On 8/2/2025, Aylus volunteers went to Bayard Cutting Arboretum to help harvesting crops, remove weeds, and place onions in a greenhouse to cure. After arriving at the crop bed at 9:30, the volunteers wore gloves and separated into two groups. One group harvesting potatoes on one side and another group removing weeds on the other.
On the harvesting side, a tractor dug up the soil with the potatoes for volunteers the pick them up more easily. Then, the volunteers picked them up, patted most soil off, and collected them into a black plastic basket. The baskets were gathered and piled at last, and the volunteer coordinators will take care of them.
The other group of volunteers’ job, which was to remove weeds from the crop beds on the opposite side of the potatoes. They removed a lot of weeds that could threaten the crops like pumpkins and lettuces growth such as Galinsoga, Mugwort, Pigweed, Crabgrass, and Bindweed.
In the last thirty minutes, some volunteers helped with the onions in the greenhouse. Their job was to carry the baskets of onions into the greenhouse and place them by their sides on the shelves in the greenhouse. The purpose of doing this is to “cure” or dry them so they can be sent to supermarkets.
The crops harvested and planted had no pesticide on them and was a good way to let the volunteers learn about how the crops were harvested and to not waste food.
Members who participated include: Yingxiang Liu (2.5h), Felicia Liu (2.5h), Yuya Liu (2.5h), Meixin Ding (2.5h), Sumeng Liu (2.5h), Nathan Li (2.5h), Hongyue Jiang (2.5h), Jinru Xie (2.5h), Linjinhan Xie (2.5h), Jingyi Hu (2.5h), Junhao Hu (2.5h), Peilin Li (2.5h)
Reporter: Felicia Liu
