far left side of the high tunnel will be planted next week for the winter CSA program. Not sure what we're planting but it's ready to go.

Owie !! Fingers are swollen (must be all those muscles I haven't used in a while)

Exterior view of High tunnel

Wednesday was CSA day. We had produce to pick in the morning (raspberries and blackberries) and then after lunch the final push to get everything cleaned and ready to pack by 2:00. Each person's "share" is packed in a cloth bag that they return to us the following week. They are given two so we always have one to pack in. The heaviest items are placed in the bottom of the bag and the lighter, more fragile items are put on top. This week's items were potatoes, pears, onions, tomatoes, parsley, cilantro, basil, peppers. Some people got cucs, green beans, blackberries or raspberries, eggs, jalepeno peppers or anaheims (not hot but long and pointy), or eggplant. For items that are just coming on, we have to rotate between who gets them when there isn't enough for everybody. It's a crazy system to figure out for Ann (the lady in charge right now). We have so many tomatoes right now. I've picked them twice and it's sad to see that the brandywine breed does not hold up well to pests. You reach in to grab a huge, beautiful tomato and it will be mush and half eaten or half rotten. That is not a particularly great feeling.....Yuck !  We have yellow ones, romas, brandywine, several different cherry tomatoes (one that has the coloring of a brandywine and is delicious) and several other red ones that I don't know the names of. Yesterday I worked with Ann to take some of the 2nds and prep them for drying. You cut them in even slices, soak in Fruit Fresh and place on the drying racks. They go into a large Cabela dryer and stay there for 23 hours. I had to go down last night and rotate the racks cause there are hot spots in the dryer. I'll go down at 2 and see if they are done and if they are, they get removed from the racks and placed in a glass jar. It's a great way to preserve them for winter use.

The sisters take some of the berries that are too mushy to put in containers and turn them into jam or jelly to give out to the CSA members. I think we have enough now that everyone will get a jar of jelly next week. On Tuesday, Ann showed the other interns how to make chimichurri sauce and that was given out on CSA day. It's made with parsley, red pepper flakes, onion, etc and is a great condiment for steak or other meats. I didn't work on that since I needed to unpack and get settled into my room.

Been trying to get out most days to walk...here are pics of what I see on my route...

Alpaca Barn

My thoughts exactly....

Grotto...

This morning I spent more time walking in the cemetery. In the center are the graves of three men and I was a little dumbfounded why, in a place that is for and run by women, there are these graves of men. Then it dawned on me....Women can't be priests. These are the men who have been the priests over the years. Graves from the 1840's to current times are here and there is a memorial to the sisters who are buried in other countries. Keep in mind that a lot of work, by the sisters of Providence is done in Taiwan, China, and other countries so it only makes sense that some who have made it their life's work to work there would also want to be laid to rest there.

"Providing shelter to all"(see if you can see the mud wasp nests)

This is one of my favorite spots. I call it the meditation maze....I know there's a more formal name for it but I don't recall what it is. This is where I have my chat with the universe each morning and is a great place to center yourself for the day ahead. The twisting and turning paths all lead to the center, where the bench is. The paths are lined with ground up rubber so it's easy on the legs. It's a really neat place and really close to Owens Hall, where my room is. It's usually the last stop on my walk before heading back to fix breakfast.




Part off Equine Studies at the college here

Our portable chicken coop. There is a timer on the ramp door that pulls it up when it approaches night so the chickens are safe. They learn very quickly when curfew is.

These are the sweet potatoes we weeded yesterday. In organic farming methods, since you don't use chemicals to control weeds, many times ground cover is planted. The sweet potatoes are in the hilled rows and in between is planted hairy vetch, clover and something else. When we weeded, we lay it in between the rows so it will decompose and put nitrogen back into the soil. It was a pretty dense jungle before we weeded. Many of the sweet potato vines were eaten by the deer, hence the spotty planting.
Orchard
Ground Cover at Work

Greenhouse

Another high tunnel under construction for a winter crop.

Beautiful steeple on church here at Sisters of Providence

Everyone is so nice here. The sisters are so cool. I just came from having lunch in the Owens Hall cafeteria and the sisters were talking about an event going on nearby and who was going to go on the zipline. Any of the stereotypes that one might have about nuns certainly doesn't apply to most of the ones I've met here. I did see a sister at lunch who wore the head covering of a habit but I think she is part of a group that is here for a retreat. Most of the sisters here are in t-shirts and jeans or shorts and are talking about horse racing, rollercoasters and NASCAR. Neat bunch of ladies !

Since this is a facility that values the environment and all of God's creatures, most people abide by the "No Kill" policy when it comes to a critter found in the garden or things that we pick. I'm fine with flicking a slug off a tomato and put the wolly worm aside that is crawling up the clover. The other day I was washing heads of cabbage and there was a really big hairy brown spider that was on one of the heads. I washed him off the head only to watch him run around the bottom of the sink and I kept thinking about the No Kill policy. I didn't kill him but I sure hope he brought a canoe with him cause he's gonna need it cause I "escorted" him down the drain. I'll say a little prayer for him tomorrow while I'm walking the meditation maze.