Fermentation

--by Annika

This week in class we learned how to ferment vegetables so we can make them last longer and enjoy them as pickles! The hope is that when we have large yields of vegetables in the upcoming seasons we will know how to do this process so we can save them and enjoy them for a long time and it is specifically good if you have a super big excess of vegetables and they will go bad because you can't eat or store them all at once which makes fermenting vegetables the perfect solution. We started on tuesday with a slide show learning about the fermentation process from our teacher Mr. Stewart. He told us that fermentation occurs from the bacteria lactobacilli which are pretty much everywhere and when introduced to the perfect environment through making a brine they ferment and essentially pickled vegetables. We were sent home with the homework to bring in a jar and hard vegetables that we wanted to pickle the next day and out of excitement, a lot of people participated in the optional fun project some people even bringing in special spices and mustard seeds and really getting into creating unique recipes. We started the day out on the farm surrounding a table where mr stewart showed us how to create the brine for the lactobacilli which consisted of seven cups on water and seven tablespoons of salt. Then we were set free to start cutting up our veggies and add in the brine any spices we wanted to mix and apple cider vinegar to promote the entrance of lactobacilli. The jars turned out beautifully and it was a super fun project to save vegetables. I can't wait to taste my homemade pickles in a few weeks!

Wildlife in the Farm

During the wet months of the farm the work load switches from focusing on our 1 beds to focusing on Quality of Life on the farm. One of the many ways we attempt to draw wildlife in is planting crops that will attract wildlife. In the picture above we can see a heron visiting the farm! This bird probably stopped by to snatch a quick snack after the heavy rains brought all those worms out! Although wildlife is definitely a big factor in the Quality of life on the farm we are also working to fix the paths, get rid of all the weeds and working on our farm jobs!

- Cody Nielsen

reviving our beds

Over the past couple weeks on the farm us RHS students have been reviving our beds from the Winter Break. Overgrown weeds and companion plants sprung up while we left our beds unattended. Personally, in my class bed, our group decided to remove a large section of vetch that was growing towards one end of our bed. Typically vetch is a good compost crop, which helps reach a compost goal we continually work towards. After taking the vetch out and weeding, our bed began to look as it did when we left it going into the break. Our onions and garlic looked mostly healthy and will be harvested soon. Lastly, we added another layer of compost to our bed to reinvigorate its growth potential and keep the soil structure healthy. Hopefully, our crops will be ready for the next market day!

Caption for Photo- This is a picture of a section of our bed densely packed with vetch

Max Ross

Start of New Semester

Blake Parker 5 ̊

As we begin the second semester of school there are crucial steps that we need to take as a class to prepare the farm for the new season. Along with the new semester comes new plans for our beds. Each bed has at least six different types of crops planted in the bed. This past week everyone has been preparing their beds for a new planting season. Each bed is following the rotations, to endure that the plants they put in their bed will grow to the best of their ability and enrich the soil. Our biggest focus this week was actually on getting rid of any invasive weeds in our beds. We spent the last farm work day we had taking out weeds from the beds to clean up space for new plants. After taking out all the weeds from our beds we were instructed to get compost and use it on our beds to support the soil and add nutrients to our beds. Weeds have been taken out of the beds, and compost has been added. The beds are ready to have new plants be planted in them for the winter season. Everyone is excited and prepared to bring in new crops to their bed. The chickens on the farm have been getting more and more comfortable with the farm and the people who come to take care of them. The chickens are much more friendly now and have even started to graze up on the orchard helping with the weeds and controlling any bug pest.

On Mon, Jan 27, 2020 at 10:36 PM Blake Parker <blake.parker@student.tamdistrict.org> wrote:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IRW5sV7KInDMc4jP0IPyojFGKyBTjp98EFxWiraL55k/edit?usp=sharing

Outreach

Iron Chef III!

