It was a beautiful day on the farm last Saturday as 19 volunteers took on the task of freeing fence lines from creeping vegetation and clearing the “leftovers” from the field of the Ecosystem Farm.
The late October frost brought about the demise of several of our summer crops, shriveling their leaves and stems, but leaving much of the fruit still ripe and ready to be eaten. The volunteers picked all of the green peppers, eggplants, pak choi, and sweet potatoes that had survived the colder temperatures, then pulled out the dead plants to prepare the fields for winter. We had quite a haul with about four ponies of peppers, one pony of eggplants, two ponies of pak choi, and two ponies of sweet potatoes. All of the produce gleaned is being donated to the Fort Washington Food Pantry.
We also had a group of volunteers tackle the fence line around our “new field”. The surrounding vegetation and woodlands have slowly been creeping up and ripping down huge sections of the fence, and the farmers need to get the tractors into the field in order to prepare it for use next season. So the volunteers went to work clearing the invasive vines and pulling out the warped and broken fence sections. It was no easy task, but they worked relentlessly through the morning and managed to free a huge section of the fence.
The morning would not have been nearly as much fun if it wasn’t for the wonderful group of volunteers that joined us. Thank you to all who participated and we hope to see you back on the farm soon!
*This event was part of our Service Saturday series. Join us for a fun-filled morning of volunteering on the first Saturday of each month. Contact volunteers@accokeek.org for more information or to sign-up for a Service Saturday event. Activities vary each month.
Check out the photos below to see the volunteers in action:
Volunteers fix fence lines and glean the Ecosystem Farm fields on November 2 during Service Saturday