Weeding, Beaching, and Eating

Pictures just make things easier.

So this is actually a pretty interesting picture because it shows most of our work this week: weeding. I don't know if it's easy to see, but there are three rectangular beds here (the left one is the best example).

We start with an area like the one on the right of the picture - just really densely packed with weeds.

Then we pick the weeds with little fork hoes and stuff. We just stab the ground with them and pull the weeds out, trying to get the whole root systems whenever possible. This is the middle bed, a work in progress. 

Finally, we make walking aisles and raised beds of soil, and put a layer of compost on top. The finished product looks like the aisle on the left (I don't think that one has compost on top, but that doesn't make it look very different). 

This week, we did that for... 6 beds or something? maybe 8? It's time-consuming, but kinda relaxing and a good time for conversation.

Since we're going to be planting all of this weekend, we took some time off yesterday and today. This morning, I went for a bike ride with one of the guys on the farm who's a hardcore awesome biker. We took the scenic route to Kennebunk and got muffins and this delicious cinnamon bun at a local breakfast place, and then went to the beach and ate them. We went to the water but it was around 60 degrees and my feet started to get numb pretty quickly. It was still beautiful though! Then we came back to the farm (scenic route again) and stopped by the local bike shop, about 16 miles round trip.

I don't have a picture of this, but in the afternoon, I went to the alternative high school that the people who run the farm made. The main lady here is the principal, and it's a really amazing school. The students have an impressive amount of freedom and they're all at school because they want to be, not because they have to. The other WWOOFer and I talked with the students about our experiences and then played some basketball. Good stuff. 

Then for dinner we (the other WWOOFer and I) made these pizzas! Mine's the one on the left. We used the same ingredients, but she put her cheese on top. Anyway, this is just to say that she's got a decent amount of cooking experience and I've been learning a lot in the kitchen, and the quality of ingredients here is excellent. Pretty much anything that isn't grown on the farm itself is locally grown and organic. For example, the spinach, dill, basil, oregano, and garlic on this pizza were grown on the farm, and that's fewer than usual! 

Most days for breakfast or lunch we have eggs that were laid in the past 24 hours! Everything tastes SO GOOD here! 

And you know how much I love dogs so I had to share this picture of Wadgie (I don't really know how to spell her name), the other dog. She's much more relaxed than Angus, and she looks like part german shepherd and part retriever or something. Anyway she's pretty cool too. 

We start planting tomorrow morning! Oh, also, we had our first strawberry of the season today. It was THE best strawberry I have ever had, and there are like a billion more to come. woohoo!