This week in sustainable agriculture, we participated in the third iron chef. Last iron chef had a theme of Thanksgiving and my group won so we had high hopes for this one! This iron chef's theme was low miles. In order to keep our miles at zero, we decided to only use the food from the farm. We made an egg scramble using the chicken's eggs. In the scramble, we chopped up celery, onion, and potatoes. Mr. Stewart advertised the bell bean leaf and we cooked it like spinach and added it to the scramble. One group made pancakes using the strawberries from the garden and it was delicious. However, they failed to keep their miles low because of all the ingredients they brought in. Another group made scrambled eggs and kale chips. The winning group used bell bean leaves as a taco shell. Inside the taco, they used eggs from the chickens and tied the taco with the stem from the leaf. They kept their miles and zero and they were very flavorful!

Claudia Holland (Period 4) 

The Vespucci Family Compromise:

It's game time... Everyone's favorite Sustag event has once again begun. The third Iron Chef took us upon on a complicated route with the theme of "low miles," which was meant to encourage using locally made groceries to create a spectacular dish. The moment I stepped foot onto the farm the energy and excitement was in the air, everyone wants to win and take home that extra credit and of course, the bragging rights. My group consisting of 8 wonderful individuals wanted to create something that would clearly set us aside from every other group. Following our previous defeat in the second Iron Chef, in which we contended for joint 1st but when the final verdict came to Mr. Stewart, he gave it to the other team. We wanted this win more than anyone else, so we crafted the Vespucci Family Compromise. This dish was created by Hudson Moyne's Great Grandmother Vespucci, to combine her Italian heritage and newly inherited American lifestyle she wanted to make a dish which would cross the two in harmony. Combining some lovely rosemary bread, bean leaves, cheese, Jerusalem artichoke, a beautiful fried egg, and a side of some delicious baked beans we were able to master the Vespucci Compromise. We cooked and crafted it to perfection and as pictured below made a mouth-watering dish. It was time to be judged by the Stew. Tension is beginning to build within the 4 teams as Mr. Stewart is munching on the world-class dishes. His eyes pop out of his sockets when he tastes our delicious food and surely we must have won it this time. But not just yet, he orders everyone to put their heads down and after a remarkable presentation made by each group about their dish, we had to vote. We got many compliments on our tasty dish so surely the class vote should get us the win. The bell rings and the Stew begins to announce the winner… We lost again, purely because of the beans, the beans were imported from the Vespucci family residence across the United States which technically went against the theme of "low miles". We were infuriated, we won the class vote, but once again not Mr. Stewarts. The Vespucci family will never be discouraged from our ongoing robberies of being the Iron Chef Champions and will be ready to win the next one. --James D

 The Vespucci Family Compromise

IRON CHEF CHALLENGE

            Joshua Santos 01/23/20

Welcome to the Sustainable Agriculture Page! Sustainable Agriculture also called "SustAg" by us talented individuals, we are all about creating steady and sustainable growth for a long period of time. It is currently semester 2 of SustAg, and things are progressing ever so steadily. Our plants are slowly recovering from reoccuring rain, our brains are recovering knowledge ever so slowly, and our food ideals are ever changing as we begin to realize the horror that lies within the food industry. We also went over the logistical challenges that it takes for certain parts of our meals just to make it on our plate. Also that the average American meal travels 1500 miles to get to their desired consumer. Knowing that, we began our 3rd IRON CHEF CHALLENGE! Which had even stricter guidelines that we had to abide by. Which were the ingredients had to be "local local". So ethier from the farm, our somewhere 10-25miles away. Knowing that the groups began to gather ingredients. Most of them ended up coming from the farm, while some other brought ingredients from home. My group ended up naming and making a dish called La Ovo Scrambolo a Wi Wi. Which came in second place, and was eaten up so fast that we couldn't get a photo of it. So instead you'll have to make do with the Winners of this Iron Chef, that made Egg tacos! That's it for our weekly update, see you next time!

Food Unit

Returning back to the SustAg Farm and classroom after break has come with an exciting and relevant new unit: food. Right now, students are focusing heavily on the environmental costs of different foods. This past weekend, students read an excerpt from Omnivore's DilemmaI, which revealed some of the detriment caused to society in the production of the majority of supermarket goods today. Students have also been working on their 'Food Miles' assignment. For this, each student chose a type of cookie and was then tasked with seeing where all the ingredients for the recipe come from, comparing two sources for each ingredient (one name brand and one more local source). Students then calculated the CO2 produced when the different ingredients are transported from their production sites. On top of this, the class is beginning Food Reports, in which each student picks a food with a variety of ingredients to look deeper into in the same way as the Food Miles worksheet. Students are looking forward to continue learning in this eye-opening unit. 

