Well, mobbers, it sure seems like we’re picking up speed. I guess that’s what folks like us are supposed to do coming on springtime, huh? We had a wonderful micromob at Greg’s this past weekend and discovered how wonderfully warm a greenhouse can keep you on a blustery day. It was a great day of weeding and transplanting little sprouts to their own homes. I must say, if you’ve never signed up for a micromob or minimob, be sure to give it a try sometime; you get to know your fellow mobbers much better, and it’s an awfully cozy feeling – esp. eating roast chicken in a lovely farmhouse together and touring around a very historic farm. Plus, you never know what “treasures” are found on old farm property – and some things you just have to see to believe (wink wink nudge nudge to the folks who made it out).

We’ll be organizing lots of micromobs out to GreenLeaf in the next several months, so be sure to take advantage of one. Greg’s headed to the hospital tomorrow for his procedure, so please keep him and Maeda in your thoughts.

Guess what this weekend is! The Georgia Organics conference and the kickoff of Crop Mob Savannah! We can’t wait to see what our friends down south have in store for us; we have no doubt they’ll help spread the mob love across the state with us. And if you’re going, don’t forget about the time change! Anyone an hour late will be forced to complete their choice of the funky chicken, the electric slide, or the boot-scootin’ boogie in front of all other mobbers before beginning work. I kid…though it does seem an appealing option. I look forward to filling everyone in with a complete recap when we get back.

Things to keep on your radar:

• Later this month we’ll be having the first Crop Mob Speakeasy. You won’t have to know a secret password, and there won’t be any moonshine (though drinks will be available for purchase). Basically, it’s a time for us all to gather together and discuss an issue or two pertinent to Georgia’s sustainable ag movement. Topic and location to be announced shortly, but I have it on good authority that both are pretty awesome. It will most likely be around 7:00 on a weeknight…that work for you folks?
• We will be having a full scale mob in the city on the 27th, so mark your calendar. We’ll fill you in on the details on that one soon, too. You can’t expect us to give away ALL the good secrets at once, can you??

More to come!

This past weekend we had the absolute joy (not to mention tremendous weather!) of helping out Patchwork City Farms and Good Shepherd Community Garden. Patchwork City Farms is located on the Brown Middle School campus and is really a sight to see! The beautiful and amazing Cecilia, Jamila and Jossakeed are working super hard to see it thrive and provide the community and school kids with delicious sustainably-grown food and an education in growing without chemicals in an urban landscape. Half our crew spent the morning there, creating beds & trellises, seeding and generally preparing the area for the upcoming season.

The other half of us took a stroll (or drive…laaazy bones!) through beautiful West End over to Good Shepherd Community Church (historical nerd tangent: did you know that West End was Atlanta’s first suburb? Neither did I until last saturday! Yup, the intersection of Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. and Lee St. is considered the oldest intersection still in use in Atlanta dating back to 1835! Plus the cottage homes over there are just gorgeous…keep an eye out for all the cool original stained glass details! End tangent.) At Good Shepherd, we met the charming Reverend Bright, sweet as pie Mrs. Bright and were kept on task by the unparalleled Ms. Turner – she grew up on a farm in Lovejoy, GA and knows how to get work DONE. We harvested a lot of winter greens and continued the task of keeping the kudzu that once enveloped the entire growing space at bay with sling blades and a lot of back and shoulder strength.

Just as our stomachs clued in to it being after noon, we were treated to the most fantastic spread by Ms. Suzi Sheffield, caterer, chef and all-around awesome human. We were treated to – try not to salivate – gumbo, tofu curry, pimento cheese slices, seasoned sweet potatoes, cole slaw that absolutely everyone demanded a recipe for, cookies, brownies, and sweet little clementines. So. Good.

It was a really great day, but sadly we had to leave a lot of tasks still undone. Which means we may certainly be heading out to these two great spots again sometime in the not too distant future. It also means if you live in that area and would like to volunteer some of your time, we’ve got some folks who would appreciate it more than you know. Plus they’ll keep you cracking up the whole time; it hardly counts as work!

Don’t miss our next trip out there; and please let us know if you’re interested in helping out these gardens when you’ve got some spare time. Good stuff.

