First post of 2010!

Hello avid student gardeners,

After finally figuring out that our email address is mhcgarden@GMAIL.com and NOT mhcgarden@yahoo.com, we have been able to reactivate this awesome blog started by garden interns in summer 2007. Yes! I know, took long enough. But now that all the plants are happily in their respective beds (composted and organically fertilized), we decided it was time to give this whole internet thing another try.
First of all, let us introduce ourselves:

Annie is a rising Junior, majoring in bio (and French?), and has no previous gardening experience. She is a member of the MHC Food Justice Society, and is not going abroad next year (if she keeps it up, Annie will graduate without being gone from Mount Holyoke for more than three weeks at a time—holy smokes!) In her free time, Annie enjoys writing poetry about mushrooms and going for runs. And, you know, gardening.

Brittany, also a rising Junior, is majoring in Gender Studies with a minor in Sociology. She enjoys making lists and wandering the children’s section of IKEA. When she isn’t gardening, Brittany enjoys cliff-jumping and putting together dapper outfits. Brittany’s spirit animal is the deer.

Chander is Brittany’s car. He is an integral member of Team Garden. Without him, the garden would be substantially less stocked in fertilizer, twine, and spray bottles.

Patches is the garden mockingbird. He sings to us in the morning and has a white tuft of feathers on his chest.

Now that you know who we are, we’re going to tell you about what we’ve been up to.
Much has happened in the garden to bring it to where it is today (Thursday, June 24, 2010). There was tilling, shoveling, compost spreading, fertilizer mixing, break time dance partying, trellis stringing, sun screening, seed ordering, fence fixing, seed starting, shed organizing, transplanting, freaking out, foliar spraying, meeting holding, and farm visiting.

This morning was the farm visiting (or rather…the first of many farm visits!). We went to King Creek Farm, where Matt showed us all around, and told us about his experience farming in Ware, MA, his veggies, his cows, his neighbors, his family, his clientele, his machinery, his future farming plans, etc. And he told us about local farming resources for new and minority farmers. And sold us cool hats. And rescued a baby deer (no joke, it got stuck in the fence by the strawberry patch. Oh yeah, we also picked thirteen pints of strawberries and got to keep three of them!)
Since we know you are dying to see the hats, here are a couple photos:

These are actually the only pictures we took of the farm. Oopsies! It was a really cool farm, though, you should all check it out at kingcreekfarm.com. Their website has lots of pictures of the farm, including photos of newborn calves, pre-placentophagy.

THANK YOU, MATT, for showing us around and being so awesome! We had a blast (Matt is the nicest guy ever). And for all you locavores out there: remember, King Creek Farm has a farm stand that is open three days a week (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). They also love volunteers! Just call ahead.
Well, we’re off to the garden now. Hoe time is has arrived.

Peace, love, and veggies,
Annie and Brittany,
MHC Student Garden Interns