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Published: April 10th 2006
greenhouse jungle ¨before¨
there were a few dying tomatoes and a big patch of ¨new zealand¨ spinach... Our last days at Tashirat were spent largely at a computer, believe it or not! As our final contributions to the garden and greenhouse, we put together a rough crop plan for the community. Marty did a cost-benefit analysis of the major crops they wanted to grow, and determined that lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and celery made economic sense to grow for themselves. Michelle wrote up info sheets for the cultivation of each of those four crops, to be used by the Tashirat staff or future volunteers, and we left a crop planning spreadsheet for the community. (Thanks to MTC and Jeremy for the input!) Of course we left notes on the compost piles, irrigation system, and baby salad cultivation, too. It was gratifying to be able to use what we did and what I learned at MSU to help out with crop planning and transfer of knowledge... what a crazy thing, though, to find myself writing a gardening manual again, and on the year off, too. 😊
Our days were so full, and so simple, at Tashirat: Yoga in the morning, work, lunch, work, eat, meditation in the evening, sleep. It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact
that we were there for a month and a half -- the time flew by, and runs together now. We're so thankful for the folks we lived and worked with there -- they all taught us (and reminded us of) so so much -- permaculture, laughter, creative food preparation, music, spanish language, yoga, stillness, communication, grace, gratitude, humility, silliness, salsa dancing, teaching, learning, patience. Gracias a todos!!!! Besides the people we'll especially remember the glass houses, the leafcutter ant highways, the birds outside the yoga studio, banos secos, the omnipresent dust, volcanic rocks, campfires and songs, Kahlua the dog, Melina the cat, Glubi-glubi the rabbit, the composting worms, the clear starry nights, and the mountains.
The greenhouse was full and green when we left! check out the before and after pictures -- along with the other volunteers, we transformed it from an overgrown dead-tomato jungle into a living salad bar, along with summer squash, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, kale, arugula, radishes, and more. Before we left we held a community wide salad party for lunch one day, and also left bags of salad for each household. While only a few of the kids actually worked in the greenhouse while we
"after" baby salad bed
baby salad greens nearly ready for harvest! Check out the difference some water makes to this soil! were there, at the salad party lots of them tried the greens, and some even liked it enough to go back for seconds.
Our hope is that when the kids are old enough to travel solo, some will come visit us (on the farm!) in the Great Lakes. That goes for all of you!
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