Where agriculture education intersects with social responsibility.
Operating as usual
What a fun project and a great video to help spread the word about how it happened. We've said it many times, but the PATH Foundation is a vital partner in the success of everything we do and this collaboration is bound to put a smile on your face!
🍉Next up in our Summer Workshop Series: Wonders of Watermelons. This workshop's date has been RESCHEDULED for Thursday, August 4th, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Come join us at the Fauquier Education Farm to learn about growing different kinds of watermelons. You will even get the chance to eat some too!🍉
Have you noticed that it's a little warm? We only had one volunteer this morning, an 83 year old first timer named Vern. He pretty heroically jumped in with the paid staff to bring in a pretty good harvest of summer squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe and lots of tomatoes. This morning's donations went out to the Fauquier Food Bank, Fauquier FISH, the Rappahannock Food Pantry and the Northern Virginia Food Rescue. It was 1244 lbs today, which brings our season donation total up to 32,732 lbs.
From the Ground Up: Summer Squash
Chris Mullins shows us how easy it is to raise prolific summer squash in From the Ground Up.#RealVirginia #SummerSquash #VegetableGarden #Zucchini #FromTheGr...
We didn't ask for volunteers this morning because we were hosting a farm tour. High school Agriculture teachers from across Virginia, one was from Bristol, are in town for a conference. It was a great group of fellow educators. They went on to tour several other farms in the county, ending up at Moo Thru. Somebody planned their day very well!
We had 6 volunteers working with the paid staff this morning to bring in a pretty good sized harvest of squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and even a few eggplant and peppers. It came to a total of 1584 lbs today, which brings our season donation total up to 31,488. We split this between the Fauquier Food Bank, Fauquier FISH and the Haymarket Food Pantry.
💐🌺Cut flowers can be a great addition to any farm. Come to our next workshop in our Summer Workshop Series to learn a little bit more about how cut flowers can succeed on your farm. It will be Wednesday, July 27th from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the Fauquier Education Farm. This is completely free with no registration required!🌺💐
We have just about finished planting the entire farm, just a few more rows are still open. But then we have a couple large areas that we will replant in August with our fall cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. This upcoming week we will be asking for volunteers on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings at 8 AM. Please take note that we are not asking for volunteers on Wednesday. There are lots of projects to get done and lots of produce to harvest for the area food banks. We hope you can join us!
Real Virginia: Episode #362
There’s a new breed of cattle in Virginia; summer squash is a perennial garden favorite; and we visit Scott County for our regular County Agricultural Close-...
These pictures were all taken this morning of three of the areas in our no-till demonstrations. They are all planted with a mix of watermelons, cantaloupe, several kinds of winter squash and a few rows of summer squash. These areas were planted last fall with a mix of rye, vetch, and clover as a cover crop. This cover crop lived through the winter and added literal tons of nutrients to the soil, in effect growing the fertilizer for the summer crops. We didn't plow anything, but rolled the cover down into a thick bed of mulch on top of the soil, which was then covered with reusable landscape fabric. The fabric kills the cover crop without any herbicides and helps control weeds as our crops grow. Then we planted seedlings in small holes that were burned in the plastic. This no-till cultivation method is wonderful for the long term soil health as well as helping prevent soil and nutrient runoff into our watershed. Plus it's really productive for the watermelons and winter squash! These three areas were planted at different dates so that we don't have everything mature at the same time and can therefore supply regular drop offs for the food banks. The first picture is of the first watermelon patch we planted in May and as you can see, very little of the landscape fabric is visible because of the really healthy vines. The last pictures are of the planting we put in yesterday and today. We expect big things from these patches. There are comments under the pictures to explain what you're looking at. This is why we're called the Education Farm, we are teaching effective conservation and production practices, and these patches will provide a great many tons of nutrition for the area food banks.
It's looking like this forecast may be correct! We had a brief dry period but have certainly gotten over that in just a few days.
FYI - Virginia farmers can expect ABOVE average precipitation in late July and early August.
It was another action packed morning at the Fauquier Education Farm! We had 13 volunteers who just breezed right through a harvest of summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and even a few of our first eggplant this year. We took advantage of having such a great crew on hand and planted two long rows with acorn, delicata and spaghetti squash. Over 1100 little plants off to a very good start with all of the moisture we have in the soil lately. This morning's harvest of 968 lbs was split between the Fauquier Food Bank, Fauquier FISH, the Rappahannock Food Pantry and Fauquier FRESH. Our season donation total is now up to 29,904 lbs!
This Friday morning we will be planting a large area with winter squash; butternut, acorn, spaghetti and delicata squash. We sure could use a good sized crew to get this important crop planted. This will be pretty easy planting so it's a great time to bring out kids over 5 years old, I'm sorry but it just isn't a good job for toddlers. We can help provide a lot of nutrition for the food banks if we get enough hands to do the job. As always, folks with younger kids will need to be prepared to work closely with your children to be sure that they're helping our cause. We start at 8 AM.
🔦Volunteer Spotlight!🔦
At the Fauquier Eduction Farm we are lucky to have fantastic volunteers! Two of them, Tim and Alice Cotter, have been a great help this year and have been so kind to tell us a little about their experience with the farm. Please take a minute to learn about what it's like to be a FEF volunteer!
Bio:
Hello, we’re Alice and Tim Cotter, recent volunteers at the Education Farm. We’re not from Fauquier County but live nearby.
Twenty plus years ago we moved from a second story condo in Northern Virginia to a farm on the North end of Culpeper County. We have two grown kids who grew up on the farm. Over years we been fortunate to work with several farmers who helped with farming hay as well as livestock. Currently we have a garden, several cows and sheep at the farm and have also raised chickens.
