The first round of frost and snow for the season has already come and gone, which means the remaining vegetables have had to all be harvested - and fast!
Over the last couple of weeks the farm crew has been hard at work with harvesting the last of our vegetables. An incredible 3500lbs of cabbage, radish, turnips, and greens were all harvested in just under one week!
All told, the final amount of produce harvested this year was just under 14,500lbs (nearly 75% to our 20k in 2020 goal). While we didn’t meet our full goal, we are still so proud of all the work that our interns, team leads, farm crew, and farm manager have done with growing nearly 6x what we’ve grown in previous years! It’s amazing what these 24 people have accomplished in just one growing season. That doesn’t mean our work is over yet! There is still garlic to plant, plant debris to clean up, cover crops to tend, and ground to cover. It’s that time of year to put the farm sites to bed for the winter.
We are also in the middle of lots of canning and preserving projects. The Education Center has become a mess of jars, produce, and delicious smells with peppers fermenting and being made into hot sauce, tomatoes being turned into salsas and sauces, and berries made into jams, syrups, and preserves. We can’t wait to share some of that with you all soon during our annual Holiday Market!
All of this year’s progress could not have been remotely possible without the community that supports City Sprouts. Our incredibly generous donors, sponsors, and grant funders have backed us every step of the way. We are constantly humbled and encouraged by those who partner in our mission to cultivate a healthy city with an equitable and sustainable food system here in Omaha. And we can’t wait to work with our partners and staff to grow even more and carry our mission further next year and hope that you can join us in the adventure!