Bram had asked if Plukrijp could accommodate 5 of his students for a week. These 16-year-old follow Steiner education. It is part of the pedagogy that they are invited to immerse themselves in a new experience. It was very refreshing to have them by our side.
Thanks to their presence, a lot of work could be done on the farm:
A Hei, we filled the ditches between the long low beds with straw and hay and rollhaked the long low beds. We weeded and scratched in between the leek. We removed the last of the cauliflowers that barely survived the winter (birds, insects, rats & the cold). We have noted that we need to take better care of plants overwintering outside.
We took some straw from the Hei to the farm noticing that our trailers needs some attention & love. This straw was distributed in the paths of open tunnels 4&5.
We scratched and planted potatoes in the right side of open tunnel 5.
We started weeding the Elephant look in between open tunnel 4 & 5.
We covered the spaces between the closed tunnels with wood chips.
In the closed tunnels we planted salads (in the center of closed tunnel 2 and in the center and the left side of closed tunnel 3).
We also planted strawberries at the 3 entrances of all closed tunnels and planted some garlic in between them.
We seeded melon, cucumber, pickle, pointed cabbage, cauliflower, corn, pumpkin, salad in pots in the greenhouse.
The kids from the city harvested salad to bring some delicious veggies back home to their families.
Our neighbor had his garden maintained by a professional gardener. We offered to bring all the waste to us instead of taking it to the recycling center. The large branches were used to continue building the windbreak at Hei and the smaller waste went to the chicken coop to add carbon to our future compost.
Jesus organized a workshop to make bread. These five young people were able to experience the whole process up to the cooking. Eating homemade bread adds a dimension to the experience! Even more, if the bread is naturally black due to the addition of charcoal. Big thank you Jesus for this wonderful workshop!
Before leaving, the young people collected salad to share with their families on their return. They took a little bit of Plukrijp with them in their luggage…
Pieter Vastmans gave Plukrijp some outdoor pepper plants and tomato plants. Thanks Pieter!
Tom fixed the water pipes going to the fields. Thanks to his fine work, we will now be able to give water without risking an instant flood!
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