b'In addition to offering educational programs toAt the POP Learning Orchard at The Woodlands, volunteers, partners and the general public, POPfurther improvements and expansions were made provides learning opportunities for its staff. In Juneduring the past year. Early in 2021, we engaged a 2021, as the currants and gooseberries were settingteam of volunteers to build a solar shed, a system heavy on the bushes, the POP team took a field tripthat powers the irrigation to POPs nursery and to visit the New Jersey farmland stewarded by Nateoperates completely off the power grid. In the fall, a Kleinman, POP board member and co-founder ofshade structure, funded by the Pennsylvania Farm the Experimental Farm Network (EFN). We learnedBill, was erected to provide plants and volunteers about the crops EFN grows as a direct response toprotection from the sun as they work on potting our broken food system: these plants are bred forup plants in POPs nursery. In the orchard, annual climate mitigation, higher nutritional content andcrops such as black-eyed peas, peppers, collards, flavor and greater resiliency to pest, disease andeggplant and ground cherries were grown using alley stress pressure. More details on this visit and oncropping methods in between the rows of trees. some of the particularly special plants grown there,In total, 2,335 pounds of produce was grown and like the New Jersey Yucca, Ayote Squash, Beachdistributed to the community through Food Not Plum and Monkey Puzzle Tree can be found in thisBombs and The Peoples Fridge on 52nd St. Produce engrossing blog post by Education Director Corriewas mainly grown for donation, but POP continued Spellman-Lopez. A late fall field trip to the Hersheyits partnership with Truelove Seeds, growing and Food Forest, led by Dale of Green Light Plants, washarvesting culturally important crops for seed packed full of fascinating history and plenty of nutsincluding Landreth Stringless Bushbeans, Clemson and persimmons to be foraged. Spineless Okra and Palestinian Kusa Squash.7'