Archive for April, 2008
Mother’s Day Plant Sale May 9-11th
Friday, April 18th, 2008
Mark your calendars for the annual HOG Mother’s Day Weekend Plant Sale! This year should be bigger and better than ever! The HOG is teaming up with Phil Altomare of Sacred Gardens to bring you a wide selection of organically grown perennial and annual flowers, bedding plants, vegetable starts for your home garden, medicinal herbs, and exotic perennial and annuals you won’t find at the garden center!
We’ll be at the Red Barn Friday May 9th through Sunday May 11th from 10am-4pm.
Pickup Coordinators Needed
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008We are searching for pickup coordinators for the 2008 season at all our pickup locations! This position involves working a 2 hour shift during the pickup, checking people in, straightening the produce, refilling the baskets, and cleaning up at the end. This position counts towards your work hours! You must be able to lift bushels full of produce to work this position!
Hours are available at the farm Tuesday and Friday, and on Wednesdays in Bayshore and Seatuket from mid May until the end of October, with the first shift being 3-5pm and the second being 5-7pm.Anyone interested in signing up, please email jill@hamletorganicgarden.org or call Jill at 286-7068. There is a mandatory orientation meeting before you can begin working!
Electric Tractor Conversion
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
IT’S ALIVE!!! It took about twenty throws of the switches, but after innumerable tweaks and reconfigurations, the little electric motor whirred to life yesterday afternoon, fittingly enough, during occassional rumbles of thunder and lightning. With a lot of help from Pete Clement, our Allis Chalmers G cultivating tractor is gasoline-free, running quiet and clean on electric power. Thanks Pete! And thanks to all our members who payed higher on the sliding scale which provided the funds to make this conversion possible! Check out the details on the Tractor Conversion Page on the sidebar!
Asparagus
Friday, April 11th, 2008
What wonderful weather! The rain showers have been watering the peas and the sun shines often enough to let us get out and prepare the ground for the rush of planting on the way. This week we planted asparagus. First we dug two trenches, 1 foot deep and 400 feet long. Then applied a heaping helping of composted manures and set out the baby asparagus plants. Now we wait, three years for the plants to establish themselves. Steve and Bryan are glad we won’t need any more trench digging for a while, and starting in 2011, we can all welcome spring with the exquisite taste of just-cut asparagus! Glutamate is the compound in asparagus that gives it such a rich, pleasing flavor. Glutamate is the fifth flavor, ‘umami’, besides sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. It increases dramatically in plant foods like asparagus, tomatoes, and corn as they ripen naturally, but breaks down quickly. Maybe that’s why fresh food tastes so much better!
