Money Management and Sustainable Farming

Today was our first development session day.  We started out with some team-building activities and then discussed how the workweek went for everyone and what things could be improved for next week. 

Next, Karl Grahm joined us to talk about the advantages of having both a checking and savings account and fill us in on some money-management techniques.  After that, Ann led a discussion on sustainable agriculture, including a history of farming that has led to the mass-producing monoculture that dominates our food system.  Partway through the discussion, some of the teens met up with a cook from GreenStar who taught them how to make a delicious meal made from local ingredients. 

Afterwards, the whole group came back together and enjoyed our lunch of quinoa and beans, cucumber, onion and tomato salad, fruit salad, and kale with onions, zucchini, and summer squash.  Most thought it was incredible; however, some people were hesitant to try the food and a few people declined from eating it.  I’m curious to see how the attitude towards this food changes as we move forward at the farm.  There were many others that were as impressed with the meal as I was.  A couple people were surprised at how full they were after this meal because they didn’t expect veggies to be very filling.  During the meal, the chef explained where all the ingredients had come from.  One interesting tidbit we learned is that the Amish are always the first to have tomatoes in the area, but GreenStar has to go pick up the crops themselves because the Amish don’t drive cars.