What a great summer it’s been! After scaling back our work during COVID, we have come back strong and ready to grow in our mission. First, a recap of volunteering and farm events, then a look at some future plans for the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Farm.
We are off to a wonderful start to the new season here at the farm. Most of the work right now is clean up from the winter, with a lot of downed trees and branches causing lots of debris in the pasture.
No one was more happy to see the arrival of Spring than we were on the farm. It seemed like a long winter, lots of time to ponder and discern our next steps.
We're buying a barn! Thanks to the generosity of our GoatFundMe donors, we were able to put a downpayment on a metal barn to be installed in the Spring. Please help us reach our goal and pay the balance.
Lots going on this fall on the farm! Brown Eggs Yarn, the hand-spun yarn shop that Carmina has been helping her friend Annette start up, had a booth at the Lehigh Valley Fiber Festival in September. It was a great event and the duo learned a lot about small business and the hand-spun yarn market.
A former student of Larry's set up a campaign for us on GoFundMe - and called it Goat Fund Me! We thought that was awesome! She did a great job explaining what we are trying to do and where we would like to go. Please visit the page and learn about our hopes and dreams for the future of the farm.
Summer has come and gone. In spite of the extraordinarily wet weather, we managed to grow a few vegetables for the local food pantry in Lake-Lehman Township. Many thanks to Willow Haven Farm of New Tripoli, PA, for once again donating plants - tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, lettuce, melons, cucumbers, and cabbage., and to the Ide family for picking up and delivering the goods.
In April, the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker Farm celebrated its fifth anniversary. It is hard to believe it has been five years. So much has happened - lessons learned, friends made, sheep sheared.
Two snowstorms have delayed some of our winter projects, but students from Misericordia University continue to volunteer, this time helping with some farm chores and prep for the rebuilding of the greenhouse, as well as some picking and carding of wool. They are becoming a regular fixture here at the farm.
Fall has come and gone, and we are in the midst of a cold winter. The highlight of our autumn was Larry and Carmina making their Final Oblation at Transfiguration Monastery in Windsor, NY, officially becoming Oblates of St. Benedict. One of the sisters, Sr. Donald Corcoran, OSB, lived with Dorothy Day while studying at Fordham.
It has been quite a productive summer so far. The lambs are growing (and are developing beautiful fleeces!) and the harvest has been bountiful. We have made several trips to Scranton to distribute lettuce, peppers, cabbage, broccoli and eggplant.