a CSA box.

Farm news: This Saturday, we had a goodbye dinner for Chantal and Luciano, who are both leaving this Friday (totally coincidentally) to go to their new homes on the two far coasts. Chantal is going of to Massachusetts to go to graduate school and Looch is going to Tacoma to run a kitchen for school children. They have been wonderful team members and we will miss them very much.

here are a few pictures from the evening. it was also nate's birthday.

ATTENTION: Midwest Catholic Worker Gathering, SUGAR CREEK 2011

September 16, 17, 18.

Dear all,

Soon it will be that wonderful time to gather together with friends old and new – Sugar Creek. Our small, humble, and sometimes disorganized team here at the Mustard Seed Community Farm CW will do our best to help this event happen, and we are grateful to know that our Catholic Worker friends will help it all come together beautifully.

Here’s the SCHEDULE we have tentatively assembled:

Arrive Friday afternoon and evening.

Everything is growing so well on the farm this year!
Last year we had so much rain, and so many trials and tribulations, and this year, it's been raining an inch a week and everything looks beautiful.

this friday's pot-luck is about spiritual gifts, and our leaders are Tom and Heather Brumm.

for those folks, mostly in my family, who want to know what our house looks like inside, here's one picture, from sometime this winter.

here are some photos of the superheroes from 2 weeks ago.

There’s a lot going on at the farm these next few weeks, so I’ll try to give you the facts without overwhelming you with details. if you want the details, look at the end of this blog entry.

Quick summary: 1. We’ve had some changes to our pot-luck schedule – see below.
2. Superhero bike ride in Iowa, “Haul of Justice” is starting at Mustard Seed Community Farm, this weekend, and you are welcome to join in with some superhero training and/or service.

Hello Everyone!

(if you are skimming - my summary is that there are 2 schedules in this email - 1. pot-lucks, and 2. Farm-labor-share work days. 2 events: this friday and saturday)

My name is Luciano Garofalo (I go by Looch) and the Lady of the Onions pictured below is Emily Boston. We recently moved here from Tacoma, WA, to work at Mustard Seed, learn more about food, and build community with the wonderful folks here! We had previously been working in L'Arche (www.larchethc.org), an intentional community for adults with and without developmental disabilities. I lived in and managed one of our four homes, and Emily worked on our community's organic farm.

I started some leeks this week, but besides that our farm work is still mostly planning, splitting wood, and working on the insides of the house. HOwever, we do have some great events coming up this month.

Sunday Feb 13th, 2pm at the Ames public library - a free concert by the Porch Stompers (featuring farm members nate and alice) this is also alice's birthday.

Alice has returned to the farm, after being away for the first half of January in Honduras, on a service trip with the Dubuque Franciscans, and then in Dubuque at a Catholic Worker craft retreat. Here are some pictures and reflections from the trip. However, there were a lot of other folks there, and a number of them have already written about it, and so I'm going to cut and paste some of their thoughts also.