By Jasmine Shi
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Shauna and I fixed the leaky pipe, and now the vegetable beds all have water dripping. Hooray!
We fixed the leaky pipe
Angela sifted the finished compost to remove large pieces and added it to the garlic bed in preparation for garlic planting.
Garlic bed now with compost added
We received a mix of cover crop seeds that we spread onto several of the beds. Cover crops are plants that will grow throughout the fall and winter to help replenish nutrients in the soil before the new vegetables are planted next year.
Alex demonstrating how to plant cover crops
Alex showed us a neat trick for collecting tomato seeds. Instead of scooping out the seeds from a tomato and drying them right away, he places the seeds first in a mason jar with water and lets it ferment for a few weeks before drying the seeds. This is because tomato seeds are accustomed to being eaten and taking a trip through the stomach before going back in the soil. Fermenting the seeds this way imitates the environment in the stomach. He finds that the germination rate is much greater when you add this step. Isn’t that cool?
A black beauty heirloom tomato and mason jar with tomato seeds fermenting
Last but not least, Silva brought us lunch that she made from scratch, which included a blueberry coffee cake and Swiss chard fatayer with eggplant dip. I loved how simple and delicious it was. Most ingredients she used we grew right here in the Riley Park Garden!
Swiss chard fatayer
Blueberry coffee cake