A few weeks ago, a handful of us were lucky enough to head up to Blairsville to help Biodynamic guru Hugh Lovel get the UAI farm in good shape. How does it get better than working beside and learning from a guy who’s so full of knowledge about the soil that you just want to write down everything he says? By staying at Birds Nest with Hugh’s wife Shabari Bird (whose late husband, Christopher Bird, wrote “The Secret Life of Plants” and “Secrets of the Soil”) who not only put us up in awesome accommodations — I, for one, had a bed suspended from the ceiling — but fed us like kings and taught us dowsing and all sorts of interesting stuff.

After a full day of cleaning out the barn and farmhouse (just ask us at the next mob about the treasures we found), clearing a bunch of bamboo, and finishing a bunch of other tasks we all got the chance to settle in and really get to know each other over dinner and drinks…including, of course, Mike’s famous homebrew. Following that, Hugh gave a fantastic talk about learning to read weeds and what they’re saying about your soil. The big takeaway is your land will let you know exactly what it needs if you learn to speak its language, but Hugh explained the chemical makeup of the weeds, what they need, what they produce, and how it affects their physical structure. It was pretty awesome to say the least.

We (mostly) behaved and got to bed (relatively) early so that we were ready to roll the next morning. A little more barn cleaning, and a wood chopping session later, we had a fantastic lunch and sadly headed back to the city. Luckily Shabari told me she just might need help with a few more things in the next several months, so we might just have a chance to head back up there and let more mobbers enjoy Birds Nest and UAI.

But in the meantime, we *might* have a full size mob later this month (still working on that one) – but we do have some work for a few of you who are itching to get dirty. We’re looking for about 5 or 6 people to help out Paula of Heirloom Gardens (if you’ve been to Peachtree Road Farmer’s Market, you know who she is) with her lily field on the 20th. I guess this qualifies as our first micro-mob! She’ll be providing some seriously tasty sounding Chicken and Okra Gumbo as well as a few sides — certainly worth a trip to Cumming and some time digging in the lilies. Figure about 9:30 ’til lunch?

More updates soon if a larger mob will come together this month…if so, it’ll be on the 27th, so keep your calender clear! Plus updates on Crop Mob’s involvement in the Georgia Organics Conference; there are some exciting things afoot!

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Image credit: mike lowe

Our last mob of 2010 at Truly Living Well went…well…WELL! It was a fantastic time at two of Rashid’s properties right around the corner from one another. It was a really unique experience to get to see how much can be grown in an urban space with very little. As Rashid said, everything done on his urban farm can be done with nothing more than a hoe, a rake and a shovel (some quality compost sure doesn’t hurt either!). We separated and planted garlic, transplanted kale, cleaned up existing beds and created some new ones, spread lots of compost and mulch, and decimated some mobber-high brambles. Once we had tuckered out and were slowing down before a veggie feast from Miller Union (with some seriously delicious pear crisp to boot), Rashid told us a bit more about his experiences, how his efforts have been received, current issues in the urban farming world around Atlanta, and generally inspired mobbers that we’re on the right track to help not only farmers but also folks in the city by helping provide access to quality foods.

If you’ve never visited Truly Living Well, be sure to put it on your to-do list. And great news: Rashid just broke ground on a new, 4-acre farm in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood, so even more Atlantans will be able to eat healthy, natural foods grown close to them. At Crop Mob Atlanta, we hope to see more urban farms springing up and look forward to helping many folks get them up and running or maintain them. Our first large urban farm visit was a definite success, and we hope to keep helping Rashid as he turns more vacant spaces into thriving, life-sustaining farms.

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This month has been a whirlwind of activity for Crop Mob! Just as the weather is (finally) getting crisp and cooling down, we’ve stirred into action and been helping some farmers get ready for the colder months. We even got a great shout out on CNN’s Eatocracy blog with cameos from some of our most dedicated mobbers.

Earlier this month, a group of mobbers went out to Whippoorwill Hollow Farm the day before the Field of Greens festival to help get the farm in shape for tons of company. There was only a small group of us but we sure did get a lot done. Hay bales were moved, sweet potatoes dug, fall plants seeded, lima beans and peppers picked, horse manure removed from the “parking lot”, tables and chairs setup, and the layout for the market tents staked.

