Building a Relationship

Hello again! It's Lily Cohen here!

This Saturday I went to the Larkspur Landing farmers market and it was super fun! Going with mom buying plenty of fruits and veggies grown close to home. For me, farmers markets really represent the importance in building a relationship with the farmer that grows your food. When otherwise buying food in a grocery store, we may never know what it took to make this crop. For example, when facing the person who grew your food you can ensure a more sustainable and less harmful means of growth. This display is through less gasoline being used to transport the food, and having the ability to ask if the farmer used any pesticides or hormones in the process. With this I've learned that my role in the class is important in informing those who choose to eat the food. Don't be afraid to ask questions cause we know those of us who do things organically and humanely have nothing to hide anyways.

From one farmer to you, I hope you have a great day!

Lily

Companion: Garter snakes

Greetings everyone! Recently for SustAg we have been working on a companion report. I did my report on garter snakes and am going to share the info I found on this interesting topic.

Heres a general overview: Garter snakes are some of the most common snakes all over North America. Their habitat ranges from forests, fields, prairies, marshes, wetlands, anywhere near water and at just about any altitude.

Garter snakes often benefit gardeners and crop growth. They help limit the negative impact of insect and mollusk pests. Garter snakes are low-level predators, often preying on toads and smaller animals, while being preyed on by foxes, squirrels, crows and other small to mid-sized animals.

Gardeners and farmers can attract helpful Garter snakes to their gardens by refraining from using chemicals on their plants and providing small areas that the snakes could use for shelter, such as shrubs, grasses, twigs and low tree stumps. Low fences, rock piles and small fish-free (fish eat amphibians that Garters like to eat) ponds might make for attractive habitats as well.
The vast majority of Garter snakes in this area are beneficial to gardeners. They eat small organisms that harm plants, devour slugs and similar pests, and their presence in a garden or field of crops is usually a sign of a harmonious and thriving ecosystem.

I collected my info from wikipedia, animaldiversity.com and techmedia.com.

Thank you for reading, and have a great Thanksgiving everyone.

Alex B.

Companions

For the past week and a half or so, our class has been learning about companions on the farm. Knowing the role of certain companions is very important in biointensive farming. Some companions like each other and some do not. For example, when green beans and strawberries are grown next to each other, they thrive more than they would if they were grown separately. On Friday, Mr. Stewart assigned us each to do a companion report on a companion species that is not a crop. My companion species is the monarch butterfly. I learned that monarch butterflies are beneficial for agricultural systems because they pollinate seed plants. Planting milkweed is a good way to attract monarch butterflies because they lay their eggs on milkweed and milkweed is the only thing that the monarch caterpillars eat.

On Tuesday 11/10, David Peterson came to Redwood to teach us about a very important companion, the California honey bee. Bees are beneficial for agriculture and, like monarch butterflies, bees are responsible for pollinating flowers and other seed plants. Mr. Peterson taught us many cool things about bees including their incredibly strong sense of smell and how they use the sap from from trees and plants called propolis to stick things together like glue.

Although many companions are beneficial, some of them are not. For example, pests such as aphids and cucumber beetles are detrimental to the well being of our crops. In biointensive farming, pests usually do not need to be dealt with as long as you are using proper crop rotations. However, if one feels the need to do something about the pests in their farm, they should avoid using unnatural pesticides or herbicides because those products are harmful for the environment.

Al Mindel

Bees

This past Tuesday in Sustainable Agriculture, our Sixth period class met with Dave Peterson, a member of the Marin Beekeeper's Association at a local site next to the Corte Madera Creek. We had previously met with Mr. Peterson the week before in the classroom when we were not able to meet at the site due to poor weather conditions. During the times we met with Mr. Peterson, he stressed the importance of bees in our food ecosystems as Companion animals. Bees are crucial pollinators and in fact, one third of the food that humans eat is pollinated by Honey Bees. Without Bees, life as we know it would be much different as there would be less food for humans to eat.

Aside from the importance of bees, Mr. Peterson talked about the interesting components of their colonies. Roughly 10,000 bees are needed for a colony to become stable and strong. According to Mr. Peterson, there is only one Queen Bee in each colony and Queen Bees are the only bees that can lay eggs. This bee can lay about 2,000 eggs. When they leave to get fertilized in order to lay eggs, they leave for a Drone Concentration of bees to mate with between 15 and 30 bees. 

At the site, Mr. Peterson used a smoker to make bees be more worried about their honey rather than stinging somebody while he took the bees out of their colonies. Lastly, Dave Peterson also made suggestions of what to do when you are afraid of bees. These strategies include not to fan at the bees and to walk away from the bees if afraid. 

Overall, this was a very informative and interesting experience that has a lot to do with what we are learning about Companion animals.

JD Mancini

Last Chances for Market and Community Work This Semester

Last community Work Day of the semester at the FARM: Wednesday 11/18 during 7th and after school until 4pm.  Come for all or part.

Last Market Day of the semester at the RHS flagpole: MONDAY 11/23 during 7th and after school until 3:45pm.  Do your Thanksgiving shopping.  Look for: lettuce, bean leaves, chard, kale, basil, cilantro, rosemary, lemon verbena, lavender, beets, beet greens, arugula, seedlings, and seeds.  Good food at good prices!

--Mr. Stew

Iron Chef: "El Desayuno Mexicano" (picture)

6th period winning dish.

Picture by Elly L

Iron Chef: "Potato Texas Dream" (picture)

picture by Elly L