we had a pretty great field day about pollinators this past Saturday.
Will is going to write a blog post about it, and I said I'd post some pictures. his blog isn't written yet, so I'm posting pictures. Will - don't write your own blog, just add your text to this one!
our knowledgeable and interesting presenters:
Ai Wen and Andrew from UNI, Will from our farm team, followed by Alice and Nate

Join us for our weekly on-farm Mustard Seed potluck on Friday evening. Eating and socializing at 6, and discussion at 7, led by Zach Steckel on the topic of "Morality and Ethics of Food and Beyond." Look forward to seeing you there!

aj

By Milli Zonarich and Thomas Estabrook

Shall I compare thee to a summer chard?
Chard art so yummy and nutrition rich.
It outshines the lesser plants that fill the yard
And casts its regal gleam on every inch.
This leafy green with earthy tone of beet,
Delight of stir fries and of salads,
With vitamins and minerals replete,
It earns it's place in this interns' ballad.
Resplendent colors shimmer in our gaze,
Beholding its chromatic majesty,
All other vegetation sings its praise,

Hello from Mustard Seed Farm,

We have a potluck we'd love for you all to come to tonight, Friday July 17th, from 6-8 p.m.

Although its a hot July day in Iowa, in the shade and breeze out in the country evening, you can come beat the heat with us.

Tonight's event will feature meditation, both in discussion and practice, led by our intern Thomas Estabrook, who helped start a student meditation group at Grinnell College.

Hope to see you there and apologies for the late notice,

Nate

Hey Mustard Seed Friends,

Tonight, Friday June 26th, we'll discuss the proposed Bakken oil pipeline though Iowa and Boone/Story County and other pipeline-environmental concerns. Please feel welcome to join us!!!!!

6-7 pm for potluck, 7-8 for discussion, soccer after for anyone with any energy left :).

Best Regards, Nate

in this email:

1. plea for harvest helpers

2. rough draft of a potluck schedule

hi everyone,

Mustard Seed Friends,

You're all invited to come to our second potluck of the summer tomorrow!

Friday, June 12, 6-8 pm
Potluck from 6-7
Open discussion, social time from 7-8
Soccer afterwards for whoever wishes to join
Due to hectic nature of our season so far this year, we still haven't done our discussion schedule for the summer so we apologize for that and just open this one up to a non-structured format. Just come hang out with us! We'd love to see you.

Thanks, Nate

This summer we have 4 awesome interns living on the farm, and one awesome intern (Elena) who is spending a lot of days with us but usually sleeping in town. Elena is not in this picture - i'll have to get a picture of everyone together this week.
in this picture, from left to right, Thomas, Zach, Milli, David.

It is a super busy time on the farm. Things are growing fast, we've gotten a lot planted, we are harvesting bucketloads of food, and we are still planting more food crops and prairie. I took a bunch of pictures a few weeks ago, but it has been hard to make it to town to post any pictures. a lot has changed since then, but i still thought these were fun to see.

blue false indigo, potato planting, cabbages, onions, garlic, strawberry, chive, sorrel, lovage, etc

things are growing really fast. here's 2 pictures of me planting our first bed of carrots with the earthway seeder.
in the second picture you can see the lettuces we transplanted.
in the last picture (5/23/15)those lettuces are much bigger, and by the end of this week they will be all eaten up.