Thanksgiving

This week on the farm we had a short schedule so less time was spent attending to our beds and management jobs. The class mainly focused on turning in our companions report, where each student choose a beneficial or non beneficial companion and did a report about there companion. For my project I choose to learn about slugs, a main pest on our RHS farm. A very interesting way to deal with slug or snail problem in you garden is to set up a beer trap by using stale beer. By adding a container in the ground and pouring beer in the container, the slugs and snail are attracted to the yeast and fall in the beer and drown. 

The time that was spent on the farm was used to harvest crops for our farm to fork assignment where each student selects a certain crop and incorporates it into a prepared dish at home. Its a great way to become familiar with the foods you are growing and consuming. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Important Times

Students were introduced to the One Bed Fall Project earlier this week, the most important assignment of this semester. For the entire year students have had 60 square feet of farm assigned to them, along with three other students, in which they have been growing crops. For this project students have been asked to create a compilation of all the work they have done thus far and create a powerpoint with it. Through this project students are supposed to cover aspects such as: what they have planted, how much they have harvested (in pounds and calories), what their inputs have been in respect to fertilizer, water, and labor, and other important areas of discussion. In the Sustainable Agriculture Farm students are not only growing crops, we are also growing soil. To reflect the importance of maintaining healthy soil students have been asked to report the Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorus levels in their soil, along with their soil type. In my bed the soil type is Sandy Loam, which is good to have as we are striving to have Loam, the healthiest soil type. Lastly students are asked to discuss the future of their one beds in respect to what they are planting and the yields they expect to receive. Students have been working very hard on this project (as seen by the pictures attached) and everyone can't wait to hear how everyone's bed is doing.

-Alex Diaz

November Market Day

I participated in this month's RHS Farm Day after school on November third. Before participating in a farm day, I took for granted how difficult it is to sell vegetables, flowers, herbs, and other crops to high school students. I learned that you must be flexible, enthusiastic, and well informed about the crops you are selling in order to attract potential customers to the farm stand and to convince them to make purchases. For example, most of our customers were unfamiliar with bell bean leaves and skeptical of the Jerusalem artichokes. After I informed them that bell bean leaves are a substitute for spinach and that Jerusalem artichokes are prepared and eaten in the same manner as potatoes, we were able to sell several of them and introduce our customers to some new, nutritious, and tasty vegetables.

In class on Friday before the farm day, we harvested and prepped as many crops as we could find on the farm that were ready to be eaten. All of the rutabagas in my group's bed (A3) were ready for harvest, so we cleaned and weighed them and tied them in small bundles to sell at the market. I made sure to inform the customers that rutabaga leaves can be cooked like kale to make sure they wouldn't be wasted. Other crops that we harvested and sold at the market were cucumbers, basil, squash, mint, oregano, peppers, and potatoes.

Overall, the market day was a fun, informative, and enriching experience that taught me to appreciate what goes on behind the scenes and on the sales end at farmer's markets. I look forward to working at it again in the future.

- Grace McNally

​

Bermuda Grass: Pest

On the farm this week my group tacked the ever troubling problem of Bermudagrass.  Bermuda grass has been a problem on our farm for a while as it is a very hard to eliminate weed that takes up nutrients from the plants we want to grow.  Part of the reason Bermuda grass is so difficult to eliminate is that it grows deep into the dirt and when young can look like other plants that we are trying to plant.  Because Bermudagrass when young looks like a non-weed one of my group members accidentally uprooted a friendly plant mistaking it for Bermudagrass.  The only way to organically eliminate Bermudagrass is to ripe it out of the ground all the way down to the root.  But because the plant is quick to spread this can be very tedious and time consuming.

Below is Bermudagrass after it has been uprooted with its large and deep root system. -Kevin Gann

The opposite of the bees knees

As most people know bees are a huge pollinator and essential part of the ecosystem. These beneficial critters help us out on the garden a lot, however these wonderful creatures have a mortal enemy. Pests. Creatures that sneak out when your back is turned and munch down your healthy crops. These creatures are know by many names, but there is one in particular that truly devastates our beloved compost crop, Fava Beans. This pest is called a cucumber beetle. It crawls around on the plants and when it finds a particularly tasty spot it munches down causing holes through out the leaves.

Now what makes these beetles so deadly? First off these little guys emerge from hibernation early in the season in order to gobble up all the emerging seedlings. The seeds that make it to maturity will suffer and even worse fate. The adult cucumber beetles will eat away at the stock, leaves, and flowers of a plant and their larvae will feed on the roots. Whats worse is that these bugs can also carry bacterial viruses and diseases from plant to plant. So even after you think you have ridded yourself of these plant eaters they may have infected your garden with bacterial wilt or the mosaic virus.

If you have had the misfortune of dealing with this pest than do your best to keep a watchful eye over newly planted seedlings. Be sure to also take them off of your crop when you can for the reasons listed above.

Aidan Rankin-Williams

Bees: Small but Significant

Buzzzz….Buzzzz…..BUZZZZ

People have polar opposite reactions to the sound of a bee flying around them as it curiously investigates what it's come across.

Some swat at it, some sprint in the opposite direction, and many simply freeze in hopes to avoid being stung.

