in this email:

1. plea for harvest helpers

2. rough draft of a potluck schedule

hi everyone,

it has been an incredibly abundant season so far this year! There is an abundance of food ripening, and an abundance of work to do. Lately we have been having trouble harvesting all that is ready in a timely manner, and some of our food is going to waste in the field. Picking fruit and vegetables for many many hours is really hard work, but picking for just a few hours is very fun. The biggest thing we have been having trouble keeping up with is STRAWBERRY PICKING. Would you like to join us on a harvest morning (Tuesday or Friday from 7am-10am) or a Sunday afternoon (mostly just Strawberries)? We will send you home with enough fresh produce or strawberries to make it worth your time. If you are interested, please call Alice (515-460-1467) (on the telephone!) at least 24 hours before you expect to come out. We are also still looking for work shares - people who would like to come regularly once a week Tuesday or Friday morning in exchange for a CSA box. If you're not sure, come once to try it out.

We have also been so busy in the gardens that we have gotten behind on organizing our potluck schedule. Here is a rough draft of the summer schedule:

potluck at 6pm, discussion or activity at 7pm, soccer at 8pm. come for some part or all.

As always, we want our farm to be a place for an open, caring, interesting exchange of ideas and opinions. Come ready to share and to listen to many points of view.

Friday June 19 (this week!) The Philosophy of the Catholic Worker Movement - leader Alice McG

June 26: Bakken Oil Pipeline through Iowa, (and bakken oil, and perhaps oil in general) Andrea Basche

no potluck july 3

July 10: Gender and Transgender Issues: leader Anna Johnson

july 17: Mediation. Leader Thomas Estabrook

july 24: Mental Health - Milli and David

July 31: Meat and ethics - Zach

August 7: Media, Self Image, and Race - Elena Ingram

August 14: Root causes of Hunger/ Local Food, Local Hunger - Andrea, Gabrielle, Jackie

Aug 21: ?

Aug 28?

Sept 4: ?

There is still some room on the summer potluck schedule for a topic or activity of your choice - let us know if you would like to lead a potluck or suggest someone else.

this weeks potluck will be led by me (alice) about the basic philosophy of the Catholic Worker Movement. We will talk about things like the works of mercy, solidarity with the poor, nonviolence, and more unfamiliar topics like Personalism or Distributivism. If you want to be extra prepared for discussion, try reading the Aims and Means of the Catholic Worker at this link.

http://www.catholicworker.org/cw-aims-and-means.html

hope to see you soon

alice mcg