Farm to Table Doesn’t Get Any Fresher!

Rainbow Acres enjoys the bounty of the season made possible by mild winters and our talented horticulture staff and Ranchers. Fresh organic vegetables are grown onsite in our greenhouses and Ranchers learn to compost kitchen waste and organic materials. They watch Swiss Chard, Romaine Lettuce, beets, and many other beautiful vegetables, sprout and grow large before their eyes. Ranchers help in carrying the fresh harvest to Chef Martin who is very happy to get organic produce for salad to be enjoyed by all the Ranchers.

 

Rainbow Acres enjoys the bounty of the season made possible by mild winters and our talented horticulture staff and Ranchers.

Any surplus veggies are donated to local food banks, senior centers and friends of Rainbow….150 pounds last week! Rainbow Acres Horticulture and Ecology Educator, Rodolfo Morales shares, “Ranchers had a lot fun today doing our first harvest of the winter season 2020-21.  They all helped carrying veggies from the boxes to the table where we usually lay plants for washing before boxing them up to be delivered to Chef Martin who was very happy to get fresh organic produce for today’s salad to be enjoyed by all the Ranchers.  A nice advantage of doing activities by home (designed to reduce Rancher contact among houses during COVID), is that we now have Ranchers like Rob, Brent and Keith doing greenhouse activities for the first time!”

 

Planting the shade house for Spring and Summer

March had weeks with the men from our Patrick and Agape houses, and women from our Chipeta house.  Rodolfo shares:  “We continued on planting the shade house with spring and summer veggies, and Chipeta has embarked on a project to plant and grow herbs to be used as spices and condiments by our chefs. We also continued harvesting winter veggies from the greenhouse and finally this week we started harvesting long-growth plants like turnips and cabbage. Just in time for St. Patrick’s dishes.”

Read more from Rodolfo Morales in his recent blog post Reinforcing Individual Strengths Key to Special Education Learning.

Rainbow Acres resident Ranchers gobble up fresh vegetables daily. Any surplus veggies are donated to local food banks and friends of Rainbow.  Recently we were able to make a delivery of fresh vegetables from Rainbow Acres horticulture program to the Cottonwood Senior Center. Pictured is Elaine Brimner, Cottonwood’s Executive Director.