Harvestars Hard at Work – The Crop Planning Project

In January and February our gardens sleep, but there’s no rest for the growers! Harvestars Imogene and Tony have spent the past three weeks reviewing last summer’s plantings and harvest and planning for 2017! The two Harvestars (our lead intern position), first reviewed all 63 varieties of produce grown last summer and then made notes about the crop’s successes and failures: productivity, flavor, resistance to disease, color, popularity-to name a few criteria. The interns then categorized the crops by family and whether they grew best in the cold or warm season, using this information to decide which varieties we should grow again, and what new cultivars could be introduced. They were rewarded with every farmer’s favorite endeavor; pouring over seed catalogs with all their delicious photographs and colorful descriptions of veggies, fruits, and flowers. Imogene and Tony made notes with a proposal for each new variety they had selected and then presented it to their two supervisors, Jaclyne and Summer. The most convincing arguments won and our 2017 seed order is on it’s way!