New Spring classes and interns
Greetings from Avenue 33 Farm in Lincoln Heights, where we’re happy to report there’s a lot happening! This month, we hired and oriented our new spring class of high-school interns, welcomed volunteers and high-school classes for workdays and visits, and hosted two free bouquet-making workshops. And, of course, we weeded, watered, planted, harvested, turned compost, and distributed several tons of food to the community. Read on for more information about what we’ve been up to, and fun photos from the month.
Two volunteers harvesting peas on a cloudy February morning.
Forecasted rain forced us to nix one scheduled volunteer workday, but we ended up working through a drizzle the following week. In preparation for spring, we pruned the sages and mallows in our native plant area, harvested sugar snap and snow peas, and planted two beds of broccoli. Stop by for some of that, and some freshly planted cabbage, in a couple months!
Pea harvesting tends to be a farm favorite, no matter the age or experience of the harvester. Why? We overheard a few high schoolers discussing the matter a couple weeks ago. They were taking a break from the harvest and sampling the wares.
“You can’t lie — the outside’s pretty good, huh?” one Los Angeles Leadership Academy student told another. “It tastes sweet.”
Peas in the wash bin, minutes after harvesting.
Sweet, too, were the bouquets students and farmstand customers made during weekend workshops on the picnic tables atop one of our farm sites. Farm executive director Eric Tomassini guided everyone through the assembly of their own bouquets. Flowers we had available to choose from included scabiosas, waxflowers, sunflowers, strawflowers, drumstick flowers, and amis. Eucalyptus and acacia leaves filled out the bouquets.
Farmstand regulars Jen and Oliver with their bouquets.
In other news, we’ve upped the amount of produce we are distributing each week from our partners at Food Forward in Bell. We’re now picking up, processing, and distributing well over 2,000 pounds of food each week. That happens every Thursday.
Going forward, we plan to publish these newsletters monthly. Look for them the last Thursday of each month. Also this month, look for us at the Highland Park Garden Fair on March 22.
And, of course, we’ll be selling produce every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 234 E. Ave 33 in Lincoln Heights. Each week, we prepare 50-plus boxes of eight or so fruits and vegetables plus a dozen eggs. We also sell a couple dozen varieties of produce on the side.
In this week’s boxes are beautiful bags of lettuce, much of which we grew, supplemented with some carrots and chard from Sunrise Organics in Buellton; sundowner apples from Cuyama Orchards in Cuyama; avocados and Yukon Gold potatoes from Don Beto Farms in Arvin; and mandarins and more citrus from Burkdoll Farm in Visalia. And there are a dozen farm-fresh eggs, always from Don Beto Farms, where they’ve been raising Rhode Island Red and Ameraucana hens for decades. We should soon have more of the box contents coming from our farm!
Until next time, we'll leave you with a photo of five of our interns taking out the last load of recycling after a Saturday farmstand!
Some enjoy being photographed more than others.