The Bounty of Farmville

So far, the posts about the Farmville Reality Project have focused on different things being planted or taken care of. Last week, we were able to move in a different direction with the post about making pickles. This week, due to many circumstances, it just seemed the right time to start talking about the "bounty" that comes from working hard to plant and take care of the many vegetables we've talked about the past few months. As much as I enjoy the work out in the project, there is an equal amount of satisfaction in moving into the kitchen and using all of this to create meals. We have been doing this daily for the past couple of weeks. Before we dive into the many ingredients for our great meals this project has provided, indulge me on other aspects of the project that are as important. The Farmville Reality Project has many aspects to it, and the people involved with making these many "moving parts" work is truly an accomplishment. The crew here bring things together in a way that is both unique and very productive. This crew will serve as the foundation for this project for many years to come. We tie together the many experiences of our past with a future that is exciting. Doesn't get much better if you ask me. The ages of this crew range from mid-teens to those of us a bit older than that. We are all in agreement in our passion about this project.

The first and most important thing that comes to mind is how a productive garden captures people's attention. I'm not implying this project is any more well known than it is, but we have quite a few folks keeping track of its progress and asking questions about how things are coming along. Many of these questions come from people doing something similar and the opportunity to swap information that might help all of us successfully raise things from our gardens is priceless. We may be idealistic here, but the more we can engage people in what it takes to produce a good meal, the better we position our society to solve many health related issues that plague too many of us. It seems the more people think about their meals, the healthier aspects of the meal choice takes on greater importance. A productive garden fits into this in so many ways. The other really cool thing from this has been the interest from a younger crowd, way beyond what I had thought possible. Both of my kids were raised smack in the middle of vegetable production and because of this, they are very familiar with how to use the many vegetables that were always sitting on the counter. Since this project started, their friends have taken an interest in how things are progressing and even comment on how much certain crops have grown since the last time they stopped by. One of the crew (I have to bust you out RJ) has even planted his own garden and uses Farmville as a "school" of sorts to learn more about raising your own food. It's been good to demonstrate how a weed patch that was formerly a parking lot for construction equipment can be quickly transformed into a project that feeds an army.

This leads into another area I believe many people that operate large scale gardens should think about. No matter how many hungry kids and other relatives you have, most gardens begin to out produce their demand curve by about August of each year. Not sure why, but I suspect it's the convergence of plant biology, human physiology, and half-ass resource economics all thrown together in a way that sane people call "Uncle" and realize they can't eat everything the garden produces. In the old days (I won't even get controversial and throw time frames out there), people would get started canning or drying the production to carry them through the winter months. Now days, this doesn't happen as much as it needs to and the potential for things to simply go bad "on the vine" is very real. What we are going to do here in Farmville if this starts to happen is to pick the vegetables and take to the local food bank. I have read numerous articles about how food banks are always short on fresh fruits and vegetables. I have also heard many anecdotal accounts on home gardeners having more produce than they can use or give away to neighbors. Seems to me, this could work out perfectly. We'll post later on if we are able to do this and how the logistics work out. First glance cries out "win-win" though.

Now, lets move into quantifying the "bounty" known as Farmville. The picture with this post was taken tonight, so the methodology was simply to walk through and pick different things. Only the onions, garlic, and potatoes came from an earlier harvest, but that's what we do do with those. Keep them in a cool, dry place and use as the meal dictates. The following is a list of what was picked from a ten minute walk through Farmville this evening. I truly hope it inspires people to plant more next year so they can fully appreciate this "bounty".

• Yellow Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• White Onions
• Torpedo Onions
• Garlic
• Yellow Finnish Potatoes
• Dill
• Basil
• Garlic Chives
• Chives
• Chocolate Mint
• Spearmint
• Serrano Peppers
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Anaheim Peppers
• Thyme
• Roma Tomatoes
• Slicing Tomatoes
• Yellow Roma Tomatoes
• Sage
• Rosemary
• Sweet Corn
• Asian Melon

As you can see, we have a very large variety of ingredients to use when preparing meals here in Farmville. None of this required anything too complicated and we will likely have more than enough to share with those less fortunate. We at Farmville hope this helps those that might have come late to our community better understand what we're doing here. More importantly, the hope is to get even more on board with how we approach things. Our approach is to make sure to make improvements where ever possible and be open minded enough to know how to accomplish this. Not an easy task, but the Farmville crew is a very unique crew, so I think we will get there. Wish us luck.