happy leap day! so what did you do with a whole extra day?

i had the privilege of volunteering out at johnson's backyard gardens today. jbg is homegrown in east austin. they started growing vegetables in their holly street backyard in 2004. the goal was to provide the austin community with the best quality locally grown, organic vegetables possible. 

they are in the process of planting transplants and needed some help. jbg is where i get my veggies from when i hit up the farmers markets so it was really cool to see where the food i eat comes from and help do some of the work. it was a productive work day and it felt great. we got good and dirty as we planted fennel, kohlrabi, and rutabagas. it was my first time sitting on a mechanical transplanter and it was a good hand-eye coordination workout. it became like a game for me. haha! there were 12 chutes that rotate clock-wise and at the 11 o'clock postion the chute opens drop the transplant into a hole in the ground as the tractor pulls you down field. so you had make sure the chutes were loaded while you balanced a tray on your lap and gently detached the baby plants from that tray. it was awesome! 

i also got to meet some really great people.  one of the other volunteers is the baker for one of my favorite restaurants, olivia.  so we chatted and filled the chutes and fixed the rows for several hours. i have to say this has been one of the most enjoyable volunteering opportunities i've had in austin.  as we headed back in, one of the farm hands asked if we were coming back tomorrow (haha!) i said not tomorrow but maybe next week or the week after. oh! and the icing on the cake is, for volunteering, you get to take home a csa box of veggies! i think that is very cool :)  look at all the pretty veggies and fruits i got!!

so, i have to say, my extra day was very well spent.  can't wait to go out and help again! thank you jbg for a wonderful leap day!