Year End reflection

Things are slowly wrapping up at the farm.  The tomatoes are starting to die, and our fall crops are coming in.
I wanted to take a moment to reflect and think about what we did well this year, as well as what we could have improved on.  I also am creating a list of projects for next year.  This post will be edited as new ideas surface.

GOOD:
- crop rotation: we put the beans in behind the peas as they finished up.  This was a good use of space.  We were pretty good at getting new crops in after the old ones finished up.
- seed starts.  The seed start program this year was fantastic.
- volunteers.  We recruited between 25-30 volunteers and fed them well.
- neighborhood kids: the kids in the neighborhood were very interested in the farm, and enjoyed helping
- preservation: we preserved the excess at the farm via canning, pickling, and drying.  There was very little waste.

IMPROVE:
- better crop rotation.  I'd like to preplan everything, instead of just putting things in willy nilly
- neighborhood involvement.  Most of our volunteers were not from the East Side.  I'm not sure how to get more people close to the farm involved.
- theft: It's a detriment to the enthusiasm of the volunteer workers to have things at the farm stolen.
- bugs: our greens were munched on some by bugs.  They were still good, but had holes in them.  We could try putting remay down.
- fall crop: we could do the fall crop better.  I did spend quite a bit of time planting, but there were some germination problems.  I'd like to find out why - the seeds were not old.
- compost: we did not turn our pile, and it became weedy.  I'd also like to get neighborhood people to contribute scraps.

TO DO next year:
- build a fence
- build a shed
- consider a chicken coup
- expand into the lot next door, if the lot is demolished
-  acquire more manure, mix into rows
- have a volunteer worker meeting, decide on vol. days and distribution methods
- paint a sign stating volunteer hours

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Hello Everyone

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