- Tessa

Break ends, and farming begins!

After a lengthy winter break, which lasted over 2 weeks, students got back out onto the farm on Thursday, January 9th. During the break not much tending was done to the beds. Luckily, the rain was able to provide the plants with the water they needed. And when all of us returned to the farm, we were able to immediately recognize the growth in our beds. But with this outstanding growth came a downside. The return of weeds. Without the constant presence of students throughout the week, many beds were full of invasive plants. My group and I spent the whole class period ripping through our bed, weed by weed. Yet, we still were only able to get rid of about a fifth of them. It feels like the early days of August all over again. Nonetheless, all of us are excited to be back on the farm. 

-Zach Ginsburg

Winter

Winter is finally back. With it, the plant killing frost that took out all of our summer crops like basil, melons, tomatoes and more. Luckily for temperate California, this doesn't mean the end of our growing season. In fact, it indicates a whole new set of plants to be grown. Many Brassica species spout up at this time, including Kale, Cauliflower, Cabbage and Broccoli. Other famous vegetables like onions, garlic, spinach and peas are staples of the winter months. My bed, A7, have suffered the loss of our Strawberries and Basil since winter started and were quick to replace it with Celery and Peas, both greatly suited for the season. Here in Sustainable Agriculture, we are busy seeding these species and tending to our beds for any unwanted weeds or pests especially after the seasonal vacation. But because of the rainy weather, we are withholding from tilling the soil while its wet to make sure it doesn't compact. We suggest you also withhold from doing so until weather conditions lighten up. We hope you enjoy your winter farming!--connor

Iron Chef III

Today in class, we had our third 'iron chef' competition of the year. The theme of this cooking competition was low miles, meaning the number of miles the food traveled to get on the plate was to be as low as possible to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions the ingredients would use to travel to the classroom. Students were encouraged to bring ingredients found in their gardens, as well as harvest organic food grown on the farm to limit the number of miles going into their meal. The competition was an incredible learning experience because it allowed us to recognize the costs of cooking a meal requires lots of transportation of ingredients that cannot be found locally. It was interesting to see how students were able to improvise to create meals that were environmentally friendly. After the judging, everyone in my class period enjoyed sharing the leftover food from the challenge and were happy that we were able to create delicious meals without unnecessary harm to the environment.

-Sam Schiller, 6th period

Stay informed about SustAg!

This semester I have worked on reaching out to the community via social media on our @rhssustag instagram. Posts include images and videos of harvests, activities, companions, markets, and action shots of work days. I use it as a platform to post about Sustainable Agriculture and reach beyond our school community. It also allows for us to broaden our clientele. It also allows for me to show sustainable practices for example soil aeration. Our following ranges from current students, faculty, alumni, parents, members of the community, school clubs, and beyond allowing for our instagram to be an effective platform to spread the word about our program and practices. Make sure to give us a follow on instagram @rhssustag !! 

—Tatum

December Rain

Ellie A

5 period

As it is getting into the rainy season we have had to prepare our garden as well as suffer from the affects of the new conditions. The rainy conditions made our class unable to work in the garden during class so the following week was a huge surprise. My bed A9 suffered greatly from the first few days of rain. Our most important plant in the bed, beans, were covered in voles and died due to the great deal of distress. The reason this plant was so important is because it worked as a cover crop for our beets which before the rain were thriving. The voles swarmed the beets and beans so we are now in the process of cutting out all of the bean plants and removing the beets for the health of our garden. Our comp will increase greatly by the end of this week. Going into the second semester all of the classes beds are planning for the colder months. Growing plants that can survive and work well in the colder months are essential at the moment. The nice part about the winter crops is that many of them can survive without a lot of attention and added work that the fall/summer crops need. Over the next few weeks we will begin to plant our winter crops and seeds after our return from winter break.