A Garden of the Students, by the Students, for the Students: Week 1 of the CSA

"It's time," Michelle says.  It's 6am Thursday morning and Michelle, Judith, and I are gathered around our potato plants.  Many of their leaves are beginning to get yellow and brown on top, a sign that we need to pull them up and harvest those potatoes.  And harvest them we did.  For those of you who have not harvested potatoes before, I would highly recommend it because it is mounds of fun.  When we pulled up the potato plants, we then dug around in the soil looking for potatoes tucked away in the dirt.  It was so exciting to let out a victory shout as we unearthed many beautiful potatoes!The potatoes we harvested Thursday morning were just one part of the CSA share this week.  We actually had more produce than we thought we would, and we were all so excited harvesting and packing everything.  We had so much that we had to run out and buy another cooler in which to put everything.  The list of what we had is as follows: Swiss chard, kale, broccoli, sugar snap peas, potatoes (Potomac Red, Adirondack Blue, and Yukon Gold), sweet basil, and rosemary.  We also picked wildflowers and had mason jars to give everyone in which they could pick out and arrange the flowers.  Our surprise of the week was chamomile tea made of the wild chamomile growing right on our plot!  To cap it all off, we hand-wrote recipe cards for everyone to give them ideas about how to use the produce.  I can't say how thrilled and happy I am with how everything went!  Everyone participating in the CSA is so cool and excited about the program, and we're going to have an awesome time getting to know each other and working together at the garden.This morning we had a light work day and then headed over to the Japanese gardens for our Special Friday [Blank].  It was so wonderful to enjoy each other's company, relax in the peaceful morning breeze, and breath in the fragrant, calming smell of the Japanese Cedar.  It's been a busy and exciting week!After our vacation to Japan, Judith and I drove to the Local Food Hub's Farm at Maple Hill near Scottsville to learn about their season extension techniques and their educational programming.  We both were so impressed with their farm!  Emily Manley, a manager of the Local Food Hub, gave us a tour of what they're growing and of the different methods of season extension they have used.    Judith and I could not get over the size of their peppers and tomatoes!  Season extension makes a huge difference, and we're definitely going to experiment with the different techniques on our garden at Morven.We're all looking forward to sleep this weekend, but I'm so excited about next week's CSA share and the other activities to come!