It’s hard to believe that we’re halfway through our fifth summer at Fairgate Farm! New this year are fruit trees (like this gorgeous peach), including apple, pear and plum … along with more plants for our ethnic collection, such as Caribbean callaloo — Bangladesh squash — Mexican tomatillos — Asian ghost peppers — Eastern European kohlrabi — and Italian rapini. If you’ve got a yearning for a fruit or vegetable to honor your home cuisine, let us know! If you have seeds or starters, even better: Please drop by! We have lots more planned for this summer and fall, including a teen cooking class/challenge — pickling workshop — and our annual Harvest Festival. We’ll send dates and details or visit us on Facebook, Instagram (@FairgateFarm), Twitter (@VitaStamford) or online at www.vitastamford.com.
Our Farm to Table Family Workshop is going strong, running Wednesdayevenings, now through August 19 (5:30 – 7 pm; free and open to all). Cucumbers were our featured vegetable last week (“cool as a cucumber” seemed like a really good strategy!) and we all enjoyed making smoothies, cucumber sandwiches, Middle Eastern tabouli and (everyone’s favorite) pickles! (We’ll be posting the recipe on Facebook and Instagram this week — make sure to “like” us so you don’t miss it!)
Volunteering is way up this year, including from our good-neighbor companies (like this group from NestleWaters, along with CPG Architects, Pitney Bowes and more) as well as supportive organizations including Backyard Humanitarian and GreenUp. (Thank you Stamford Daily Voice for the recent feature article on our corporate volunteers: read it at http://stamford.dailyvoice.
We’re also pretty excited about our composting program, which has taken off this year! We now produce 500 pounds of compostable material each week! Contributors include the Food Bank, community members and a few of our local restaurants. The City of Stamford generously supports our efforts too — working together we divert more than eight tons (8!!!) from our city’s solid waste stream. Not to mention how much our self-made compost enriches our Fairgate Farm crops and other local community gardens (yes, we share!). It’s a win-win for all! If you’d like to contribute compost or want some for your own garden, please come by on Saturday mornings.