Ryan's Local Roots: Project Grows Crop Mob

What the heck is a Crop Mob? A better question may be what is the Valley Crop Mob organization? The Valley Crop Mob is a service organization dedicated to helping local and sustainable agricultural enterprises in the Shenandoah Valley. We are a group of volunteers from all over the community who assist farmers with big projects that are difficult to do alone. Each month we bring people to a local farm to complete such projects. We provide our volunteers with a good way to become more integrated with our local communities, gain useful skills, learn more about the benefits of local, diversified food production. At each crop mob we also share a delicious meal with our farmers after the work is done. The Valley Crop Mob strives to keep the local food movement growing in Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah Valley! I recently joined the executive committee of Valley Crop Mob and I work with 4 other amazing JMU students to bring this opportunity to other JMU students and Harrisonburg community members alike. Together we plan each monthly crop mob, a variety of promotional and informational events, and fundraisers. It has been one of the greatest opportunities presented to me thus far at JMU and it's a blast! Check out the website and like the Facebook page!

Our most recent Crop Mob was to Project Grows, a community farm where children and youth grow, eat, and enjoy. They inspire younger members of the community and teach them about healthy living through many hands-on experiences such as growing crops from soil to seed to harvest! This past Sunday, October 20th, eight of us met at Friendly City Food Co-op and car-pooled over to Verona, VA where we met farm manager Sam, assistant coordinator of marketing and outreach Jenna, and assistant coordinator of education and programming Lisa! The day was beautiful for farming, it was about 55 degrees without a cloud in the sky! We all were educated about the history and founding of Project Grows and its mission to educate children about healthy and sustainable lifestyles. After a tour of the farm and an explanation of all the crops growing there we began to weed an overgrown area of beds. We were prepping the land to plant garlic. After we finished weeding we popped and planted the garlic in the prepped beds about six to eight inches apart and about 6 inches into the ground. We then placed hay on top of the beds and got ready for lunch! The weeding, popping, and planting process took about 3 hours and the garlic will be ready to harvest in June!

We then prepped for lunch which was a pot-luck of delicious foods and a salad from the Project Grows farm with freshly picked spring mix, lettuce, tomatoes, and green peppers! It was a delicious meal and a great bonding event for everyone involved! Sam, Jenna, and Lisa then offered fresh green and hot peppers for us to take home, which we all took advantage of! We then hopped back into the car and traveled back to Harrisonburg! It was a great day for everyone involved and we are all looking forward to our November Crop Mob! Check out some more pictures from the day below and like Project Grow's Facebook Page!