Farm School Weeks Two and Three: Planting a Seed

Reader Contribution by Alison Spaude-Filipczak
Published on March 30, 2010
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You could say that the Greenbank Farm Training Center is itself a seedling. The program is only in its second season, and, like any new enterprise, it requires creativity, flexibility, and energy. There are nine participants in the program, and we all came here with the desire to learn how to grow food sustainably. We are eager to get seeds into the soil, but, as we are learning, it isn’t quite that easy.

We have things to do. The Greenbank Farm Training Center is currently leasing a five-acre plot from the Greenbank Farm and the Port of Coupeville. There is limited infrastructure on the farm, and although the field was plowed last November, a cover crop was never planted, and the deep-rooted perennial broad-leaved dock has started to take over our field.

For the past two weeks, I have pushed away daydreams of farm fresh salad greens and crispy spring radishes, with knowledge that the only thing I will be digging up for the next month is dirt – I mean soil, a term of endearment for farmers. We have been building a greenhouse and also taking apart, moving, and rebuilding a second greenhouse that will act as our garage over the next eight months. This is not a job for one, and, during the moments of consulting the instruction manual, and then consulting it again for second and third time, I feel fortunate to be working in such a large group. Not only are we learning to farm, we are learning what it is like to be new farmers, starting from the ground up.

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