This newsletter gets you up to speed on the key tasks of our EVCG Org and Farm Cells as we shift from our Spring start-up and farm prep/planting activities, and transit into Summer.
Hours Tracking:
The EVCG Hours Tracking spreadsheet is up on our website.
Check your Hours Owed (red number at the bottom of spreadsheet). This tells you how many hours you still need to meet your Labour Hours for the Membership Agreement. We’ve got the Summer maintenance and Fall harvest months still to go, so there’s lots of time to make up your hours. If you have any concerns about completing your hours, please contact Karen, Robert or Bryan.
Thanks to everyone for tracking your hours, recording your hours on the clipboards at South Down and Aquarius Gardens Farms, or emailing Karen (for those who prefer this option). Everyone has done a fabulous job!
Karen will be updating and sharing the spreadsheet once a month. Please keep doing what you’re doing! It’s working great.
Thanks to Karen for tracking the hours, creating/updating the spreadsheet and following up with all of you.
Survey:
A belated thank you for everyone’s participation in our EVCG survey. The data was essential to finalize our Membership Agreement, organize our Summer Schedule, and share our good vibes about this awesome community project.
Here are some of those good vibes from your survey comments: “This is awesome! “Such good medicine and positive action in these times.” “This is so fun!! Love it!!” “Big thank you to all of us for having the foresight to work collectively.” “Awe inspiring. Like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and I’m sure many others will say the same once it’s known what is going on here.”
Some of us are keen to see how this will impact our larger community: “Share with other pods.” “Creating a model that other pods can follow.” “Leading by example to the rest of SSI and beyond.” “This project can kickstart other SSI pods!”
Here are some of the reasons why this project is important to us: Community building. Conscious connecting with each other and the land. Social connections with neighbors. Good direct in person, direct communication. Adaptability. Food security. Organic food. And, making tomato sauce!
Thanks to Karen and Cecile for the survey design, collection and data analysis, and Larry for tech support.
Finances:
Our EVCG financial budget is now up on the website.
Thanks to the amazing kickstarter $500 donation from Belinda and Ron, we were able to purchase the infrastructure we needed for our first season at EVCG. We’ve got 11 households participating with 15 shares for another $1500 towards our farming costs.
Our budget is now exhausted at a time when everything is in the ground and irrigation systems have been established. We’ll end the planting season with a small deficit of $81.40 that will be carried over into 2021. This means that the membership cost was well planned to balance with our forecasted expenses.
Preserving expenses for jars or bags will be paid for by individual members.
Thanks to Bryan for the budgeting, and Karin for helping collect membership agreements and fees.
Website:
There are lots of great photos and posts of our farming project.
Share our great adventure with your family and friends.
Thanks to Mr. Mole for the website creation, photography, posting and ongoing maintenance.
Org Cell:
The Org Cell has been meeting weekly since the inception of this seed of an idea of neighbours growing food together in Echo Valley. Their role has been to develop the structure of the group with the Farm Leads, farm work teams and schedules, member agreement, and budgets for labour and finances, as well as tools to communicate and co-ordinate our work including the survey, website and Hours Tracking spreadsheet/process.
As we go into Summer maintenance mode, the Org Cell will focus on Hours Tracking and the website. They will also be doing some outreach to share our story and tools beyond our valley in the hopes of inspiring other PODs to follow in our footsteps.
Thanks to Bryan, Robert and Karen for their creative problem solving and hard work, supported by the fabulous Cecile, Larry and Karin.
Farm Cell:
The Farm Leads have met weekly since we began our big little enterprise in mid-April. These meetings gave them a chance to catch up on where things were at, map out the work for the Sunday work parties, and develop scheduling for weeding and watering. There’s a need for the members doing this work to pivot over to weeding and watching mode if you haven’t already done so.
Irrigation is now up and running at the South Down field, so that will make it easier for the team caring for this area. Thanks to Brian, Susanne, Jessica, and Jenn for watering the plants there before the irrigation was automated! And invisible to most of us is the work of Karla and her kids, Satya and Ronin, and Mark and Robert are doing hilling, watering and tending the potatoes in their respective fields, as well as Kristen’s and Karin’s work tending the greenhouse and field at Aquarius Garden.
Hats off to the Farm leads for their diligence and hard work over the past few months! The Farm Cell team is Susanne, David, Mark, Kristin and Bryan. Thank you!
Team Echo Valley Community Gardens:
Thanks to everyone for all your hard efforts and amazing teamwork. We’ve accomplished so much in such a short period of time!
Not mentioned above, but also wonderful, inspirational members of our team are Tanis (benefactor of our farming adventure), Sia (our youngest farmer) and Zensho (Cecile’s joyful, hardworking share-mate).
Let’s continue to get our hands dirty together this Summer, grow food, deepen our connections, and enjoy the beauty and wonder of our Echo Valley home.