Posts from this week:

Wednesday, May 23rd:
Rain!  That was the theme of the day. We woke up this morning and all had the same thought: planting in the beds probably won't happen if the soil soaked up all this rain. We ran some errands in the morning.  We picked up some pepper plants from a church in Asheville.  They've got a really beautiful garden in the front of the church. It's the main thing you see from the road as you're approaching.  They were doing some harvesting in the garden and a man picked some broccoli for us to try.  It was amaazing! So crisp! So peppery! So delicious.  I gotta start growing some of that.  They were also harvesting cauliflower and swiss chard. I learned the name of an interesting-looking cabbage today:

Meet savoy cabbage.  It's got a bubbly texture, similar to lacinato kale (also known as dinosaur kale), which looks like this:

Unfortunately, I haven't tasted either of these foods, so I am not able to tell you much in the flavor department.

Due to the rain, we were unable to have our Wednesday night work-night in the garden. Instead, we we invited volunteers to watch the movie "Fresh"

It was a really great documentary about the changes that are taking place within the food movement now, and highlighted changes that have taken place over the past twenty or thirty years.  the main focus of the movie was a look at factory farming and more sustainable agricultural projects.  The movie featured some big names in the food movement, including:

• Joel Salatin: a Virginian farmer who advocates for a more simplified, sustainable food production method that emulates the ecological systems in nature. He pasture-raises cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and more on his farm, rotating the animals in a way that stimulates the growth of his fields and promotes the health of his animals. 
• Michael Pollen: Author whose books highlight connections between American agriculture and culture.
• Will Allen: founder of Growing Power, an urban farm in Milwaukee, MN. Growing Power is dedicated to teaching residents of Milwaukee how to grow their own food by emulating ecological systems in nature within condensed spaces.

I felt like the movie would make a good introduction to the food movement for someone who was unfamiliar with what was going on.  It was interesting, informational, thought-provoking, and entertaining.