Newsletter Week 10

Happy August everyone!

We have finally entered summertime's famously hot month, the one where peppers will soon ripen, eggplant skins will thicken, and tomatoes will soon plump up.  It's the time to be outside and have picnics, particularly ones with chilled soups and big bowls of salad.

Besides the heat, this week has been the season's "challenge week" for us interns.  Jeff--our ever-busy manager--is out of town this week and on vacation, leaving the farm in our six hands (that is, there are three of us, making six collective hands).  Luckily Jeff is an excellent teacher and has taught us well, so we've been running the show pretty smoothly thus far.  Playing farm managers proves to be crucial experience for us, forcing us to put on our problem-solving caps and use those handy time management skills to pack in our to-do lists in the most efficient way possible during the fleeting daylight hours.

The biggest challenge with only three of us is keeping up with the garden's harvest.  Right now, while our lower gardens still wait to fully bloom, our north field is an explosion of the different shapes and colors of the plethora of vegetables along with, yes, weeds.  It makes one realize it doesn't take much land to grow an abundance of plants and feed a good amount of people.

This weekend a couple of us visited Chicago's City Farm, which is a one acre piece of asphalt right in the heart of the city--between the low income area of Cabrini Green and the high income area of the Gold Coast.  Right there amidst large, looming buildings and never-ending traffic a tomato plant grows; actually, lots of tomato plants grow, along with many of the crops that are also grown here at Wellspring.  The lot is a miraculous bridge between the two disjointed communities, providing something that everyone is in need of: healthy food.

This small farm was inspiring for us to see, just as Wellspring has been inspiring for us to work at and be a part of.  With local, fresher food in demand, urban farms like this one will likely become more of the norm and less of a shock to the eye.  Local food can be just about anywhere.  Small-scale farms don't have to solely be outside of major metropolitan cities--they can be right in the middle of them; and it doesn't take much space for a fair amount of food to be grown.

This week, enjoy your local, freshly picked harvest.  Besides cooking up those tasty recipes, be sure to also blend those cold summertime soups and chop those carrots and lettuce into some raw salads.  We can tell already it's going to be a hot August, and cool food will provide some relief!

-Alison, Kelly, and Alex (Wellspring Interns/Temporary Managers)