Entomology 101 and some not-so-heavy lifting at Sprouting Acres

Sunny skies and kale as far as the eye can see - what could be better?

Forgive me for the much belated post, but we had such a great time at Sprouting Acres last fall, I couldn't NOT share some stories and pictures!

Andy had us helping out all over the farm with various cold weather prep tasks. Our first job was to remove the irrigation lines and drip tape from the fields. While we looked pretty impressive hiking around with the aluminum pipes, they were actually incredibly light and we flew through the task with a bit of teamwork.

Moving irrigation lines out of the fields to prepare for cold weather.

True to our Mobbing ways, we spent some time ransacking tomato fields - but only because Andy asked us to help pull out the plants which were at the end of their production. It was sad to see them go, but we made some crawly friends along the way.

We made some fuzzy friends while pulling up tomato plants.

We also came across some less friendly creatures - namely the tomato hornworm. Sure they're pretty, but these suckers can eat through whole crops of tomatoes. Any farmer or gardener will cringe at the sight of one on their precious plants. Luckily the tomato plants were at the end of their lives, so the worms weren't so threatening.

They say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Another fun discovery in the tomato fields: mutants. We found giant tomatoes, mini tomatoes, and ones of every funky shape you could imagine. We collected some of the more edible-looking ones to take home as trophies. 

In addition to scavenged tomatoes, we left the farm with bags full of awesome veggies. A huge thanks to Andy and everyone at Sprouting acres for their generosity and kindness. We had a great time!

Showing off some of our funkier finds.