It’s Finally Raining Again

Connor Moon

After a terrible fire season this year with over 250 thousand acres of burned land spread across the state, the rain has finally returned ridding us of the possibility for more fires and for its annual constant downpour until late spring. After the long drought that plagued the state not 5 years ago, we in Sustainable Agriculture are very grateful for its return. This is because of its effect on surrounding wildlife companions like birds and coyotes, who get rid of unwanted pests. The rainy season keeps keeps the coyotes numbers up, maintaining a healthy population control over deer, which are increasingly common and eat plants in the garden (Like our poor orchard. Rest in peace). Birds, rely on the rain to predict when mating season comes and use the opportunity to eat small pests that freshy after rain, sit on top of leaves exposed. Rain is pivotal to a sustainable garden and surrounding wildlife.

Rainy days and the end of an amazing Fall season

For the past 2 weeks Sustainable Agriculture students have been working hard in the classroom while rain delays them from enjoying the farm. It's officially winter season and students have many more rainy days to expect. Instead of waiting for the rain to end students have planted beans as a cover crop and concentrated on creating a project to instruct classmates on. This project is known as the One bed project. During this time we explain to our fellow classmates about how much we expected our yield to become and how much our actual yield was. Fortunately almost all beds had stable growth and expect to hit their goal as the school year comes to an end. At the same time students shared how they were able to obtain these yields through the intensive work they completed on the bed. Through their labor students were able to create fertile soil ready for planting. Finally the projects ended with what they were going to plant through the winter. Most of the crops were ones underground so rain would not affect its growth. Overall the farm has had great progress and continues to head towards the goals put out for them.--Matt B

 IMG_1317.HEIC

Looking back...

At the beginning of the year, when we first received our group one beds, there was nothing but leftovers from last years groups left to show for on our beds. My group had a dying tomato plant, a basil plant and a little bit of celery. Our group planted potato, lettuce, garlic, beans and a sunflower to top it off at the end of our bed. Everything has grown well except for the beans, we haven't seen any signs of growth yet but hope to see some soon. This picture is of our bed the first day after we started weeding and putting in new soil.

Owen Miller

 IMG_0821.jpg

One Beds and Pests

    This week in Sustainable Agriculture, we have started working on our final one bed presentations. It has been a great opportunity to reflect on our year so far as we think about how much all of our one beds have changed! Now that we have entered the rainy season, our farm days may be limited or cut short, however, we are grateful for the nutrients the rain brings and the water we could save! This Tuesday, we were able to go out to the farm to check up on everything after a long week off, and we were met with a sad surprise. It seems as if over break, something ate most of our class beets. The lucky unaffected ones were harvested for this week's market, to make sure our surprise companion does not make their return and finish them all off. We are trying to stay positive! If the weather allows for harvesting, we will be holding our semester's last market day this coming friday.  We hope that it will be a successful market, since you can make many fun dishes with our yummy food, as we all got to try during our last farm to fork, completed over break. See you next week! 

 IMG_8184.jpg

Flooding Causes Problems For School Chickens

Jackson W

Redwood's new Buff Orpington chickens, named Lil' Peep, Chicki Minaj, and Chickira, have been getting used to their new home on the farm over the past few weeks. They are less fearful of students and more comfortable being picked up or hand-fed. However the rain this week combined with high tides have caused some problems for the chickens, as their run has been flooding lately! Our brave birds like to forage for bugs that the rains drive to the surface, so they've been wading around in the water, risking hypothermia if their feathers get too wet. The farm is in the process of looking for concrete blocks which planks can be laid over to create a floor for the birds. Hopefully in the future the chickens won't have to risk getting their feathers wet when they go foraging after a rainstorm.

Rain Day!

Unfortunately the Sustainable Agriculture class was not able to be out on the garden today harvesting the crops for market day. While we won't get to harvest we don't have to worry about coming in and watering our crops! As a matter of fact market day has been moved too next Friday so be sure to let friends and family know. Despite the market being postponed Mr. Stewart is still selling and hand delivering heads of cabbages to teacher, so make sure they all know. While we weren't on the farm today we did have a lot of in class time to focus on our one bed calculation and the one bed presentation. After a successful work period we were treated to the end of the honey bee movies. -Mo

Successful Lettuce Delivery and Upcoming Market News

On Friday, December 7th, 2019, Sustainable Agriculture students got to participate in a very successful lettuce delivery! Conclusively, we delivered about 40 lettuce heads to staff and faculty members on Redwood campus. We harvested these lettuce heads, grown with lots of care and love, from our very own beds at the RHS farm using sickles. Luckily, there is more to look forward to from the Sustainable agriculture family... In fact, there is a market scheduled for this Friday, the 13th, where many more fresh harvested items can be purchased. Check out other blog entrees to see what you can make at home with a variety of the items found at our market that we have already tried out for you! Regardless, you can never go wrong with the delicious crops that we grow at the farm. You can find out for yourself at the market during 7th period or after school hours by the flagpole in the front lot. Hope to see you there! :)

-Olivia Winterhalter

Scents of a sustainable Thanksgiving roam the hallways of Redwood High School on November 20!

Mason L

On Wednesday, November 20, several classes got the opportunity to partake in a Gordon Ramsay level cooking competition. Blood, sweat, and tears were put into the effort with the hope of taking home the gold, extra credit points. Individual class periods consisting of individual groups worked tirelessly to prepare a dish that was of a Thanksgiving theme, but consisted of zero meat. This brought for many creative ideas and new tastes that were introduced to the students during the tasting at the end. According to Mr. Stewart some of the dishes were better than anything he had ever tried before. One meal in particular that took home 1st place for its class period was "Giving thanks to Nick Brier." This was one example of the many Michelin 3-Star dishes that were created!

Iron Chef 2

This Week in SustAg all classes participated in an iron chef cook off, where everybody in the class paired up into individual groups, all groups making an organic meal that would be judged by mr. Stewart and two other qualified judges, the teachers assistants. This week the theme for our cook off was thanksgiving. Groups were allowed to bring organic materials from outside of the classroom as well as harvesting materials from the farm beds to add into the meal. One new item added to the iron chef menu for cooking were chicken eggs, the chickens have recently begun laying them and the first laid egg was used in the iron chef cook off this week. An example of the typical meals made in the cook offs is the one My group prepared a vegetarian stuffing using an egg, jerusalem artichoke, celery, vegan sausage, and spices. Everyone enjoyed getting to cook as well as eat the meals they made, a unique opportunity you wouldn't get to try in other classes -- Dylan

Update

bodhi

> Out on the Redwood Farm, 4th period has had exceedingly fast growth
> rates in our One Beds. We have been harvesting the outside leaves of
> the lettuce, and we still have an abundance growing in our bed. Our
> class beds have all been weeded, aerated and amended with compost.
> Most groups have planted seeds and some have sprouted. We have also
> started a new compost pile for the month of November. The chickens
> have become habituated with us will now eat out of our hands and one
> will even walk up to us to get attention.