On June 7, the blueberries weren’t quite ripe yet. A few weeks before, eight students lovingly weeded and side-dressed the blueberry patch in the hopes that this year’s berry crop would be unparalleled. And on their last day on the farm for the year, they wanted to enjoy the literal fruit of their labor. So the students took to the patch determined to find a ripe berry among the dozens of bushes. After a few moments, the cry went up–“I found one!” One glorious, huge, juicy bl

This past weekend, Permaculture course participants studied Natural Building and Passive Solar Energy at the Ecosystem Farm in Piscataway Park.  Activities included building a cold frame and a worm bin, covering a hoop house, planting cover crops at our Persimmon guild and making Biochar, an ancient soil amendment. Loose brush is burned inside a homemade furnace and removed before being buried. Biochar Biochar is a kind of charcoal, which converts agricultural waste, or in th

The Accokeek Foundation is seeking workshare volunteers for the growing season. If you are interested in the principles of sustainable agriculture and farm market operations, and are able to commit to 2 – 4 hours per week, then join the Ecosystem Farm Workshare Corps. As a workshare corps volunteer, you will receive a weekly share of produce in exchange for the opportunity to be stewards of the land, and working on a nonprofit, educational farm operation as you learn about gr

Crusaders, Erika “Riks” Enriquez and Nicole “Nics” Fleming, are spending the summer of 2014 travelling across the U.S., visiting 15 states in 30 days. Along the way, these two ambitious friends are opening their eyes and minds to discover what their home country has to offer by volunteering at organizations such as Clean the World, Climate Cycle, Cradles to Crayons, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, Second Harvest Food Bank, and on Day

by Rebecca Cecere Seward Training farmers to fill this increasing demand is at the core of the current mission of the Ecosystem Farm, but over the last year we have been steadily increasing the consumer education element of our mission. Whether visitors come to the on-farm market, volunteer with us for one of our volunteer days, or come to us as schoolchildren for a tour, we have been spreading the good word about organic farming and eating. Increasing this audience is on the

by Rebecca Cecere Seward Planning for a CSA is a difficult lesson in making choices, as I have found these last two seasons, and I often have to think more like an eater than a farmer when considering what will fulfill our CSA members’ needs. My formula for what can provide a hearty amount of choices in a family’s week of meal planning is the title of this essay: roots, fruits, leaves, and spice. Fruits, as one would describe them botanically, contain seeds. Culinarily, they 

Fee for food, general admission is free. For more information contact info@accokeek.org or visit www.accokeek.org. #agriculture #harvestfestival

by Susan Cook, Ecosystem Farm Apprentice (an excerpt from Field Notes, week 3) It’s a little after noon and it’s time to eat lunch. I look at my hands and they are caked with dirt. I’ve learned by watching Sky and Becky that one quick and natural way to wash your hands is to pull up a bunch of long grass and rub your hands with it. Voila! Your hands are “clean enough” to eat with. (My standards of “clean enough” have evolved.) photo credit: Susan Cook Learning to eat with sem