This year we started volunteering at several local non-profit organizations including the Education Farm.
How did you learn about the Fauquier Education Farm?
We were recently reintroduced to the Education Farm while walking the Warrenton Greenway extension. We have also found the farm listed in the Path Foundation Volunteer Hub.
How long have you been volunteering?
This is our first-year volunteering at the farm and since day 1 it’s been a hands-on learning experience. We follow the farm’s online calendar to plan the opportunities for the week. The great thing about the farm is one day we’re harvesting a range of produce for local food banks and other days we’re planting new crops or preparing fields for planting.
What’s something you enjoy about being a part of the Fauquier Education Farm?
The farm has exceeded expectations across the board but the best part has been all the interesting people we’ve met. We have met 1st responders, farmers, master gardeners, a writer, chef, home schoolers, missionaries, artists, athletes/coaches, birders, reptile lovers, recent graduates and a soon to be Eagle Scout.
As you work your way down a row planting a tray of seedlings grown in the greenhouse or picking kale there is time to talk and get to know to the other volunteer’s stories. The Education Farm community is really interesting.
What else you would like to share about your experiences with the farm?
Our time at the farm has quickly benefited our own garden. We’ve used several tips and tricks we learned over the last few months and are now enjoying some the harvest. We’ve also enjoyed trying new produce and experimenting with new recipes to follow along with what’s being harvested at the farm. Garlic Scapes are delicious.
The sweet potatoes are doing some pretty serious growing. The first picture was taken today, the second one was taken on June 28th. In another week we won't see any of the plastic mulch between the rows. We expect big things from this patch!
This morning felt like an unexpected gift. With the temperature forecast to be in the 90's we weren't looking forward to putting down more landscape fabric. However, we had a first time volunteer, Amy, who joined Shawna, Nicole and Ashley to get a pretty large area covered, and to say the breeze and low humidity were welcome would be a serious understatement. Amazing things are possible with hardworking women like these! Those are some long rows!
Here's a nice shout-out from the good folks at the Northern Virginia Food Rescue. We have some excellent partners!
Take a look at what happened at the farm this afternoon. The summer interns with the PATH Foundation did a great job on painting a mural on the end of our metal barn. It was a very fun afternoon.
We had 6 volunteers on this beautiful morning in the garden. We harvested 972 lbs of tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers and cantaloupe, which has been spread out between the Fauquier Food Bank Fauquier FISH the Haymarket Food Pantry and the Bull Run Emergency Food Pantry. Our season donation total is now up to 28,936 lbs. We may just reach 30,000 on Thursday!
All of this rain will have some serious consequences in the garden. Mainly it will mean some pretty big harvest of squash, cantaloupes and tomatoes. We'll be adding peppers and eggplant to the mix soon and we've still got a lot of red onions in the field and cucumbers in the high tunnel. And we've still got a large patch of winter squash to plant. We are asking for volunteers Monday through Friday mornings at 8 AM if you would like to help us feed our neighbors in need.
We had 9 volunteers this morning and were happy to welcome a new family with 5 kids. First we planted two new long rows of summer squash, plus a mixed row of Mexican sunflowers and some acorn squash. Then we started covering a large new area of cover crop with landscape fabric. We got a lot done in a short amount of time and had a great morning meeting new friends!
The sunflowers are starting to show up and the cut flower demonstration is leading the way.
Next up in the Workshop Series, High-Yielding Hybrids, July 14th from 6 to 8 PM at the Fauquier Education Farm. Come learn about the numerous advantages of growing hybrid crops. This is free and open to everyone with no pre-registration required!🍅🥦
We had 13 volunteers this morning and were able to get several different jobs done. First we harvested 831 lbs of squash, cucumbers and tomatoes, and even a few cantaloupes. But with so many capable workers we split up to give all of our harvest baskets a wash, while another crew replaced some landscape fabric in the high tunnel and plant some late peppers. There were even folks doing some weeding and adding a few new lines in one of the tomato patches. It was a very good day! Our donation total is now up to 27,964 lbs.
First off this picture is from a week ago because someone left the farm cellphone at home. However, we had 9 Supervoluteers this morning who did a heroic amount of work on a steamy day. First they put tomato stakes in on five 200' long rows. That's a lot of tomato stakes! But it was still early so we jumped on putting landscape fabric between the rows in the second sweet potato patch, covering about three quarters of an acre of row space. It may not sound like a lot but these were two jobs that often would have each taken a morning to do and these Supervoluteers knocked them both out in no time, and did a great job at it too! Amazing things are possible with the very best volunteers on earth!
We had 8 volunteers this morning. They harvested some squash, cucumbers and tomatoes and then cleaned up the last of the garlic. Our donation total today was 616 lbs and was split between the Fauquier Food Bank and the Haymarket Food Pantry. Our season total is now up to 27,133 lbs.
8428 Meetze Rd
Warrenton, VA
20187
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One last video!!
What a crew! What a morning!!
This was the last row of tomatoes we planted. Sure hope this weekend's rain won't spoil too many of them.
Good morning!
A little good morning video, it's hard to capture everything in regular photographs. There is even another big section on the other side of the high tunnel that you can't see in this video, and all of this produce is going to be donated to area food banks. We expect big things this year!!!
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.seedsofchangegrant.com%2FGalleryDetail.aspx%3Fid%3D1909&h=KAQHYfp1K A vote for the Fauquier Education Farm will help us qualify for a $20,000 grant from Seeds of Change. As a non-profit farm we cannot exist without grants and donations. It only takes a second to vote on the link above, you can even vote everyday until April 18th. Vote early and often!!
Cows-N-Corn at Maple Tree Farm
8275 Maple Tree Ln
Cows-N-Corn at Maple Tree Farm
8275 Maple Tree Ln