MPC's Farm - Seeds of Hope

Remember the veggies we picked up?  Well, volunteers were invited to come out and help weed, water, and pick veggies.  As I looked at our calendar I knew this might be our only chance to get out to the farm this summer.  So, Saturday morning, August 9, we got up bright and early and headed to Savelevsky Voksal to catch a train to Taldom, about 1 1/2 hours by train NE of Moscow.  We packed a picnic lunch and brought shashlik to share.  I wish I could have shot a photo of the morning's train.  It was older, with wooden bench seats and windows that only opened part way, but it was too crowded (and hot) to snap any pics even if I could have gotten to my bag which was in the overhead rack.  I stood for most of the trip, having given my seat up to a grandmother, her daughter and an infant.  Trains are a captive audience and there were vendors selling everything from icecream to camo rainsuits.  I think everyone was headed to their dacha in the countryside!  When we arrived at the station we were picked up by A and taken to the farm site, where he gave us a tour and put us right to work.  We weeded, watered and picked veggies all day with a break for lunch.  As the day ended some of the volunteers started the grill and wrapped freshly picked potatoes to go along with the shashlik and hot dogs, YUM!  Later, after everything was picked up and locked away in the shed and the veggies were loaded in the trunk, A gave us a ride back to the train station where we boarded a modern, air conditioned train with comfortable seats, and it was nearly empty!  Thankfully the vendors were still hawking icecream!