Tag Archives: ecology

Full Circle Farm Visit

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Working on the Farm   Working on the Farm

This morning was our field trip to visit Full Circle Farm, the educational farm in the Santa Clara Unified School District in Sunnyvale.

The volunteer Garden Manager, Melissa, introduced us to the garden and showed the kids the large worm box that supplies part of the nutrients needed by the vegetables growing on the farm.

The farm hopes to soon be able to make all of it’s own compost and to use that as the only soil additives for the produce grown on Full Circle Farm. Part of our group helped turn compost piles that will contribute to this process.

Other members of our class sifted garden soil to make it into potting soil for new plants that are beginning life in the Full Cirlce Farm greenhouse. We need to make some screens like the ones they use at the farm for the Dirt to Dinner garden. They are wonderful for sifting compost and getting the lumpy “uncooked” bits back into the pile for some further decomposing. I’ll check our books for a sample design and take it with me to the hardware store this week.

Planting Fingerling Potatoes

Planting Fingerling Potatoes

Our class planted some small fingerling potatoes on the farm this week. They weren’t cut and developing big ‘eyes’ like the ones we started two weeks ago in the Dirt to Dinner garden, these were very small and planted whole in the soil. Melissa gave us some of these “seed” potatoes so the kids could start their own potato patches at home or in the Dirt to Dinner garden. There are also extra Yukon Gold and Purple potato “seeds” here in case they want to try several varieties and compare the plants and their growth, production or taste.

Wearing a Little Soil

Wearing a Little Soil

It was fun to see what you can do with a garden that covers over half an acre. By comparision, the whole lot that holds the Dirt to Dinner garden is about 1/8th of an acre. The size of the garden beds we currently have under cultivation is ~300 square feet. Because we are using raised beds and biointensive planting and growing techniques along with vertical supports, we can grow a lot more in a small space than if we did that same space in traditional rows the way much of the Full Circle Farm produce is planted, but it was still great to see what’s possible when you really have the room to spread out. I can dream, can’t I?

 

eyeing-the-fields

Potting Up

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The tomato seeds start out in little pellets, and the irony is not lost on me that I am growing “local” food by starting seeds in a product that has come all the way from Vietnam.

Starting Local Food in Fiber Grow from Vietnam

Starting Local Food in Fiber Grow from Vietnam

Digging up peat bogs to dry them and ship them to gardeners everywhere contributes to global warming, so I thought I was doing a good thing by getting Fiber Grow pellets. But once I got home and turned the package over and read the Made in Vietnam sticker, I wasn’t so sure anymore. It takes a lot of resources to ship not-peat moss around the world too.

Tomato Sprouts

Tomato Sprouts

Anyway, the tomatoes, for better or worse, begin their lives on the top of the refrigerator in their Vietnamese fiber homes. It takes a week or two sometimes at the right temperature for them to germinate. They like to be warm. The first batch I started, only about half of them ever sprouted at all.

Once they have “true” leaves, the tomatoes and their Vietnamese pots go into the regular 6-packs you might see at the garden store.

First Potting

First Potting

They will stay in the 6-packs for several weeks until they begin to fill out, develop stronger stems, make more leaves and start to be recognizable as tomato plants.

The next time the plants are potted up, they will be set deep into individual containers with potting soil

Tomato Starts in 6-pack

Tomato Starts in 6-pack

and a little mature compost to help them grow strong. This may sound nasty, but you bury them deep enough in the new pots that some of the early leaves will be under the soil, so you carefully tear these leaves off. Where the leaves were on the stems, roots will grow in the soil making the plant sturdier when it finally sees the garden soil.

The tomato seeds that I started in early January are just now moving into their own pots for the first time, so this process has taken about 6 weeks. It takes a long time to grow tomatoes from seed but I am really looking forward to all the pasta sauce and sundried tomatoes, salads, catsup…

Tomatoes in Four Sizes

Tomatoes in Four Sizes

When’s the Last Date of Expected Rain?

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We made it past the last date of expected frost, February 19th, without much fanfare but I am hoping for at least a break in the rain for our first garden session of the project this coming Saturday.

Fresh Produce

Fresh Produce

We have also scheduled our first extra field trip, to the grand opening of the Full Circle Farm produce stand on Wednesday, March 4th from 4:00 to 6:00. This is a great place for us to visit because the kids will have a working day on the farm at Full Circle coming up on the 28th. That ought to make it abundantly clear how the produce gets to the farmstand.  ;-)

The garden is starting to take shape. There is lots to do and to build and some small garden beds ready for planting. We got a very generous donation of seed from the National Gardening Association. We’ll make a Thank You card for that when we’re together.

We’ve created a Ning for the kids to use to share their ideas, photos, videos, blogs and comments as the project progresses. Now all we need is a four or five hour break in the Spring rain, and we’re all set!

Dirt to Dinner Field Trips

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We’re considering adding three or four related field trips to the Dirt to Dinner program. Here are some of the ideas so far: 
Rice Soil Farm in Half Moon Bay
UC Berkeley Urban Bee Gardens
Ceres Project – Consider contacting our Food Precurement Coordinator, Chris Sitting, chris@ceresproject.org to volunteer to harvest produce at several local farms.
Blue House Farm
Sunnyvale Demonstration Garden 
Gamble Garden

Class Concept Final Draft

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From Dirt to Dinner:

An Exploration of Food, Science and the Natural Rhythms of the Kitchen Garden

Join us for a garden-centered hands-on program learning about food, seasons, life cycles, cooking and nutrition.

Dirt to Dinner will encourage participants to explore full food systems (“seed-to-table”) through both individual and group learning such as compost chemistry and physics, bee gardening, nature journaling, botany trails, cooking service projects, entomology research, food preservation or projects of the participant’s own design.

The goals of the program are to allow participants to:

  • Increase understanding of ecological principles
  • Integrate math, science, language arts and cultural studies through hands-on experiences of their choice
  • Develop an appreciation for where food comes from and how it is grown
  • Experience growing, preparing, eating and sharing healthy, sustainably-raised food
  • Learn about people and communities through the lens of food, its history and world-wide distribution
  • Promote healthy, sustainable living

Learn to make smart choices about food and resources

Group Size  ~8 to 15 kids. Parent participation is welcome.  Registration is due on or before February 14th.

Meeting in Santa Clara near 280 and Lawrence Expressway.

10 meetings, February thru July, to allow us to participate in the Spring growing season.  (A Fall session is also being considered to follow.)

Tuition is $150 per child.  Sibling discount and work exchanges are also offered.

Tentative Schedule

Meetings on Saturday’s 10:00 to 1:00, including lunch

February 28th  March 14th  March 28th  April 11th  April 25th

May 9th  May 23rd  June 13th  June 20th  July 11th

Instructor Bio

Mackenzie Price was born and raised in Southern California.  She always sought out the wild places in her suburban home: building forts in the canyon, playing in the waves or feeding the chickens in her backyard. In high school the weekends would find her rock

Mackenzie Price

Mackenzie Price

climbing or catching some waves.  With a creative approach to education Mackenzie has been a student of the classics at St. Johns College, a student of nature with Sierra Institute (a 2 month long backpacking trip), an intern on an organic farm, a co-creator of a four month backpacking trip and a graduate of RDNA (studying nature awareness and permaculture).  Mackenzie is a part of the Riekes Nature Awareness staff where she works with preteens, teens and expeditions.  She has also worked as a garden instructor for Life Lab at the UCSC farm and garden.  In her free time she loves to cook, play music and get her hands dirty in the garden.  Mackenzie is first aid/CPR and Wilderness First Responder certified. 

Questions?  Email Juli idleman@gmail.com.