Summer at Growing Home

Summer is the busiest time of year at Growing Home. Not only are our farms in full production mode, but our job training and community outreach programming is also at the peak of activity.

In March our first cohort of individuals entered the job training program and of those 19 individuals already 9 have been placed in jobs. We just enrolled the second cohort of interns in the beginning of July and orientation is almost over. This transition is a busy time for both our farming and job training staff, because we all have to keep up with the pace of vegetable production while a new crew of interns becomes accustomed to the fast paced work styles of each of our farms.

July 2012 – Interns harvesting basil at the Wood Street Urban Farm in Englewood. Photo by Elspeth McGarvey.

Tomatoes are another sign of summer at Growing Home. Our farmers began taking tomatoes to market at the end of June. Tomatoes also started entering the boxes of all of our CSA members a few weeks ago. Tomatoes are a favorite crop of CSA members, market customers, and home gardeners everywhere, but they are remarkably fragile and extra care must be taken to make sure they don’t arrive at market brushed, gashed, or overly ripe.

July 2012 – Growing Home’s CSA members get a share of vegetables from our Les Brown Memorial Farm each week. Tomatoes are carefully nested in each share between bunches of basil and soft pillows of lettuce or other greens. Photo by Katy Collier.

Each week during summer, Growing Home hosts a farm stand and open house at the Wood Street Urban Farm–visitors may purchase fresh produce picked that very day between 11am and 4pm every Wednesday. Growing Home’s Les Brown Memorial Farm in Marseilles, IL also opens to the public every week–between 3pm and 7pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.

July 2012 – Growing Home’s Wednesdays at Wood Street includes at farm stand open from 11am – 4pm weekly. Photo by Kevin Swan.

-Katy
Development Associate