Thoughts on Agricultural Education: An Introduction

        The spring semester has brought a new group to Farm to You NH, and with it new opportunities. I am studying Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems with a double major in Humanities, and have been given the chance to adapt this course to accommodate an agricultural education project of mine that has been underway for about two years. Over the next two months, I'll be writing about my encounters with teachers and students in local schools.

        Three years ago, I informally removed myself from the Sustainable Agriculture program to pursue work at the Organic Dairy Research Farm and in the Humanities program. My interest in agriculture was feeling the strain of my limited practical knowledge, and it seemed time to make a decision as to whether agriculture truly called to me. I indulged myself in the humanities and poured my extra energy into my work at the dairy farm.
        Gradually, and without a conscious understanding of my transformation, I dropped the pretense of care for agriculture and adopted a genuine and earnest passion for it instead. I sought work beyond the dairy farm with the hope of learning more, and found a community at Barker’s Farm, then at Hickory Nut Farm, then at Springledge Farm. 

Barker's Farm in Stratham, NH

        I became a formal member of the Humanities major, and slowly picked up agriculture classes again, finding this time that, with a vigor of curiosity, I was fascinated by the academics of agriculture. The broad, abstract thought of the humanities indulged my desire to discuss, to feel awe, to wildly seek knowledge of all things human, while my work at the farms grounded and humbled me, a laborer in the care of plants and animals whose importance transcended that of my schoolwork. I learned to love the work deeply, not as something oddly estranged from my love of the humanities, but as something inextricably bound to it. I found that farming—socially, spiritually, and physically—tapped into my very deepest humanity, and opened up a world of harmony and conflict. Exposure to such a world, I believe, primes an individual for self-actualization, which in turn breaks the trail to happiness. What I wish to do, as best as I am able, is to act as a guide for those who find passion in the same places as I--gardens, farms, nature, recreation, and community.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, a major author 

in the humanities and a lover of agriculture.

        And so this lengthy road has brought me to SAFS 679 and Farm to You NH, where I have the opportunity not only to explore agricultural education for my own benefit, but also to forge connections with local schools in the hope that UNH can offer knowledge and resources to improve school gardens, greenhouses, and school to farm and farm to school programs. With the accommodation and kindness of several teachers, I have been able to observe what goes on in classrooms at Dover Middle School, Dover High School, Oyster River Middle School, The Cornerstone School, The Putney School, and Acorn School. I have also had the opportunity to volunteer with New Hampshire Agriculture in the Classroom and teach lessons on perspectives of agriculture and soil dynamics to middle scholars in the area.

Students were given a brief lesson on oxen before they visited 

with them and led them through an obstacle course with the 

guidance of their trainer.

        These experiences have given me a window through which to see the agricultural knowledge that our culture naturally bestows upon it’s youth. Hopefully they have also given a few kids a deeper understanding of and curiosity about farming. But mainly, they have worked to produce churning and conflicting thoughts in my mind about adults’ rights and duties as educators and mentors, and about how we must guide the newer members of the world. 
        Alas, there is not enough time to elaborate here, but there is more to come. Until then, in Writer's Almanac style, "be well, do good work, and keep in touch."

~Anne Howard

 

CSA Hacks: Preserve the Harvest!

Joining a CSA program, aka Community Supported Agriculture, is an excellent way to be supportive of your local farmers and familiarize oneself with the true seasonality of fruits and vegetables in your area. A typical CSA membership is defined by an investment paid upfront by the consumer, allowing the farmer to cover initial growing costs and have a hold of projected demand for the upcoming season. In return, the consumer receives box of vegetables, always a varied reflection of what’s being harvested, for a set number of weeks. Some farms divide their shares by season, while others divide their shares by type of crop (fruits, vegetables, salad greens, cut flowers, etc). 

As Forrest Gump’s mother once said, “A CSA share is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get." Therefore, it is important to be prepared for the inevitable “bumper crop” box. A “bumper crop” is farmer’s lingo for an unexpected surplus of one crop dictated by variables often out of the farmer’s control that produce favorable conditions for one crop’s harvest. For example, what’s a CSA shareholder to do when they receive more kale than they could possibly eat before it goes to waste?!