On January 10th, 2017, the US listed the Bumble Bee on the Endangered list for the first time ever, due to the populations decrease by 90% since the 1990s. This was extremely alarming, seeing as bees are a crucial species for life as we know it to exist, because of their ability to pollinate.Without pollination, valuable crops such as almonds would not produce. Not only that, but according to Bryan Walsh from TIME, in the United States alone, bees contribute to $15 billion in crop value. For those who are driven by the dollar sign, think about this: Bees are money; no bees would lead to a devastated economy.

Every effort counts, which is why Mr. Stewart, and the Sustainable Agriculture classes have all put forth effort to have bees kept close to campus. Located in the marsh, the bees have an obviously positive effect on the thriving environment surround them.

Earlier this week, we watched an intriguing movie "More Than Honey".  We learned that ⅓ of our food would not exist without bees. Stephen Repasky, a certified master beekeeper and field technician confirms that without bees, we wouldn't have ⅓ of our food, and specifically, "80 percent of all fruits and vegetables. Without pollination, fruit yield is less and fruits and vegetables tend to be malformed." A large reason that bees are dying down could be caused by harmful pesticides we spray on crops. The chemical spray will stay on the bees, and they will bring them back to the hive where the babies are exposed to and eat it. This is seen just a few weeks later when the bees are sick.

Not only pesticides could be the problem; Bees experience a lack of nutrition when their food source is all from one crop, which is very common thanks to monoculture. Polyculture is essential because not only is it sustainable, but it's better for the bees. On the farm, we practice polyculture by planting crops from many different families on a single bed. Of course, we need to be careful which families we plant together. But, for the most part, the plants are able to thrive together successfully. Simply by avoiding monoculture, we are helping out the bees tremendously.

Local bee expert and Sustainable Agriculture alumni, Morgan Glasser, created a beekeeping business with a friend. He explains it as a huge part of his life and something he wants to pursue later on. Glasser should be an inspiration to many other teens and adults who want to make a change in their community, or even just in their garden. Having a hive of bees will most definitely improve the yield of your crops and "glow" in your garden.

If managing a hive seems like it may be too much work, then another way to support the bees would be to plant a variety of flowers that bloom at different times of year so that the bees will always have a food source.

Next time you hear that loud Buzzzz in your ear, don't run, and definitely don't swat. Instead, appreciate the bee and remember how important it is to the crops you eat, the flowers you plant, and the world you live in.

Isabella Karman

Planting

On the farm, my group and I are planting lettuce and tomatoes.  These are organic starts that come in flats of separate plant compartments that we pick out from the flats.  In order to plant them, we have to first figure out the layout in the garden.  We use a board with pegs sticking out of it at the correct spacing which gives us a template of the pattern that we will plant in.  We press the template into the dirt and when we lift it up it gives us the places to put the little plant starts.  We use that template to make sure that the plants won't be overlapping, because they will destroy each other by competing for light and water.  Keeping them spaced gives them all a better chance of survival.

After the spacing is laid out, we put individual plant starts into each of the holes.  We then get new soil from the compost pile and add that to the new plants because that's the food they need in order to get started growing in the ground.  The last step is to water them and then let them be.  After the planting is done, I am also part of the clean-up crew that makes sure all of the tools are back in place.  I also make sure they are clean and dry, so the next class can use them and so they won't get rusty.  Planting involves a lot more than just poking a plant into the ground; once the plants start to grow, we will take time to aerate the soil and make sure there are no weeds, but for now, our work is done.

Mike B

The Marsh vs The Farm

This week on the farm we took a trip to the marsh, sat there for about 20 minutes listening to the birds, bees and the wind brushing through the grass. During this time we observed everything the eye could see. Took notes on how many animals we saw, or type of grass, anything really. The marsh was a very relaxing place to sit and think too. A task that Mr. Stewart gave to us was to draw a map of what we see. After we did that we walked back to the farm and sat at the top of the hill overlooking it almost and did the same thing, take notes on what we see. We then compared what type of animals and plants we see on the farm vs the marsh. Then compared the maps that we drew of each location. Something I notice was that more animals were at the marsh and there were less weeds at the farm. 

Kelsey Siegel 

Socratic seminar

This week in sustainable agriculture we had a Socratic seminar. I was not looking forward to it because of my lack of organization, which made preparing for the seminar very difficult. Also, I generally don't like having conversations with people about topics I don't feel prepared for while being watched by other students. However, this Socratic seminar was the best one I've ever been in.

Usually, their are a few students who come into the Socratic seminar unprepared, resulting in a slow-paced discussion between the people who are prepared, which doesn't really go anywhere because they run out of things to discuss too fast. I was unprepared during the seminar but I was able to add on to the discussion just fine because I was able to apply what I learned from working on the farm into the discussion. When the question came up asking 'why soil erosion and soil fertility are major concerns for agriculture and the environment' I knew what to say during the seminar because I'd dealt with these problems at the farm. I knew that in order to solve these issues grass and shrubs had to be planted, mulch had to be added, drainage had to be improved, and the soil had to be loose because I had seen and done those things for the past three months. I'm not saying you don't have to study, I definitely would've done a lot better if I had. And if it weren't  Mr. Stewart teaching in the classroom I wouldn't have been able to connect the work I had done at the farm to the question asked. What I'm saying is that the work that I have done on the farm has given me a greater knowledge of agriculture that I can now apply to the classroom.

Tomas