If you want more lamb’s quarter, head outside and scout around your backyard or neighborhood–you’ll likely find some! Entertain the kids by sending them on a summer investigation to locate and harvest. Of course, there’s always plenty scattered here around the farm. You are welcome to pick unlimited quantities anytime you’d like.

Enjoy!

Check back to the blog for opportunities to connect with the farm. Thanks for your support and interest, everyone!

Common Ground Student Farm
Plant and Soil Science Dept.
Hills Building
105 Carrigan Drive
Burlington, VT 05405

We’re really excited about this growing season, and look forward to partnering with you.
.

It’s been a pretty exciting week down at the farm. Saturday provided us with perfect weather for field cultivation and a few draft animals showed up to help out. Together, we cultivated about half-an-acre in half-a-day. I came away pretty satisfied with our work, but I also came away realizing how much weed management our fields require. Hopefully, plenty of hands down on the farm this Saturday can make for light work (or, even better, make for a lot of work).

I’m just going to use this message to recommend attendance at the following events:

Common Ground Field-Day
Saturday, April 3rd beginning around 10 a.m.
Located @ UVM’s Horticulture Research Center (65 Green Mountain Drive)
Come help out with work on our farm…There’s plenty to do and a lot to learn.

Hen House Tour
Sunday, April 4th @ 10 a.m. – Meet outside Bailey/Howe Library, UVM
The International Society for the Appreciation of Chickens (ISAC) is partnering with the Common Ground Farm Club to tour the homes of chicken owners residing in Burlington. This should be really interesting and it should be a nice day to explore the city on foot. I’ll get back to everyone with a reminder later in the week.

I hope the school week goes really well for everyone and look forward to seeing a few of you this weekend.

We’ve had some pretty nice weather recently, making for pleasant work down at the farm. Last week, we were able to seed our first crop directly into the soil, marking one form of ‘starting point’ to the farm season. Probably a more symbolic start though was provided by a few germinating weeds, which sprouted up under last week’s sun. Both events tell me that the farm season has officially begun.

The Farm Crew should be holding workdays just about every Saturday throughout the rest of the semester (with the notable exception of April 17th). I’ll try and provided updates about our workdays every week, but you can begin to expect this consistency.

If anyone hopes to stick around Burlington over the Summer and wants to receive UVM credit, they should consider following this link: Information

Here’s a small list of a few things happening this week:

Information Session: “Agroforestry & Agroecology Practicum in Nicaragua.”
Tuesday, March 23rd @ 12:30 p.m. in the Handy Family Room, Davis Center
Meet Professors Todd Comen and Chris Shanks to learn about spending May 16 – 30 studying abroad in Nicaragua. Information.

Food System Research Collaborative Brown Bag Lunch.
Friday, March 26th from Noon to 1 p.m. in the John Dewey Lounge, Old Mill
Bring your lunch to this lively discussion about Vermont’s food system. The monthly series is a great way to share info about your projects and programs. This month’s theme: Connections and collaborations at UVM. Open to students, faculty, staff and community members. Information: jhyman@uvm.edu.

Crabapple/Apple Pruning Workday (MGV)
Saturday, March 27th from 9am to Noon @ the UVM Horticulture Research Center
Mark Biercevicz, Crabapple Collection Curator and Terry Bradshaw, Apple Technician and co-director of the UVM Hort Farm will display proper pruning techniques. Bring pruning tools and saws, if you have them. Bring pruning tools and saws if you have them.

Common Ground Farm Field Day
Saturday, March 27th @ our farm in the UVM Horticulture Research Center (HRC)
We’ll be around all day…come by whenever you can
We’ll be working on a few different things, ranging from weed cultivation to building repair. The HRC’s address is 65 Green Mountain Drive. Feel free to give me a call if you want specific directions or have any questions: (805) 233-4533

Liberation Ecology I: Design Tools for a Whole Future
Sunday, March 28th from 1- 5 p.m. @ the GreenHouse Residential Learning Community, University Heights South. Information: info@ecolearninginstitute.org.

Medicinal Herb Farm & Agroforestry Nursery Field Day
Saturday, April 17th (All day) @ Crescent Moon Farm, Hyde Park, VT
Contact cpalmeri@uvm.edu to RSVP

Maple Madness
Check out the following link to find out more about some interesting events on campus:

http://library.uvm.edu/news/?m=201003

I’m assuming everyone had an awesome break. Hopefully, it went really well.

Last week provided some great weather, making for some great times at Common Ground. We’ve begun seeding in the greenhouse and just recently set up our hoophouse (which we’ll seed carrots in on Saturday). There are a few big projects we’re hoping to take care of this week and would like to invite everyone to a Saturday workday. So, here’s a short calendar of events, but be sure to read through the information about Saturday’s workday:

Information Session: “Agroforestry & Agroecology Practicum in Nicaragua.”
Tuesday, March 16th @ 4 p.m. in the Boulder Society Room
Professors Todd Comen and Chris Shanks talk about a study abroad trip in Nicaragua that last from May 16 – 30. Information.

