Putting farm food to use

This week in Sustainable Agriculture, we participated in a food and use cook off. Our class split ourselves up into four groups to compete against each other. In addition to the students enrolled in our class, we had students visiting from Ecuador and Nicaragua who participated as well. Like us, they complete work to help the environment and are invested in promoting sustainability. Many of them said that they are involved in projects that work to plant trees in their home countries.

For the cook off, my group decided to make an egg scramble that we ended up naming, Los Juevos Gringos. One of my group members has a coop with chickens at her house, and we used a couple eggs that she collected to ensure that our dish was completely sustainable. In addition to the eggs, we grilled some spicy peppers, tomatoes, and bell bean leaves to be mixed in with our dish. We also added some fresh cilantro to garnish the dish and contribute to its overall aesthetic and presentation.

In judging, Jon (pictured middle) said that our eggs were textured perfectly. My group members and I felt that this meant our dish was the best, which it was. Unfortunately, another group edged us out for first place on creativity points. They made vegan deviled eggs, out of potatoes instead of actual eggs.
We also lost points because one of the judges (Miles Daly, right) felt that the dish was a bit too spicy for his liking.

--Monica

Iron Chef - Winter Episode

This week in Sustainable Agriculture our main focus was on the Iron Chef competition.  We had the rigorous cook-off on Wednesday January 27th.  The competition was fierce and people brought their A game.  We had a fabulous sustainably grown tomato soup and a wonderful cheese quesadilla made from tortillas we made in class last week.  We also had some wonderful farm fresh eggs and kale chips!

We finally got some good weather this week which allowed us to work on the farm.  We spent all of Tuesday working on our management jobs, which end next week, and finishing up adding the wood chips to the pathways on the farm.  The paths look 100x better and are less susceptible to flooding because of the wood chips.  The weather allowed for some crop growth and we were able to harvest food. Unfortunately, our market day is canceled on Friday due to bad weather.  But overall, it was a great week in Sustag!!

-Elly Lundberg, Period 6

The Benefits of Fermentation

Pictured above is carrots in the process of being fermented.

Fermentation has been a very popular technique to help preserve foods that aren't ready to be eaten yet. Fermentation can be very beneficial in several ways. Fermentation makes food more digestible and can enhance taste. It has tons of microorganisms and can promote diversity and helps contain gut health. It also contains ingredients that help prevent cancer and antioxidants. Besides from all that, fermented foods have a tangy and complex flavor. Some people really like fermented foods and others don't. Alcohol, lactic acid, and acetic acid all aid the preservation of fermented foods and prevent spillage. Some popular fermented foods are sour cream, pickles, sauerkraut, and Kimchi. The longer you keep your fermented food stored, the more sour it will taste. Fermentation is a very popular and encouraged way to preserve food and makes it taste really good too!

--Posted by an anonymous student [ed.]

Pickles and Kimchi

On Friday, January 15, Sustainable Agriculture students, with the help from a guest speaker, learned about the fermentation process. Students learned how fermentation can be used to extend the life of food so that it can be eaten months after it has been harvested. One of the major ingredients in the fermentation process is salt, which creates a brine for the food to ferment in.

The students were able to use their new knowledge of fermentation and put it to practice. Many students decided to pickle cucumbers and carrots, while more adventurous students decided to make kimchi. For those of you who do not know what kimchi is, it is a spicy cabbage dish native to Korea. The dish is served on the side with many main courses in Korea. Students were able to create their own special recipe of kimchi which could be used in the upcoming Iron Chef competition.

-Parker Bartlett

The Travel History of Food

On block day Wednesday, we went out to the farm for about 20 minutes to harvest crops, and worked on the food miles assignment. In the food miles assignment we saw how many miles it takes for the ingredients to be available to us in order to make a cookie. Furthermore, the food miles assignment taught us to become more sustainable by buying local products instead of products that are shipped in from far away places in order to lower the CO2 emissions.

An interesting thing that I learned when doing this assignment is that the ingredients for a chocolate chip cookie travel 28,998 miles before they arrive to our homes, but it only takes 671 miles for local ingredients before they arrive to our house.

If we were to buy local ingredients, not only would we cut down CO2 emissions from the atmosphere, but we would also be supporting local small businesses as well.

Moeen Chaya

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First Week Back

This week in Sustainable Agriculture we came back to what looked like a somewhat destroyed but still thriving farm. With closer inspections of our beds, many of us noticed that their beds has been damaged by wind or pests. In my bed, I noticed that all my kale had been eaten. Also, there were carrots missing in another bed. Mr. Stewart thinks that animals like deer and mice might have been the ones who ate our crops. Wind also affected my bed a fair amount. I noticed that the bell beans do not stand nearly as tall anymore and some of the stocks are completely bent or twisted.

As we are starting a new semester, we are beginning to think of what we want to plant in our beds. Most of what we are going to plant in the winter should be cover crops to help the soil. We do not have too many options for calorie crops during the winter and we do not want to plant too many of them because due to the conditions, crops do not have as much success during the winter. Before break, my group and I planted bell beans where the rutabagas used to be. Bell beans are a legume and therefore a perfect cover crop for the winter.

Al Mindel

Moving Slow

Hey there again! As winter break comes to a close, everything seems to be returning from this ever lasting slow down. People are tired, the plants in the farm aren't growing at their usual success and senioritis is kicking in for some of us. But as we see there is plenty of work to be done for the winter and the prep needed for spring. I know though that we've got the motivation to continue this year with some great work. Some of the special things that were done this week was shelling [ed.] corn and (as seen in the photo) we were extracting some seed from the rye plants that have been dried out for harvest, which then would go into our handy pillow cases. Returning also meant that we all had to fulfill our winter plans by planting in the areas that were left empty from break to prevent erosion from the soil since (thank goodness) we've been having plenty of rain. Lastly in means to prep for spring transplanting, we've started some flats to grow our seedlings, hoping that the cold weather doesn't prohibit their growth. All is good and well. See you out on the farm!

Lily Cohen 6th Period