This Saturday, May 15th, the DC Crop Mob will descend for the third time on a local sustainable farm to lend a helping hand. After two successful events in March and April, we’re ready to bring farmers and friends together at Blueberry Gardens in Ashton, MD! But first:

Report from the April Crop Mob: Mountain View Farm

Nearly 30 mobbers converged at Mountain View Farm in April to spend the day working outdoors, learning about farming and getting to know other good food lovers.  The day’s tasks included planting onions and leeks, spreading compost, weeding garlic and peas, and transplanting beets – just to name a few! With so many hands, we accomplished days’ worth of work in just a few hours, to the sincere appreciation of farmers Shawna Dewitt and Attila Agoston.

Shawna and Attila grow vegetables and free-range eggs on 3 acres of land leased from the Blue Ridge Center, a private nature preserve in Loudon County, VA.  They have been working that land for four years, farming from the start without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. Their two year old daughter, Ruby, accompanied us in the fields and around the farm, totally at home amongst the peas and the goats!

Our mid-day lunch break was a delicious spread of veggie and venison chilis, rice, quinoa salad, artisan breads and several homemade desserts. There are few things better than sitting down to a homemade meal after putting in a morning’s worth of good hard work!

Everyone brought a different level of farming experience. For many mobbers, this was their first or second time just being on a farm – others were former farm workers and returned Peace Corps volunteers. The only requirement to be a mobber is an interest in agriculture and willingness to get your hands dirty. No special skills are needed – we were taught how to do everything as we went along.

After our jobs were done, Shawna and Attila took us on a tour of the farm, the highlight of which was the small menagerie of livestock they keep mainly for their own use. We walked through the pasture with nanny goats and kids, the dairy cow and her calf, and the flock of laying hens. The farm is also home to a pair of rare heritage breed pigs – Guinea Hogs – who had just recently had a batch of adorable piglets.

One of the more unique items on the farm is a portable poultry processing unit – that is, a trailer that contains all the equipment you need to slaughter and process broiler chickens. They received it through a grant and rent it out at a very low cost to any other farmers that need to use it. Because slaughter facilities and equipment can be a limiting factor for many small livestock producers, this is a great asset to the local farming community.

We were even joined by a reporter from the Lancaster Farming News, who did a story on the day’s events. Check it out! All in all, it was a fabulous day. Be sure to stop and say hello at Mountain View Farm’s two farmers market stands in DC: at Penn Quarter on Thursday afternoons and at 14th & U St. on Saturday mornings.

This month’s Mob: Saturday, May 15th!

This month’s Mob is at Blueberry Gardens, an established pick-your-own organic blueberry farm in Ashton, MD. In addition to working with the berry plants, we’ll be helping with a new vegetable farm that is starting up on the same property. You’ll have the opportunity to see an established perennial fruit farm and a startup vegetable farm, all in one day.

Carpools will leave from various spots around DC at about 8:30am. We’ll be working from 9:30 to 2:30, with a lunch break in between. No experience necessary – just curiousity and willingness to help!

If you’d like to attend, email info@cropmobdc.com with your name, location and phone number, and whether you can drive or need a ride.

If you can’t make it this week, but want to stay in the loop, join the Facebook group!