Gardening in the Mission this week involved mostly watering and shoveling compost. The latter was actually more fun. I haven't yet gotten the knack of pulling a long garden hose around without getting kinks in it. Fortunately we have several hoses and a good supply of water, having a well on the property.
At Alemany Farm I helped harvest kale, some of which I took to make a yummy snack for tomorrow's Free Farm Stand guests. After that the caretaker said he needed to get some gardening out of us, which confused me as I thought that's what we had just been doing. He said no, that was harvesting; gardening is weeding. Ah, OK. So I weeded. Some of the weeds were edible; I pulled up quite a bit of purslane, which I found I could also make into a tasty salad. We also harvested chard and loquats.
I'm doing some work from home too, putting together handouts of vegan recipes and other information, and exchanging e-mail with the other volunteers about food sources and other matters. I'll probably be working on the web site too once it's updated; they need someone with specific WordPress theming skills right now, and I'm not up for that.
My daily Spanish practice on Duolingo (ID: funcrunch) seems to be paying off too, as I can converse a bit more with our Spanish-speaking guests and volunteers. Sometimes I find myself understanding something and responding to it without putting in much conscious thought or effort. For example today, as I was leaving the garden to catch the bus, I saw a kid running toward the garden and a man with another kid (presumably their father) called after him, saying "¿Está abierto? No podemos pasar." ("Is it open? We can't pass through"). I called out "Está abierto." (It's open.) I saw them go through the gate, and continued on to the bus stop feeling somewhat useful, even if it was an elementary school-level phrase. Gotta start somewhere!
