Straw Donations

The Redwood High school farm is always in need of donations of not just monetary value but more importantly items such as straw bales or mulch. In the weeks following halloween there are multiple opportunities to gather such items as straw bales. We were able to secure a few straw bales from, Aikido of Tamalpais.

I picked the straw bales up in two trips and delivered them to the farm.

Straw bales are used on the farm in many ways, The uses for straw varies from insulting plants and keeping moisture in in the winter along with general soil retention. After all we aren't just growing plants, were growing soil.

-Miles

Hope everyone is having a nice break.

Rainfall

Rainfall over last weekend acted as a double edged sword at the RHS Farm. While water was saved in efforts to conserve, the hard landfill foundation the farm stands on, and the slightly angled topography of the land resulted in flooding in the lower level of the farm.

While the raised beds were able to retain some water, pathways in the back of the farm were flooded due to the rocky landfill foundation of the site.

"It's a challenge because we have a very high water table, which means we need to raise our beds." Said teacher and farm manager Mr. Stewart.

— Ray J

This Week's Journal

| November 19, 2015 | By David Hall |

Last Monday, November 15, 2015, Mr. Stewart's 6th period Sustainable Agriculture class was taken over by guest teacher Mr. Slesinger. During the class period we continued our unit on Companions. A Companion can be a pest or beneficial to our farm. Companions are both plants and animal which inhabit the farm.

During the class, Mr. Slesinger started playing a documentary entitled More Than Honey, which has had three main points so far. The first point of the movie was dedicated to teaching viewers that honey is essential to humans because they pollinate our food. Bees carry pollen from our Almond trees and apple trees. Bees are often held on Almond farms and Apple orchards in order to carry pollen from plant to plant pollinating it in the pursuit to get their food.

The second point was that Bees are great for the economy. This is because Bees pollinate only one type of plant in their lives which makes them perfect for mass production of crop. Bee's are the most efficient at pollinating opposed to butterflies and wind.

The Last point so far in the documentary was that bees are subject to parasites and disease while farming. Varroa mites are blood sucking parasites which feed off the bee like a vampire. When a bee is subjected to these mites they cling to it almost like a tick, however in comparison to the bee the mite would look like a rabbit attached to a human.

On wednesday, November 18, 2015, the class met for the usual farm day. During farm day, the groups were asked by Mr. Slesinger to conduct the usual jobs around the farm like composting, water, maintenance and companions. After completing these tasks we tended to our one beds and worked on community parts of the farm to dig out older beds and prepare the beds for winter crops.

On Friday, November 19, 2015, we were set to complete the documentary, More Than Honey, which we are all looking forward to.

Building a Relationship

Hello again! It's Lily Cohen here!

This Saturday I went to the Larkspur Landing farmers market and it was super fun! Going with mom buying plenty of fruits and veggies grown close to home. For me, farmers markets really represent the importance in building a relationship with the farmer that grows your food. When otherwise buying food in a grocery store, we may never know what it took to make this crop. For example, when facing the person who grew your food you can ensure a more sustainable and less harmful means of growth. This display is through less gasoline being used to transport the food, and having the ability to ask if the farmer used any pesticides or hormones in the process. With this I've learned that my role in the class is important in informing those who choose to eat the food. Don't be afraid to ask questions cause we know those of us who do things organically and humanely have nothing to hide anyways.

From one farmer to you, I hope you have a great day!

Lily

Companion: Garter snakes

Greetings everyone! Recently for SustAg we have been working on a companion report. I did my report on garter snakes and am going to share the info I found on this interesting topic.

Heres a general overview: Garter snakes are some of the most common snakes all over North America. Their habitat ranges from forests, fields, prairies, marshes, wetlands, anywhere near water and at just about any altitude.

Garter snakes often benefit gardeners and crop growth. They help limit the negative impact of insect and mollusk pests. Garter snakes are low-level predators, often preying on toads and smaller animals, while being preyed on by foxes, squirrels, crows and other small to mid-sized animals.

Gardeners and farmers can attract helpful Garter snakes to their gardens by refraining from using chemicals on their plants and providing small areas that the snakes could use for shelter, such as shrubs, grasses, twigs and low tree stumps. Low fences, rock piles and small fish-free (fish eat amphibians that Garters like to eat) ponds might make for attractive habitats as well.
The vast majority of Garter snakes in this area are beneficial to gardeners. They eat small organisms that harm plants, devour slugs and similar pests, and their presence in a garden or field of crops is usually a sign of a harmonious and thriving ecosystem.

I collected my info from wikipedia, animaldiversity.com and techmedia.com.

Thank you for reading, and have a great Thanksgiving everyone.

Alex B.

Companions

For the past week and a half or so, our class has been learning about companions on the farm. Knowing the role of certain companions is very important in biointensive farming. Some companions like each other and some do not. For example, when green beans and strawberries are grown next to each other, they thrive more than they would if they were grown separately. On Friday, Mr. Stewart assigned us each to do a companion report on a companion species that is not a crop. My companion species is the monarch butterfly. I learned that monarch butterflies are beneficial for agricultural systems because they pollinate seed plants. Planting milkweed is a good way to attract monarch butterflies because they lay their eggs on milkweed and milkweed is the only thing that the monarch caterpillars eat.

On Tuesday 11/10, David Peterson came to Redwood to teach us about a very important companion, the California honey bee. Bees are beneficial for agriculture and, like monarch butterflies, bees are responsible for pollinating flowers and other seed plants. Mr. Peterson taught us many cool things about bees including their incredibly strong sense of smell and how they use the sap from from trees and plants called propolis to stick things together like glue.

