On July 13, Greater Temecula Valley AYLUS(GTVA) members Adora Xiao( 2 hrs) and Shania Jin (2 hrs) volunteered at their local farm and helped to harvest produce.
Did you know the word “squash” comes from the Narragansett Native American word askutasquash, which means eaten raw or uncooked? As a matter of fact, squash is one of the oldest crops and likely served as containers or utensils. Squash happens to be one of two vegetables that GTVA members harvested. They first cleared the rows of yellow and green squash, before moving on to the cucumbers, the harvest amounted to approximately 20 buckets. This included snakes, smiles, and light bulb shapes! Although some members were unavailable (out of town or Summer Camp), the results were impressive. Members were also shown how some vegetables may have rotted or been unfit for consumption, and bowled them into compost.
Members not only enjoyed endless fun, companionship, and warm weather—but they also received a prize for their hard work—fresh cantaloupes! We can’t wait to go in larger numbers this weekend to harvest watermelons and cantaloupes. The cantaloupes smell soooo good, tasted so yummy, and reminded us the fun of farming and harvesting.
All of the produce grown from this project is donated directly to the Temecula Community Mission of Hope for distribution to other local food pantries in our region and Fallbrook.