October 7 at the Kitchen Garden

Ben and Carolyn were so early I didn't even see them, although I arrived at 10 to 10. Mark and Marc left early for a funeral service in South church but not after harvesting tomatoes, tomatillos and eggplants. The compost bin was worked and Mark raked up and shredded leaves for the brown bin. Blanca finished the winter kill on her plot which was rather empty once she and Laura took out one of the diseased broccoli plants. I trimmed more branches that are only sapping away energy from the plants that are still trying to give fruit, both in our own and in other plots.

I found a recipe for fermenting nasturtium seedpods. It is a slow process, the first step is to leave them in a brine for 10 days. If this will result in tasty "capers", we should harvest more. There are still plenty of flowers in our garden! In fact we were commenting that the garden never looked as pretty still at this time of year. Go gardeners!

-Els

 

Bug update: According to Laura's sources this is a ladybug larva, which is an insect eater and not eating the leaves. Does anybody have any thoughts?

This bug was found on one of the eaten leaves of our eggplants. Does anyone recognize it and if we can just ignore it at this late stage or need to take action?

Spiritual Activism: Meeting the Network of Spiritual Progressives

On Sunday, October 1st, the NYC chapter of the Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) visited South Church. The NSP is an interfaith group with the overarching goal of pushing for a New Bottom Line that serves core human needs of love, generosity, compassion, etc to replace the current bottom line of maximizing profit and power. Check out the website for details on their vision, strategy, inclusive concept of spirituality and more.

Members of the NYC-metro area chapter of the Network of Spiritual Progressives made this field trip to Dobbs Ferry to visit the Kitchen Garden, get to know the gardeners, other Roots & Wings participants, and the church community to talk about the Network's ideas, community and individual needs and desires, and to explore shared visions and ways we might work together. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Gabriela, who's been part of the chapter since 2015.