Post Oil Land Use & New Commons: Intensive Community Food and Fuel Systems in a Reinhabited Village Landscape
Friday, March 19th from 12:50-1:50 in Lafayette L411
Talk given by Ben Falk of Whole Systems Design, LLC. Should be a good one.

Organic Gardening 101
Saturday, March 20th from 9:30 am-12 pm in the Miller Community and Recreation Center
The Burlington Area Community Gardens and Friends of Burlington Gardens present Organic Gardening 101, an interactive workshop for beginning and intermediate vegetable gardeners. Check-in begins at 9:00 am. Presenter Jim Flint is Executive Director of Friends of Burlington Gardens and the Vermont Community Garden Network. Free seed packets will be available for all participants. Cost: $15 ($20 non-resident)
Register: Call Burlington Parks and Recreation at 864-0123 or Register online at www.enjoyburlington.com

Indoor Gardening Workshop – Salad Mix – with Peter Burke
Saturday, March 20th, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. in the City Market Conference Room
Sign up at Customer Service or email mklepack@citymarket.coop
Material Costs $5

Common Ground Field Day
Saturday, March 20th, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Feel free to come for some or all of the workday. Common Ground’s land is situated in UVM’s Horticulture Research Center.
Directions: http://www.uvm.edu/pss/dept/hort_farm/?Page=directions.html
The above directions aren’t the greatest, but if you get down to Shelburne Road, you’re pretty much set. Call or email me with any questions: alober@uvm.edu or (805) 233-4533
Look forward to seeing people there.

I’ve just received some training from Anna Masozera and am now experimenting a bit with using this website. So, bear with me. Hopefully, we can figure out a good process for keeping things up-to-date and informative. I’ll start off my first posting with the weekly update I just sent out over our listserve:

I’m sure everyone is pretty busy at this point in the semester and looking forward to the upcoming break. It’s not long off, but we still have about two weeks to get through. During that time, there are plenty of diversions we can immerse ourselves in. Hopefully, this email can highlight a few:

Supporting Farms with Food Currency and Buying Clubs
Wednesday, February 24th from 7-9pm @ Fletcher Free Library in Burlington
Take their word for it: “Join us for a discussion about some exciting new ways we can support local farmers and get more value for our food dollars at the same time.  Local, organic food doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive compared to the supermarket.  Learn about a new food currency that’s being developed to increase food security and food storage, and provide consumers with lower cost food.  We will also be discussing how to organize group buying locally as a means towards building community trust, helping each other out through tough economic times while lowering our costs for items we use regularly as well as supporting our local farms and other local producers.”

Pruning and Grafting Workshop
Saturday, February 27th from 9-4pm @ Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury
http://www.fairbanksmuseum.org/interior.php/pid/4/sid/8/mo/2/d/27/yr/2010
[Contact cpalmeri@uvm.edu for more information about the event and for information about car-pooling]

Simple/ Sacred Art of Sauerkraut Making + Immune Building Powers of Kimchee
Wednesday, February 24th from 6:30-8:30pm @ Open Arms Café in Shelburne
Directions: http://www.openarmscafe.com/Open_Arms_Cafe/Location.html
Suggested Donation: $5
For more information on any of these workshops, contact Joshua Pfeil at burlingtonalive@gmail.com

The Ecological Leaning Institute hosts:
Urban Permaculture: Mycoscaping and Edible Forest Gardening
Sunday, February 28th from 1-5pm @ University Heights South, UVM Campus
Mycoscaping with Compost
Sunday, February 28th from 7-8:30pm @ University Heights south, UVM Campus
These come highly recommended.
Register here: http://tinyurl.com/ecolearn

Medicinal Herb Farm & Agroforestry Nursery Field Day
Saturday, April 17th, Times TBD (Whole day event!) @ Crescent Moon Farm, Hyde Park, VT
The Common Ground crew will be spending a day lending a hand to Crescent Moon Farm in one of its primary woody species installment phases this year. Crescent Moon Farm is a medicinal herb and agroforestry nursery focused on
research of polycultural farm ecosystems.  This is a chance to see what a perennial-based agroecosystem looks like and learn a little bit from Farm Owner, Chris Chaisson, about the view and methods that underlie systems like these!  In exchange, Chris will be offering Elderberry Bush cuttings to be planted at Common Ground farm in our mini-perennial patch!  Chris also runs Whole Farm Services, which you can check out here: www.wholefarmservices.com
Want to come help us out and learn a bunch in the process?
Contact cpalmeri@uvm.edu by March 6th to RSVP and find out about how you can get a ride there.

Common Ground Farm Club Meeting
Wednesday, March 3rd at 8pm in the Davis Center Summit Room 400C (Pending Request)
Come learn about what Common Ground is up to and hear about planned workdays you can get involved in. I’ll send out a reminder email for this sometime early next week.

If you have anything (opinions, events, etc.) you’d like to be included in this update, please send a request to  cgsref@uvm.edu We’ll add it into our weekly message to help cut down on multiple postings.  Of course, you can still feel free to send messages out directly through the listserve.

Regards,
CG Crew