It is early fall and our tomato and hot pepper plants are still yielding several pounds of produce each week. During our garden class today, we picked baskets of tomatoes, Jalapeno, Serrano, Cayenne and Anaheim peppers! As a class, we have been cutting up and freezing produce for later hot sauce production.
Another area of focus for us right now is our soil health. We have started to prepare our high tunnels and field for next spring. We have laid a fresh layer of manure over the outside field and are hoping to add more to our tunnels and raised beds. We have 8 garbage bags full of sawdust (from our wood shop) ready to be added where needed and students have begun to rake leaves from the yard. On top of adding organic materials from outside sources, we have several cover crops planted: winter rye, field peas and buckwheat. This year has been our first year working with cover crops and are still learning which ones work best for our production.
Devan, Sam, Michael (summer interns) and I (Jann) wrapped up our last Saturday at the Floyd County Farmer’s Market on September 26th. Having a booth at the market helped us connect to Floyd County’s local agriculture community. We met many people each week that had so much knowledge to share! I am appreciative that we all had the experience of waking up early and selling the fruits of our labor. Not only did each of us grow professionally in one way or another, but we had fun doing it! Our last event for this fall season will be the Incredible Food Show as Rupp Arena. The four of us will be hosting an Inch by Inch booth at this indoor, KY Proud market and selling the school’s hot sauce to an entirely different crowd. The invitation to attend was exciting and we are so appreciative!
More updates and photos to come!
Hey Jann, when is the Incredible Food Show? I live in Richmond, which is about half an hour from Rupp Arena, and I’d love to stop by and say hi if I can!