The following day was also a great time with tons of folks coming out to support Slow Food Atlanta and eat some great farm-to-table chow! All in all, it was quite a success. But in mobber fashion, we thought “why stop there?”

So, on the 17th we drove up to Cumming, GA to meet the wonderful Lynn Pugh and lend a hand at her beautiful Cane Creek Farm. Thanks to some generous mobbers (thanks, Amy!) we were greeted with delicious Dutch Monkey Doughnuts and got together to look at the to-do list for the day. It looked something like this (except that it really went up to about #15):

But we mobbers love a challenge and got to work right away! A large portion of us started on the hoophouse (something of a Crop Mob specialty, these days) while the rest planted a field of strawberries and garlic. We *almost* knocked out that whole whiteboard of to-do’s, but the smell of pork and beans graciously provided by Farm Burger, crisp farm greens, and amazing cornbread (thanks again, Amy!) was too much to resist and we got to share a meal after a job very well done.

While sampling some Folksy Brews braggot and kimchi, we announced that the last mob of 2010 will occur in town at Rashid Nuri’s Truly Living Well Natural Urban Farm, and we’re doing all we can to really do it up right! That’s not ALL the fun we have in store, though, as we’re also working on a holiday get together to celebrate all the hard work we’ve done and the amazing amount of work we’ve accomplished.

We’ll post more info on the Truly Living Well mob soon, but clear your calendar for the 21st and get excited! This has been such a fantastic year that we’re surely going to ring in the end of it right!

Y’all are the best. No kiddin’.

Photo credit: Pattie Baker

Even though autumn hasn’t quite cooperated yet with the cooler temperatures we’ve all been waiting for, we still had a fantastic mob. Everybody was up and at’em good and early to get to Royston, and we were greeted by the lovely Tammy Burnell and her husband Joe. In mobber fashion, we got to work and started knocking out chores almost as quick as Tammy could tell us about them! While the guys tore down the remains of an old, wooden greenhouse and secured the plastic sheeting of the new hoophouse, a bunch of us harvested okra, beans, peppers and more as well as clearing a field of rocks. We seeded and planted grape vines and all got to hunker down and trade stories while shelling and weighing beans.

We took an amazing tour of the property including a 9 1/2 acre pond (a few of us made mental notes to bring fishing poles next time around), chickens, rabbits and a beautiful cabin (well, we got to see the outside). And, as always, Miller Union was greeted with happy, hungry mobbers and provided a fantastic lunch of house-cured ham sandwiches with H&F bread, green bean salad, eggplant salad, and farm greens. Every meal they provide is a 10, and the homebrew from Folksy Brews doesn’t hurt one bit!

Now it’s the time we’ve been waiting for: October mobbing. What could be better than a day on the farm when the air is crisp and it’s chilly in the morning. Not to mention not having to get up *quite* so early! This October we’re going to have one large mob and one mini-mob. The mini-mob will take place October 2nd, and will help Whippoorwill Hollow Farm get organized and spiffed up for the next day’s Field of Greens festival!  It’ll be a great time, and come back the following day for the festival itself! If you’ve never been to Field of Greens, you can’t afford to miss it. Tip: come hungry! There are about 10 spots remaining for the mini-mob on October 2nd. Lunch will be provided, and Crop Mob attendees are welcome to hang around after lunch to walk the farm’s trails, visit the animals, check out the fruit trees and see what’s growing in the fields — so sign up now!

And for our big mob of the month, we’ll be heading to Cane Creek Farm on October 17 to spend some time with the amazing Lynn Pugh, organic gardening guru extraordinaire. More details to come on our exact chores, but looks like we’ll be putting up a hoophouse (since that’s our area of expertise now), as well as some general farm cleanup, harvesting and more. Cane Creek is only about 45 min. north of the city in Cumming, so we can actually get up at reasonable times for a 9AM arrival. We’re capping this mob at 50, and it’s bound to be a good one, so be sure to keep an eye out for the registration info coming soon! And, now that it’s cooling down, it’d be the perfect time to invite a friend!

More updates on all our October excitement soon! We’re so lucky to get to enjoy the cooler temperatures (hopefully) and start wrapping up this stunningly awesome year with our mobbers.

Hint: we might have a holiday/mobber appreciation party in the works!!!