Winter Tree Pruning

The Winter Tree Pruning Workshop was an amazing success! Thanks to everyone who came out! And thanks to Dave Shaw for leading such a great workshop! We were able to prune all the apple and pear trees in the garden. We will hold off on pruning the stone fruit trees (peach, plum, etc.) until summer because they will require a different type of pruning. Hopefully. because of the awesome pruning we gave the trees last weekend, we can expect lots of delicious fruit come summer and fall, so get ready!

Harvest List as of February 17th 2009

Garden
• Chard
• Collard Greens
• Bok choi
• Mustard Greens
• Broccoli and Cauliflower will be ready soon, keep an eye out, they are a bit too small right now. These are planted primarily on the south edge of the garden in between fruit trees, do not confuse with collard greens and harvest the leaves or else the broccoli and cauliflowers will suffer and may not produce.
***Chard, Collard Greens, and Bok Choi are real small just due to the lack of sunlight, you can still harvest them small. Remember it is a good idea to leave at least 5 leaves per plant so they will maintain productivity and cut leaves from the outside inwards. Also, in beds 8B ad 15, there are brussel sprouts which have leaves, but should not be eaten because they the plants will not be able to produce brussel sprouts. Check with Andrew if there is any confusion about this.

A-Quad
• Collard Greens
• Cauliflower
• Romanesco broccoli
• Mustard greens
• Lettuce
• Kale
***If you have any questions or are confused about harvesting any goodies in the A-quad, check in with Bee or Molly in A-1 they will be happy to hook it up.

PICA's Farm Beds
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Collards
• Kale

What PICA means to me

The following is a piece written by one of our PICAns expressing a little about what PICA means to them. It is likely that this piece will be included in a campus wide environmental media project currently in the works. If you have anything you would like to share, please do.

PICA

We eat together.
Monday, Tuesday, Wendesday, we eat dinner together. We sit around enjoying delicious meals that we take turns preparing. The kitchen is warm, the food is warm (and delicious), and the way I feel inside, as I am surrounded by all the good company, is warm. After the meal is finished and cleanup begins, we head back to our respective buildings, and with us we bring our sense of community.
We live together.
Someone puts on some hot water for tea, and maybe some folks sit around the kitchen sippin mate and shootin the breeze, talking of mushrooms and the up-and-coming 5th weekly sunrise meadow barefoot run. Down the hall a few folks are studying together or their watching a movie. There are no strangers in my building, nor in my quad. PICA is my home, and when I am away, I miss my home and everyone who is a part of it.
We work together.
On Saturdays we work in the garden. We turn the soil, pull the weeds, make the compost, plant the plants, and do a wide array of other tasks and projects that keep the garden healthy and thriving so that we in turn can remain happy, healthy and well fed. Food from the garden goes into our meals, and the work we do not only brings us together as a community, but it allows for the opportunity of others who don’t live here to become involved and be a part of the PICA community.