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This versatile vegetable keeps up to two weeks properly refrigerated and 6 months frozen. If refrigerating your kale to be used within 2 weeks, sort the kale stalks into manageable bunches and secure with rubber bands at the base of the stalk (i.e without crushing the broadest leaves). You can wash the kale before securing into bunches or wash before cooking.

Rinse the kale thoroughly, shaking the leaves of any sand or dirt they acquired in their earthly life. The unwanted particles will sink to the bottom of the wash basin.  Shake the kale leaves of excess water and place in either a salad spinner or between clean hand towels for drying. 

At this point, you can freeze the kale leaves whole OR roughly chop for uniform storage! 
 I chopped my kale in strips of 1-2 inches and packed into gallon sized, sealable plastic bags. I pressed firmly on the bags, releasing as much air as possible to create a vacuum effect once sealed. It is important to get as much air out as possible for two reasons: maximize freezer space AND make sure that your produce doesn’t develop ice crystals between the leaves.

I have added my frozen chopped kale to everything from soups, to omelets, to sauteed vegetable mixtures and green smoothies. Just imagine being able to enjoy farm fresh kale in the middle of February and your produce storage efforts will be completely worth it! All the best,

Charlotte

Harvest Day at Farm to YoU NH!

 On October 12, Farm to YoU NH hosted Harvest Day, a day to teach UNH students and the Durham community about all of the hard work we do over at Fairchild Dairy in our two high tunnels and half acre of land. Our intention was to educate the community about the work we do with UNH dining and the capabilities we have to bring more local foods into our dining halls.  The Farm to YoU NH set up is something that could be duplicated in dining halls all over the country to increase awareness of local foods as well as teaching students hands-on experience in running a small farm.

 In conjunction with a farm tour, we also had canning examples with instructions how to can, how to plant garlic to overwinter, as well as a garlic tasting with freshly roasted garlic. Not only were we lucky to have most of our class in attendance, but also a beautifully sunny fall afternoon. For our canning examples we brought cans of tomato sauce and salsa that we had made and canned from all of our own produce.  Canning is a great way to preserve food over time without having to ad several additives. We filled the fields with the aroma of roasted garlic by roasting garlic on sight on our grill. After all garlic was roasted and mashed, we set up a "garlic tasting" to score how different and similar each variety of garlic is. We used our own sweet potatoes to make a sweet potato sage dip that we served with tortilla chips. We supplied guests with an array of flyers and media to teach them more about Farm to YoU NH as well as more about what we presented to them at Harvest Day. We had a slow turnout, though it allowed us to give individual attention to all of our guests. All in all we enjoyed having a day to show off our successes and to teach ourselves how to host farm events in our future careers.

Welcome Back from SAFS 680!

      The SAFS 680 students are back to work in the field and the tunnels this fall! The fall season is picking up after summer work was maintained by Olivia, Will and Ross.  To commence the season, the 680 course participated in an exchange of high tunnels. An experiment conducted by Dr. Becky Sideman resulted in the SAFS team tradingour heated tunnel at the Fairchild Dairy farm for two smaller high tunnels located at Woodman Farm. One of those tunnels is called "Rolling Thunder" and is a movable tunnel manufactured and donated to UNH by Rimol Greenhouses.  Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant of many varieties were grown in the tunnels at Woodman. All of the freshly harvested vegetables were given to either the Dairy Bar, Holloway Commons, or to UNH's Conferences and Catering. 

        The growing season was successful overall with a few losses along the way. Garlic grew abundantly, with around 150 lbs. harvested. The melon harvest yielded a large amount as well, but more exciting than that was the variety of melons grown. Three different cultivars of watermelons and cantaloupes along with two honeydew cultivars were grown.  Strawberries also grew successfully, particularly the day neutral variety. These berries were growing vigorously until mid September! Though the majority of crops did very well, there were a few that did not. One example was our cucumber crop that succumbed early to a bacterial disease.  Also, outdoor determinant tomatoes experienced a bit of early blight, while the tomatoes grown indoor matured beautifully and disease free. Flea beetle pressure was strong on our outdoor grown mesclun greens while lettuce varieties grew heartily outdoors for the duration of the summer.                                                                                          In addition to producing food, general maintenance was done at the farm. The east facing end wall of the unheated high tunnel was replaced with polycarbonate. The hardworking summer crew also created a drainage ditch to ameliorate some of the water issues in one of the tunnels. 

