Summer Interns and the First Summer CSA

It has been a busy few weeks at the Morven Kitchen Garden. We are excited to have three great student interns tending the garden and making the summer CSA happen. This year’s interns are Holly Books, Gabi Freckmann, and Mikaela Ruiz-Ramon. Over the summer, the interns will be sharing blog posts about their internship and experience at the garden.The past few weeks have been busy. Garden activities have included transplanting, trellising tomatoes, hilling potatoes, seeding trays in the greenhouse, and weeding. MKG interns led the Morven Summer Institute (MSI) students on a tour of the garden on May 30^st and harvested a salad of lettuce and spinach to share with them at a picnic lunch. On Thursday, June 1, the interns worked with volunteers from UVA Facilities Management and MKG Dining Intern, Sam Beadles to prepare beds in the MKG Collaborative Plot. Compost was added to ten beds and drip irrigation readied. The butternut squash seeds the interns planted on Friday, June 2 are germinating!A highlight from this week included the MKG intern’s first visit to Bellair Farm, a large organic vegetable farm in Albemarle County.  The weekly collaboration with Bellair provides MKG interns insight into how a larger farming operation works and an opportunity to see how the sustainable agriculture principles they are learning, apply to all sizes/scales of growing.The week ended with the first harvest and delivery of the summer CSA season! On Friday, interns harvested, prepared and delivered the first share to CSA customers.Looking forward to a good summer of growing!Steph Meyers, MKG Farm Manager