Green Mountain Crop Mob
To plant potatoes: pick a potato and cut it into sections so that each section has at least two "eyes" on it. After you plant it, these eyes will sprout the new potato plant! At this mob we cut about 1/2 of the seed that Christa and Mark plan to plant this year. It was too cold and wet out to plant (actually it was snowing!) but this week these spuds are going in the ground!
Mitch Pittman, Fox 44
Crop Mob Invades Vermont Farm
(you can link to the story on You Tube by clicking HERE)
Mobsters invaded a small farm in Richmond, Vt. today, but all for a good cause.It's called crop mobbing.
The basic idea is a bunch of wanna-be farmers, who maybe live in the city or are just starting out, take over a different farm for one day each month to learn skills, help out the farmer, and for Sunday, prep potatoes.
"So that's what we're doing today, cutting through all of our seed potato and getting ready to put it in the ground," said Christa Alexander, the lucky farmer on Sunday.
With more than a dozen willing mobsters at her disposal, she got a big head start on potato season--cutting and sorting 1,500 pounds of seed potatoes in one afternoon.
"Getting a whole bunch of people out here at once to get the job done is great," she said.
If this relationship sounds a bit one sided, it's actually not explains Emily Curtis-Murphy, one of the founders of the Vermont Crop Mob.
"It's a great way to meet people and to learn about agriculture," said Curtis-Murphy.
It's a trade, says Alexander, experience for knowledge.
"They're volunteering their time in exchange for learning something and spending some time on a farm, and hopefully feel good about helping out a farmer."
The snow Sunday made it too wet to actually work in the field and plant the potatoes. Still, Alexander says the mob has been a huge help for the farm.
"They're actually saving us money, because we're not paying people to do it," said Alexander. "I just think the whole spirit of it is great. I appreciate people willing to give their time to help out on the farm and in return I'm very happy to share our knowledge of the farm."
Crop Mob Invades Vermont Farm
(you can link to the story on You Tube by clicking HERE)
Mobsters invaded a small farm in Richmond, Vt. today, but all for a good cause.It's called crop mobbing.
The basic idea is a bunch of wanna-be farmers, who maybe live in the city or are just starting out, take over a different farm for one day each month to learn skills, help out the farmer, and for Sunday, prep potatoes.
"So that's what we're doing today, cutting through all of our seed potato and getting ready to put it in the ground," said Christa Alexander, the lucky farmer on Sunday.
With more than a dozen willing mobsters at her disposal, she got a big head start on potato season--cutting and sorting 1,500 pounds of seed potatoes in one afternoon.
"Getting a whole bunch of people out here at once to get the job done is great," she said.
If this relationship sounds a bit one sided, it's actually not explains Emily Curtis-Murphy, one of the founders of the Vermont Crop Mob.
"It's a great way to meet people and to learn about agriculture," said Curtis-Murphy.
It's a trade, says Alexander, experience for knowledge.
"They're volunteering their time in exchange for learning something and spending some time on a farm, and hopefully feel good about helping out a farmer."
The snow Sunday made it too wet to actually work in the field and plant the potatoes. Still, Alexander says the mob has been a huge help for the farm.
"They're actually saving us money, because we're not paying people to do it," said Alexander. "I just think the whole spirit of it is great. I appreciate people willing to give their time to help out on the farm and in return I'm very happy to share our knowledge of the farm."