                                                                                                              The fall brings even more exciting opportunities.  Students are busy with crop planning, harvesting and seeding cover crops. In addition, students are in the midst of planning an event in October to show other UNH students and the Durham community  more of what we do out on Spinney Lane. We are all also getting very excited for the annual Harvest Dinner in the dining halls, as some of our produce will be showcased! We are so happy to be working together again and bringing the freshest produce to the UNH community! 

High Tunnel Farewell Until Next Semester

                As the semester is coming to the end, so is the SAFS 679 class conducted at the UNH high tunnels next to the Fairchild Dairy.  Although it is time to say goodbye to the class this does not mean the high tunnels are being shut down until next semester. 

It is actually quite the opposite.  Since summer is approaching quickly so is the prime growing season for New Hampshire.  The crops in the high tunnels along with our outside field will continue to grow and flourish throughout the summer and into next fall when the SAFS 680 class will begin.   Without the students of the class on campus this brings many to the question of how these crops will be maintained and harvested.  But fear not, Ross along with the help of two internes from the SAFS 679 class will be maintaining and working in the high tunnels for the summer until UNH students join them back on campus next semester.   However, since I am graduating it is time I say goodbye to the high tunnels and UNH.  But this does not mean the blog will end but shall be continued by another student next semester. 

 

Spring is here at Farm to You NH

 
It has been a few weeks since my last blog and it’s time to give you an update on the many things happening up at the High Tunnels, next to the Conventional Dairy Barn.  Finally the weather outside has warmed up and spring has arrived.  Our crops growing in both high tunnels have flourished due to the warm weather and our outside field is getting close to being ready for planting!   Currently, our outside field is home to our overwintering strawberry plants and garlic.  Both survived the harsh winter and are ready to flourish in the warm weather. We have had recent guest lectures from Alan Eaton on IPM (Integrated Pest Management) and Dr. Kirk Broder on Plant Pathology. During both lectures we got hands on experience looking in the high tunnels for plant diseases and insects (both pest and beneficial).  So far we have had very little problems with both pests and diseases within our tunnels!  However, it is important for us to know how to monitor for these and what procedures to follow if they occur.  Recently, we also went

on a field trip to Wake Robin Farm, which taught us about the practices used on the farm and what they are currently producing.  It was amazing to see the number of transplants they had started in their two  greenhouses.  They did a great job conserving space and using all the room available including hanging pots and a hanging shelf that contained many seed trays.  The field trip and guest lectures are a great addition to the class and add to the information learned through the class.

Social Media and Outreach With Farm to YoU NH

Hello again everyone, 

            Currently we have been very busy in the UNH high tunnels located adjacent to the Fairchild Dairy Barns.  We have many crops growing in both tunnels and are planning crops for the summer.  This week we are excited to be participating in two public outreach events. These events are part of the social media aspect of the course, which shows students the importance of social media and good communication skills in regards to running an agriculture business.  The first event is the 1^st annual Nutrition Month Expo on Thursday March 27^th from 11-2pm in the Memorial Union Building room 338.  I will have a table at the event representing Farm to YoU NH.  There will be 15 tables representing different programs involved in a range of nutrition related topics including those on campus and some coming from off campus.  Farm to You NH will be sharing a table with UNH Organic Garden.    

 The second event that Farm to YoU NH is involved with this week is the Macfarlane Greenhouse Open House on Friday and Saturday March 28^th and 29^th.  The Greenhouse Open House runs from 9am to 4pm with many activities happening throughout the day, including tours of the greenhouse and the Farm to YoU NH high tunnels.  Two tours of the high tunnels will be led each day by students in the class.   Particpants in the Farm to YoU NH high tunnel tours will meet at the Macfarlane Greenhouse and be shuttled to the tunnels and back.  The first tour on both days will run from 10-11 AM and the second from 1-2 PM.  Farm to YoU NH participated in the event last year and it was a great success so I would definitely recommend stopping by.  Hope to see you all there!  

http://www.unh.edu/health-services/ohep/nutrition/national-nutrition-month-expo

 http://www.unh.edu/news/releases/2014/03/bp06greenhouse.cfm