The week of September 18 was both hectic and exciting. As well as rosh hashanah scheduling we also had a lock down, changing our farm work time. Therefore the majority of harvesting happened on Wednesday block. Despite all of the school's challenges, our harvest was diverse, including potatoes, strawberries, mint and tomatoes. By harvesting this week we saved our crop from spoiling in particular our strawberries.
In class on Wednesday we were assigned a pop quiz utilizing all of our acquired skills from our one bed projects for example aerating the soil using a U-Bar is important because it breaks up the soil allowing the plant's roots better soil penetration. This extra root penetration is important because the roots will go deeper which will allow the plants to grow more extensively because it can find more water and nutrients. With the water that the plants discover the students can provide a more sustainable environment for the bio intensive farm because less water is needed. The deeper the plant's roots go the less the farmer has to water allowing the farmer more time to spend on other projects like we did on block day, including harvesting watermelons.
In class we tried a watermelon that was white inside. This is called a White Wonder Watermelon. The fruit is still green with dark streaks and about the size of a icebox. The harvest of 3-10 lbs watermelon's season is now in the indegious region South Africa. Apparently it takes about 80 days to grow. An expert said " When a watermelon is ripe it will break easily from the vine when twisted. If you try to pick a melon and it fails to twist off easily, it probably isn't ripe yet. Another sign of ripeness is when the underside changes from white to pale yellow." about how to tell when a watermelon is ripe.
Overall the harvest day was successful and exciting.
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