Every week or two we host a work day on our finca where our neighbors come over for the day and help us out with various jobs. As the saying goes, “many hands make light work”… and that’s even more true when your neighbors are Dutch, because they really put their heart and soul into everything. I always do my best to reward them with the best possible food and drink I can, and today we had homemade cookies, lentil curry with rice, and fruits with yoghurt for dessert.
Today we focused on the veggie garden which was long overdue, especially since we’ve been having problems with rodents. We decided to clear the weeds from the terrace bank and start a rockery with culinary herbs known to be repellent to mice.
This pipe is the outflow from our kitchen sink, and the other pipe in the background is the outflow from the shower.
Once we finished Phase One of the new rockery we started on getting these salads out. We grow lots of salad all year round.
These raised beds were made and filled by our volunteers Olivia and Sergio. Thanks guys!
Next up we potted on some winter veggies that aren’t quite ready to go in the winter beds yet. I just love cauliflower and broccoli but my favourite winter vegetable is Acelga, a local variety of chard.
In between all this we did a lot of forking, weeding, and freshening up the beds in preparation for the winter growing season when we grow all our “British” vegetables like cabbages and potatoes. We did a lot of shit-work* and all lamented that it was too cold to go clean off in the river. Autumn is definitely here.
At the end of the day we were all exhausted, but also a little bit high on our shared achievements and the simple joys of eating a little-bit-too-much together. I think we’re never so happy as when we’re working hard with good friends in excellent weather and this quiet valley reverberates with our collective cacophony of swearing/laughing/hammering/digging.
I’ve got sore feet, a happy heart, and a very tidy garden! Hallelujah!
*A note on shit-work…
Shit-work is any work that involves shit; shovelling shit, wheelbarrowing shit, spreading shit about, etc… we do alot of shit-work here at Freedom Farm. Not to be confused with shit work which is just work that is really shit.
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