An enormous thank you to every one of my supporters for taking the Harvest Challenge above and beyond! What a wild success. With your help we doubled my fundraising goal, raising $1,000 for Ithaca Community Harvest to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to children in low-income elementary schools in my community. I am thrilled that we can share the Fall bounty with those who need it most!

Despite my hamstrings aching and my scalp mildly scalded from the sun, Sunday was a spectacular Fall day to harvest at Stick & Stone farm with Lucy and Chaw! Not only did we learn a lot, we were rewarded with a farm fresh lunch of squash soup, roasted beets, and delicious, chewy granola bars (try out this recipe by a fellow CSA Member).

We spent about four hours harvesting kohlrabi and beets. Here are some pictures from my Challenge.

Thank you again! Your support means so much to me and Ithaca Community Harvest, but more importantly, the kids who will get to eat the delicious fruits of our labor!

Me, deep in the Kohlrabi patch!

A group of about twenty folks arrived at Stick & Stone Farm on Sunday to harvest beets and kohlrabi. Chaw welcomes the eager crop mobbers!

The mobbers get started on the beets. There are A LOT.

Harvesting beets, beets, and more beets. Great for storing through the winter: a sweet jewel.

Gigantic Kohlrabi. This variety grows extra large, sweetening over time, and is great for winter storage. Left: Emily, a student at Cornell. Right: Chaw shows us how to snip the leaves to prevent rot from getting into the stored crops.

Here’s a great recipe: Braised Kohlrabi.

Snipping leaves off the kohlrabi.

The Kohlrabi field: Before

The Kohlrabi Field: Half-way through

The Kohlrabi Field: Crop Mobbed

Glorious Oh Glorious Autumn.

More Fall glory

As many of you know, I’ve moved to the hills of Ithaca, NY – home of farms and foodies! (No, that isn’t why I moved here). However, a movement of folks have come to realize that the bounty arriving in our CSA shares or at the farmers markets rarely trickles down to the families who are most in need of good quality, fresh food!

For $22.50, this is what I get (and pick) at my weekly CSA. This bargain for just me and Bobby is a stretch for some families!

I yammer on about home grown, home cooked meals in my Food Blog while I literally have neighbors that can’t even afford the wholesome dinner I’m raving about. It’s appalling!

So here’s what I’m going to do about it. For just ONE day I’ll take the Harvest Challenge and get down and dirty at my very own CSA Farm (Stick & Stone) to harvest beets, potatoes, carrots, squash and other Autumn vegetables. Ithaca Community Harvest will use the fruits of our labor to provide kids with fresh snacks at two low-income schools in greater Ithaca.

I need your help too! One day of my physical labor is only a temporary solution. Join me in taking the Harvest Challenge and help me raise $500 dollars in FIVE DAYS.

Greta, the little resident farmer at Stick & Stone Farm, scores a monster carrot!

The money we raise will help Ithaca Community Harvest continue to tackle this problem and find creative ways to bring fresh, affordable food to those most in need. Please help me reach this goal!

Stick & Stone’s superstar farmers, Lucy and Chaw, have been enormously generous in not only allowing a mob of clueless, but caring, community members to harvest their goods, but in donating them back to their community! (Trust me, farmers already struggle to make a living when market prices hardly reflect the cost of producing real food).

Let’s Farm On!

Thank you so much in advance for your your contribution and your support!

Emma