This summer we experimented with leaving most of our tomato plants to vine out rather than staking and suckering them. It’s hard to say why the “vined out’ tomatoes did so well, but we certainly had an abundant crop! My theory is that they had more shade to protect them from the drought-like conditions we had this summer. Kudos to the teachers who came out to stake the other side of our tomato patch. Those tomatoes are easier for kids to pick and eat.

Our potatoes were hidden by a dense cover of weeds thanks to early July rain. The teen crew harvested them in mid-August, but the elementary students will still be able to harvest our sweet potatoes whose vines haven’t died out yet. We gave the white and red potatoes to our school chef, Harley Sterling. He washed them a put them in storage for a future school meal. Thanks, Harley! (You can see below what our sweet potatoes looked like mid-summer after the crew weeded and mulched them with straw.) Next are photos of the amazing job these kids did weeding our popcorn: