Campers from Highland Gardens Community Center take a minute to smell the flowers.

“I’m so glad this place is here!” This is a quote from a mom who helped plant seeds and peppers with her children last Friday. We had a great time talking about her garden, the plants we’re growing and just digging in the dirt.

The farm has been a busy place this summer! So busy, it seems, that we haven’t had a chance to update you on farm life. In July, we slow the programs down because of the heat, but, like the mom who helped out last Friday, you can always stop by Monday-Saturday and see what’s growing!

To catch you up…

Over four weeks in June, children from four Montgomery Community Centers explored the farm, made farm fresh scrambled eggs and veggies, and picked colorful flowers in the dye garden for arts and crafts. We also took a field trip to the NaturePlex in Millbrook to explore the forests and creeks and make friends with the turtles and snakes.

Volunteers from the Omega Iota Iota chapter of Omega Psi Phi spent a Saturday morning putting this carport together to expand our storage space.

During the first week of June, we also welcomed five summer interns from the Carver Integrative Sustainability Center at Tuskegee University. For seven weeks, the interns have helped harvest vegetables, learned to identify common weeds (and pulled a lot of them!), built drip irrigation lines for the container garden, and cared for the rabbits, chickens and ducks. During their last week, they are picking up some basic building skills as we start converting the shipping container into a walk-in cooler.

Each year in July, we take a little time to review the first half of the year and plan for the second. In addition to interns, after school programs, and summer camp, since the beginning of the year we:

Donated 700 lbs of produce to area food pantries. If we weren’t struggling with a very hungry groundhog, that total would be higher.
Tracked more than 1080 hours of service our amazing and dedicated volunteers have given to keep the farm growing. The federal government assigns a dollar value to volunteer hours, and volunteers have given us $31,320 in time so far. It makes a huge difference in what we can do!
Provided meaningful and educational volunteer opportunities to Montgomery residents as well as groups visiting from other states. We work with Maxwell Air Force Base, Bridge Builders, local schools, families and individuals year round on projects and programs.
Continued partnerships with Tuskegee University, Capital City Master Gardeners, and Alabama Cooperative Extension. This is our fourth summer working with interns from the Carver Integrative Sustainability Center and our second summer as the site of the Capital City Master Gardeners’ vegetable demonstration garden. We are in our second year collaborating with Alabama Cooperative Extension’s Grow More Give More Campaign.
Organized five free community classes on the farm since January and hosted our fourth annual seed swap that brought 155 people out on a chilly February morning.
Planted our first dye garden. With the help of a local artist, we are experimenting with indigo, madder, coreopsis, scabiosa, weld, marigold and other plants that add color to fabric and paper.
Maintained a farm-park that welcomes visitors six days a week from across Montgomery and even around the world.

You should visit us, too! Stop by mornings in July to see how the conversion of the shipping container to cold storage is going. We could use the help of an electrician as well as someone who has experience cutting holes into metal. Contact Farmer Amanda if you can help with these skills.

Fresh sweet peppers for the weekly Community Harvest

Saturday volunteer projects return in August 13 at 8 am, and our Fall and Winter Gardening workshop is scheduled for August 20 at 9. The farm is open Monday through Saturday, 7 am to 7 pm. Drop in and see what were growing!

Summer at E.A.T. South