Friday Pizza on the Farm + Sunday Chewing on the Farm

FRIDAY

My first volunteer experience on the Yale Farm was super fun, and of course, I had to go back for more on Friday. And guess what, on Friday, there was a pizza party!

Yep you heard it right. Apparently, through fall, Yale hires pizza interns who starts roasting newly harvested vegetables and making pizza dough at noon every Friday. By 5:00 p.m., at the end of the volunteer hours, all volunteers are invited to a pizza feast to celebrate the hard work. You probably already know that New Haven is famous for its pizza, and the farm pizza has the reputation of being the best in town. Having sampled all the local pizzerias that claim to be the "best", I had my  doubts. But one bite later, I became a total believer. Oh my goodness, weren't those delicious!

A real pizza oven and pizza stone seem to help! The pizza making process became a spectacle that we all enjoyed watching.

But you got to get in the line, pick your slice and dig in fast! They disappeared quickly--each pizza lasted about 30 seconds.

Several tricks learned:

1. You can stretch the pizza dough by hand! I mean I have seen the pizza masters tossing them on TV and all, but trying that in real life seems like a big risk. But apparently you can just hold it up in your hand and stretch while rotating it around. 

2. You don't always need a sauce! My favorite pizza flavor (finished before I take a picture), was kale and goat cheese, drizzled with olive oil. Man, was it tasty. Remember though, roast your vegetables or dress them well if you opt not to use a sauce.

3. Use fresh ingredients! One way to ensure the freshness is to buy local, or grow your own, like the farm intern did.

4.  Be creative, I tried three flavors, all very different. The first one was sweet potato (picture above), beets and mozzarella, the second kale and goat cheese, the third roasted pepper, kale, tomato all piled up high (picture below).

SUNDAY

I think I'm addicted!

I actually was not planning on volunteering today...The past couple days have been full of activities and I didn't get a full night sleep last night. But after a short nap, and seeing how sunny it was this afternoon, I found myself walking up the hill again!

We worked on transforming the tomato bed to lettuce bed today. My job was to use a "chewer" to break loose the hard soil. The first bed was easy, and I finished in 20 minutes. The second though, was rather rocky. I ended up with three blisters, one broken without even noticing! But they took good care of my hand in the end. The first aid kit had the cutest band-aid ever!

And I am so happy to see that the lettuces I help transplanted  on Wednesday have already grown bigger! On Wednesday they looked like this:

On Friday they looked slightly bigger (forgot to take a separate shot, the bed on the left):

Today they looked even bigger!

I am so proud!

Volunteering on the farm is not only a great way to get some fresh air, but also an excellent opportunity to meet a lot of people with similar interests. It is also a great way to have a full body workout, as each task requires a different muscle groups. Needless to say, you can learn a great deal about the farming and local agriculture. So if there is any opportunity around, and if you happen to have some time to spare at hand, try working on a farm once in a while, and I am sure you will LOVE it!