February Market

This past week in Sustainable Agriculture we had a market during 7th and after school on friday the 7th, changed management jobs, and turned in our food reports along with a socratic seminar. The first half of the market I was unable to sell anything, however when I went to the drama room I managed to persuade two students into buying some quality lavender, swiss chard, and a lemon. As the bell I sold three potatoes to a student, so I am quite happy with how much I sold. Previously my bed group was working on maintenance, building paths and making sure the shed was organised and that every tool was accounted for. Now we have switched to companions, in which we will survey the farm for wildlife that visit and record it and pull invasive plants. The biggest assignment of the year, the food report was due this week. Lots of well researched and written reports of how some food products are made. Focusing on how the ingredients are grown, the impacts of that, how far the ingredients travel, how it is processed into its final form, how it is packaged, and more sustainable local alternatives. This culminated in a discussion about the impact of consumers and the individual, what we should do to improve in the future, and more. As you can tell it was a busy week, but it resulted in some great work being done! --Hobie

Where is your food coming from?

By: Bruna Faria

 

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been focusing on the topic of "food" in Sustainable Agriculture. Learning about where our food comes from, the main ingredients, how methods of growing food are unsustainable, and discovering ways we could improve this very broken system.

After researching deeper into my specific food, I found that most of the foods we eat on a daily basis are very unsustainable, whether it's the ingredients that are used to make it, the ways its packaged, or the distance it has to travel in order to get to you. My food was "pao de queijo" a traditional Brasilian snack. I grew up eating this but never went into looking at the things I was consuming. I researched a brand of Pao de queijo called Fogo de minas which are imported from Brasil and sold as a frozen item at supermarkets across the U.S. The brand itself is very environmentally friendly, using ingredients grown near them, and reusing all the water used for gardening. For people living in Brasil, this snack is pretty sustainable, but for us that are here in the U.S., it's not as much. As an alternative, many Brasilians living in the united states prefer to make their pao de queijo from scratch, adding more of a "home-y" feel to it. 

Throughout discussions in class, we all came to an understanding that there is a lot we can do to help make our diet more sustainable. Buying more local products is something many people have the opportunity of doing, buying local foods grown and made near them. Here in Marin, there are lots of ways of getting these local products, whether it's at the supermarket or going to the farmers market. Making food at home as frequently as possible, using those products. Even though the cost may rise a bit with local products, it will definitely taste amazing, and make a difference for the environment. Getting more people to understand this concept of food miles will help us as a community to become more sustainable as a whole.

Bees at Redwood SustAg

Hello SustAg community! 

I am Elsa Davis, Redwood's beekeeper! I wanted to inform you all on what has been going on with the hive lately. Sadly, over the summer our bees disappeared. I belive that our bees left due to having too large of a hive to protect or in an attempt to escape a disease. In light of this, I have been working on restoring and renovating the beehive to make it welcoming for our new nuc (nucleus colony) that will be purchased in the Spring from a local beekeeper. With the help from two other SustAg students, invasive species were removed from the marshy clearance where the hive is located near the school. The beehive was then brought to my house where it was sanded and sterilized. A heat gun was used to kill any remaining bacteria that may have caused the disappearance of the old hive. In order to sterilize the used racks, leftover wax was scraped off, then each rack was dipped into a large pot of boiling water. Most recently, Devon Ball, an RHS AP Environmental Science student and artist, worked with me to paint the beehive to help inspire our new bees to create an abundance of sweet, nutritious honey for our community to enjoy. 

 

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