Although many companions are beneficial, some of them are not. For example, pests such as aphids and cucumber beetles are detrimental to the well being of our crops. In biointensive farming, pests usually do not need to be dealt with as long as you are using proper crop rotations. However, if one feels the need to do something about the pests in their farm, they should avoid using unnatural pesticides or herbicides because those products are harmful for the environment.

Al Mindel

Bees

This past Tuesday in Sustainable Agriculture, our Sixth period class met with Dave Peterson, a member of the Marin Beekeeper's Association at a local site next to the Corte Madera Creek. We had previously met with Mr. Peterson the week before in the classroom when we were not able to meet at the site due to poor weather conditions. During the times we met with Mr. Peterson, he stressed the importance of bees in our food ecosystems as Companion animals. Bees are crucial pollinators and in fact, one third of the food that humans eat is pollinated by Honey Bees. Without Bees, life as we know it would be much different as there would be less food for humans to eat.

Aside from the importance of bees, Mr. Peterson talked about the interesting components of their colonies. Roughly 10,000 bees are needed for a colony to become stable and strong. According to Mr. Peterson, there is only one Queen Bee in each colony and Queen Bees are the only bees that can lay eggs. This bee can lay about 2,000 eggs. When they leave to get fertilized in order to lay eggs, they leave for a Drone Concentration of bees to mate with between 15 and 30 bees. 

At the site, Mr. Peterson used a smoker to make bees be more worried about their honey rather than stinging somebody while he took the bees out of their colonies. Lastly, Dave Peterson also made suggestions of what to do when you are afraid of bees. These strategies include not to fan at the bees and to walk away from the bees if afraid. 

Overall, this was a very informative and interesting experience that has a lot to do with what we are learning about Companion animals.

JD Mancini

Last Chances for Market and Community Work This Semester

Last community Work Day of the semester at the FARM: Wednesday 11/18 during 7th and after school until 4pm.  Come for all or part.

Last Market Day of the semester at the RHS flagpole: MONDAY 11/23 during 7th and after school until 3:45pm.  Do your Thanksgiving shopping.  Look for: lettuce, bean leaves, chard, kale, basil, cilantro, rosemary, lemon verbena, lavender, beets, beet greens, arugula, seedlings, and seeds.  Good food at good prices!

--Mr. Stew

Iron Chef: "El Desayuno Mexicano" (picture)

6th period winning dish.

Picture by Elly L

Iron Chef: "Potato Texas Dream" (picture)

picture by Elly L

Iron Chef 2

This week in SustAg we had our second Iron Chef competition!!

To start off the day, we went to the farm to harvest a bunch of different plants and vegetables that we would be able to use in our meals. We went all around the farm, going to different beds, seeing what we could use. My group ended up harvesting just about everything, from broccoli leaves to butternut squash. When it came time to prepare our meals, we were so excited! My group made a stir-fry consisting of butternut squash, bell bean leaves, kale, broccoli leaves, tomatoes, basil, and lime. We also made a side salad with a lettuce blend of bell bean leaves, kale, broccoli leaves, and romaine. Then we cut up some pears and sprinkled them along the edge of the salad. We grated some butternut squash and red beets and garnished the salad with those, along with some roasted butternut squash seeds. To top off our salad, we made a dressing out of olive oil, vinegar, lime, and salt and pepper.

According to the judges, our dish wasn't exactly the tastiest, but we ended up winning for our good clean-up skills and our sustainability!! My group has decided that we are going to utilize Maia's chickens, and make a tasty omelette next time!

Below are a few pictures from our Iron Chef competition, and a pretty picture of water droplets on a leaf at the farm!

-Marisa R.

--Marisa R

Bees and More: The Week in Review

This week on the farm we worked on our management jobs and did a special Iron Chef competition. Monday we spent our time in the classroom instead of going to the marsh due to the weather. We were lucky to have David Peterson of the Marin Bee-Keepers association come in and talk to our class about the importance of bees as pollinators. We learned that up to 1/3 of the food we eat us pollinated by honeybees.

Tuesday we spent time choosing our companion report plant or animal and working on our learning report for our 3rd management job. The, on Wednesday, we spent 15 minutes in the farm carefully selecting our sustainable food to use in the Iron Chef completion. My team was a close runner-up, barely defeated by a spicy, zesty Mexican breakfast cooked with 100% organic and sustainable food. We prepared a wonderful, balanced meal with sautéed chard, sweet mashed potatoes, and a nice arugula salad topped with strawberries. On Friday, we will finish up or management jobs for the 3rd rotation and water our one beds.

We were very sustainable on our farm and this week was a great representation of the kinds of food our farm produces and how successful we have become.

-Elly Lundberg, period 6 [editor's note: pictures attached above]

The chicken run

This week on the farm my group spent most of their time on digging holes. The purpose of these holes were to fence off the chickens so the chickens can have room to run around the farm. The holes were for the wooden posts for the fence which might be held in with cement or either wood. The soil I dug up from the holes was put onto the un-elevated ground to make the ground level more even. In order to dig the holes I used either the thin shovel or the turning shovel [auger] which would suck up the soil. We wouldn't use the thicker shovels because they would make the hole to wide. If the hole's were too hard to dig we would soften the soil with water.

Some reasons why we should have chickens are that chickens recycle food and yard waste and turn it into organic soil which is rich in nitrogen. Chickens also eat the insects in the garden which helps the garden. Also insects are healthy for chickens. The chicken run is important for the chickens because then they can run around instead of being made to sit in a chicken coop and this makes the chickens more happy and healthy. The eggs from chickens in chicken runs are more nutritious and tasty.

Blaise Van Brunt

Chicken Coop (follow up picture)

Coop in progress.  --Alex J.