“Hi! My name is Ana and I’m going to be a senior at Gettysburg College this coming fall. I’m a Political Science major, Peace and Justice Studies minor but my real passion is in the field of environmental studies. This past year I’ve been exploring my interest in the food system and environmental activism through study abroad programs in both Denmark and Australia. Aside from gardening I love to hike, hula hoop, and make all kinds of arts and crafts. I’m really excited to be interning at Amazing Heart Farm this summer and I hope to gain a lot of valuable knowledge about gardening while I’m there!”

Ana will be starting toward the middle of June. We can’t wait to have her (and her amazing hula hoop talent) join us!

Elizabeth

Last night we had an educational workshop on building rain barrels at Painted Turtle Farm, a student-run Certified Naturally Grown garden at Gettysburg College that also hosts a Community Garden and Training Center. For those of you who are interested in learning how to build your own rain barrel, Bill Mooney did a great job demonstrating the following quick and easy techniques.

Supplies needed:

• A barrel to collect rain water. Make sure that it wasn’t previously used to hold anything toxic.
• A flexible downspout
• 3/4″ boiler drain
• 3/4 ” barb fitting
• Teflon tape or some type of thread sealant
• A marker
• Snips or a saw of some type
• A drill with a 1 inch bit
• A pair of pliers
• Safety glasses and hearing protection

Instructions:

1. Put the flexible downspout where you’d like it to go on top of the rain barrel and trace the hole to be cut with marker.

2. Wearing safety glasses, cut the hole on top of the barrel with a snips or some type of saw – a few options would be the reciprocating saw (what Bill used), hand saw, rotary cutter etc.

3. Drill a 1 inch hole at the bottom of the barrel for the drain (on the opposite side of where the downspout goes, This allows easy access if the rain barrel is placed against a building) with a hole saw or drill bit.

4. Then drill a 1 inch hole at the top of the barrel for the overflow. This can be drilled at 90 degrees from the downspout or drain.

5. Put thread sealant or Teflon tape on the drain and on the overflow fitting.

6. Then screw in the drain and overflow pipe.

7. Place the barrel where it’s intended to go, elevating it with bricks or concrete or wood blocks to make the drain more accessible.

8. Use a hack saw to cut the gutter and connect the flexible downspout to the gutter. Place the downspout in the barrel (the hole you cut in step 2).

9. Then connect a hose to the overflow fitting and divert it away from the house.

10. . . . And Voila! Now you just have to wait for it to rain

While I love taking pictures, my knowledge on the inner workings of photography is rather basic. So this year, I’m doing a barter exchange (CSA share for photography lessons) with Jerry Gilbert of Jerry Gilbert Photography. We had a great first session this morning – if you’ve ever wondered about aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, trust me, he’s your guy!

His gorgeous prints are for sale HERE and if you’re interested in photography lessons, you can contact Jerry HERE.

Enjoy this gorgeous spring weather!

Elizabeth

EFFORTLESS GARDENING ™ WITH
THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD®
OF AWARENESS THROUGH MOVEMENT®

Taught by Bob Hunter, Certified Feldenkrais Teacher®

HAVE A GREEN THUMB WITHOUT AN ACHING BACK!

Experience the joy of gardening and feel great too! In this workshop you will discover that basic gardening tasks such as digging, planting, weeding, hoeing, and raking can be easier and more pleasurable than you ever thought possible. Through a series of gentle, easy-to-do movement explorations you will learn efficient ways to pull, push, squat, lift and carry. This workshop is for those of all ages and degrees of experience. Wear loose comfortable clothing. Bob Hunter is an experienced and certified Feldenkrais® teacher and an enthusiastic gardener. If you have questions please feel free to call him at (717) 328-2363.

Date: Saturday, June 15th, 2013, from 10 AM – 4 PM

Cost: $45 (scholarships may be available, check with Elizabeth at amazingheartfarm@comcast.net)

Place: Amazing Heart Farm / 181 Orrtanna Road/ Orrtanna PA 17353

Lunch will be potluck so please bring something to share!

Registration: contact Elizabeth Weller at amazingheartfarm@comcast.net or 717.339.8443

Feldenkrais®, Feldenkrais Method®, Awareness Through Movement®, and Functional Integration®, are registered service marks; and Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher® is a certification mark of the Feldenkrais Guild® of North America.

Kendall will be interning with us when she returns from her semester abroad in Panama this June. An Environmental Studies major at Gettysburg College, Kendall is from Rumson, NJ and when she isn’t engaged with her studies, she loves to cook and she enjoys running and being outdoors. She is excited to enjoy the hands on experience as an intern for Amazing Heart Farm this summer. And we’re excited to have her!

Please join us once again in kicking off the 2013 CSA season with poems and music by Will Lane! We will have a potluck dinner, followed by a “living room concert” (hopefully on the front porch this year, weather cooperating) of songs and poems of protest and praise exploring the human-earth relationship. 

“An honest voice/begins in the toes/ feeling the floor.”

Also, we’re excited to let everyone know that we’ll be accepting donations for Painted Turtle Farm, the Gettysburg College student run garden that is transitioning to a campus-community hub for food justice. This expansion will enable the land to be used as a training ground for students and immigrant families to work together to grow food, exchange knowledge and learn to market the produce for sale. They’re in need of tools to kick off their 2013 growing season so if you’d like, please bring a few dollars to donate to the cause!

We hope to see you there-

Elizabeth

BODHICITTA: A practice for awakening the heart at
Amazing Heart Farm

Lead by Christy Smith, Certified Meditation Teacher

EXPERIENCE EMBODIMENT & NOURISH YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOURSELF AND THE EARTH

“The degree of our awareness is the degree of our aliveness. We have forgotten the virtue of sitting, watching, observing. Nothing much happens. This is the way of nature. We breathe together. Simply this. For long periods of time, the meadow is still. We watch. We wait. We wonder. Our eyes find a resting place. And then, the slightest of breezes moves the grass. It can be heard as a whispered prayer.”
-Terry Tempest Williams, from Finding Beauty in a Broken World

Christy Smith has been a student of meditation and awareness practice for seven years in the practicing lineage as taught by Dr. Reginald A. Ray. She has a unique gift for offering practice in a way that is plain, practical and down to earth. She loves practice for its everyday pragmatic quality, but also for its ability to facilitate profound transformation. If you have questions please feel free to call her at (617) 388-1601.

Date: Saturday April 6th, 9:30-4 PM
Cost: $50, OR contact Elizabeth to inquire about scholarship options at amazingheartfarm@comcast.net.
Registration: Please send a $25 deposit by April 1st to: Elizabeth Weller / 181 Orrtanna Road / Orrtanna, Pa 17353