Thank you Volunteers!

Hello Farm Volunteers!

Fieldwork for Food - A Volunteer Work Incentive program from Silver Lake Farms

If you are interested in volunteering at Silver Lake Farms in exchange for a CSA share, please call Tara at 323-644-3700. I will send you information  about how to sign up.

Here's what the main tasks of the coming weeks in October will look like: 

Monday - Tending to the compost with Adam in Silver Lake

Tuesday - Compost tea application at our Glassel Park growing grounds with Faye and/or micro greens work with Adam

Thursday - Flower Harvest for the Sunset Strip Farmers Market

Friday - General tasks at either our Silver Lake or Glassel Park growing grounds

Saturday - Flower Harvest for the Hollywood Farmers Market

Things are looking really good at the flower growing grounds. A lot of the garden pathways have been mulched, and it's been nice to walk along their weed free, clean, clear, and cushiony lanes as I look around and see all the changes happening at the growing grounds. The Celosia that were once so vibrant and bright are now starting to take on a slightly brown hue as they begin to shed their seeds. We are sad to see them beginning to fall out of the bouquet spotlight, but the little birds around town are DELIGHTED! If you're still you can see and hear little groups of them (some kind of field tit) twitting about from stem to stem gobbling up those yummy black seeds to get their winter fat on. 

And then there are the butterflies. I'm not sure what it is, and I was not expecting it, but there's all kinds of butterfly activity right now. They seem to really like the Globe Amaranth and the Scabiosa, so if you're harvesting, don't be surprised to have a few winged friends by your side and a praying mantis or two peeking out from the stems.

Besides the wildlife, there's the process of it all. Since we began the volunteer program in September, we have seen flower beds go through big transitions. You cut down the spent plants and added them to the compost heap, you ripped out the nasty weeds, you loosened the bed with a garden fork, you added compost, you straightened out the sides of the bed and widened it, you raked the bed clean and flattened out the planting area, you deep-watered the bed, and you weeded and mulched the paths around it. Now I have had the pleasure of planting these beautiful and nutrient rich beds (see pic) with our anemone and ranunculus corms. Come Spring, those beds that you worked will be transformed into lush oceans of color. I can't wait for you to see it as you burst with pride for a job well done.

Thanks for all you do and a big welcome to the new volunteers who recently signed up! Please let me know if you have any questions at all.

Faye and Tara