Progress…

The new farm at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) is coming along.  It has been months of work to get to this point.  The patient garden, the plot nearest to the hospital, has already been planted and has started producing.  We had patients and staff from the hospital help plant at the groundbreaking, and we were thrilled to have them come out again recently to plant the new rows in the garden.  It is always such an uplifting experience to be there.  For all of the very serious work they do, the CTCA is a place of much hope and joy.

Getting the ground ready has been quite a process, especially since the surface was hard as a rock.  Sean has spent many long frustrating days out there trying to get the ground cultivated so we can start making planting beds, only to have one piece of equipment after another break in the process.  He was back and forth between the two farms bringing out different pieces of equipment, fixing broken bolts, trying to find replacement parts.  So, he resorted to this…

We brought in a rented tractor and hooked up the rippers he was using on the ground and it did the trick.  This was a big one, a 300-horse power tractor that wasn’t taking “no” for an answer.  The ground finally acquiesced.  I even got to go out and ride along one morning while he was working and see for myself what he was up against.  It wasn’t dirt clods coming up, it was hardened, unforgiving soil that had finally met its match.

But the great news, is now that the ground has been ripped everything has become much easier.  So far, the west section of the farm has had salad, arugula, cauliflower, onions, chard and kale and broccoli all planted.  And as much as the rain this past weekend put a damper on the market, it was exactly what the ground at the CTCA farm needed.  All of that water will be able to soak deep down into the ground and help soften it and make it easier to continue forming the planting beds.  As we move forward, we are putting OMRI-approved (Organic Materials Review Institute) nutrients into the ground, and Sean will continue to till, level and form planting beds, helping to make the ground ready to grow.  We are excited for what is to come.