Category Archives: Food & Farm Student Blog

Compromises

Small farms and organic farms have to make a lot of compromises. Some see not using industrial methods as a compromise of choosing the environment over production but that’s not the sort of compromise I’m talking about (and that isn’t so much of a struggle for me, where the choice seems obvious.) Rather, right now I’m talking about compromises of when we do have to use some of the more heavy-handed methods. When small farmers have to use a tractor instead of their draft horses for a job, or when all else has failed and organic pesticides are the only way to save a crop. The latter is happening to us at the farm right now.

We, and a lot of small organic farms, use what is called Integrated Pest Management at the farm. (for information on pest management strategies, look here) That means that spraying anything is our absolute last resort for managing pests. But unfortunately we have some nasty critters like the Colorado Potato Beetle, Squash Beetles, and Flea Beetles that are so well established here from a few years of less than perfect management strategies before Sarah got here that even intense crop rotation and other pest management has failed in defeating them in the last two years.

So we’ve been left with a lot of damage:

This left us with nothing we could do besides spray something (organic of course), otherwise these crops will be completely lost. Spraying always risks killing beneficial insects like ladybugs and lacewings, but not spraying will increase the chances of these bad bugs not only ruining this year’s crop, but surviving years to come and continuing to destroy food.

Organic-Pesticides-20140630

PyGanic, an organic pesticide.

We chose to spray PyGanic, pictured at the right. Also, we stuck to the lowest concentration that we could that would kill the potato, squash, and flea beetles and least risk killing any beneficial insects. The damage on the potatoes has not yet gotten so out of hand that we needed to spray more than the plants affected, but given the ubiquitous damage done to our squash and eggplant, those crops had to be sprayed equally ubiquitously.

It’s unfortunate we had to spray this week, but we have to sometimes make compromises. I think about some of the huge sprayers I’ve seen, indiscriminately covering fields with fossil-fuel based pesticides that will kill more bees, butterflies, and even some birds more than they will the actual pests, and I remember that it’s better to make compromises than to give in.

-Joe Ingrao, Excel Scholar Summer 2014

Monarch Watch at the Farm

As many people (like Gary Nabhan who visited our school and our farm this spring) know, Monarch butterflies are an extremely integral part of the North American ecosystem. They’re pollinators, like bees, hummingbirds, and other butterflies; and like Colony Collapse Disorder Monarch butterfly decline threatens our food prodcution. .

photo1.jpg

Some Horseradish and Pleurisy root at the farm

Some Pleurisy Root

Luckily, there are plenty of things regular people and farmers can do to make way for Monarchs, mostly having to do with the reduction in the use of pesticides (another reason to buy organic!) and the cultivation of Milkweed, a group of flowering plants that are the only place a Monarch will lay eggs and the only food source for Monarch caterpillars

LaFarm of course, is doing our part. A few years ago, a student planted a few common milkweed plants on the edge of the farm, and this year we are cultivating some pleurisy root, a perennial milkweed commonly called butterfly weed, that is used as a medicinal herb. I and one other student, Jacob Strock are monitoring the common milkweed for the presence on Monarchs as part of the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project. As of time of writing there hasn’t been any sign of the beautiful butterflies, which is a sign common to the last few years of the drastic changes to their migration patterns.

Our cordoned off milkweed preserve

Our cordoned off milkweed preserve

We at LaFarm highly recommend you do something to help Monarchs, whether it be raising a bit of milkweed in your backyard (their pretty flowers can be a wonderful addition to any garden, or just another plant in an overgrown section of land you own,) monitoring some milkweed for larva as part of the MLMP, talking to your local farmers about growing milkweed and decreasing their use of insecticides or just buying organic food when you otherwise would be buying inorganic produce. Check out more at Make Way for Monarchs.org

-Joe Ingrao, Excel 2014 Scholar

Asparagus Planting and Transplanting

Asparagus is a perennial that won’t grow much harvest in the first year or two but for many years can be harvested almost every other day because of how fast it can grow. It’s also delicious either raw or cooked and is very nutritious! Planting sprouts straight from a greenhouse or transplanting a fully grown plant involve very different planting techniques.

Asparagus Old 20140619

Asparagus grows tall and begins to resemble an odd tree when it gets close to seeding. Photo taken by Joseph Ingrao, June 19th 2014

For new sprouts, you start with soil that’s been lightly tilled with a tilling rake with 3 foot wide beds separated by 1 foot wide paths. In the beds, you mark off lines 1 foot from the path on either side (and therefore with one foot between these lines.) Then you take a wheel hoe with a shovel-like attachment and run it along those marked lines, making a sort of W shape in the soil.

Once you have a W, you take your asparagus sprouts and dig them into the middle bump of the W at 1 foot intervals, making sure to pack the dirt to cover all their roots in a way that will maintain the W shape of the soil. You want to water them very soon after putting them in the ground this way, for about 5 seconds for each plant. Excess water will run into the dips of the W, staying where the roots of the new plants can reach it without drowning them.

For an already established asparagus plant that you wish to move, or one that you ordered from somewhere else, the process is different. You don’t need to till the soil necessarily, but you still need your 3 foot wide bed. You dig a hole at least 10 inches deep, it needs to be deep enough to cover all the roots of the asparagus, or even go above them a little. At the bottom of the hole, you want a mound of dirt in the center and a sort of moat of empty space around that mound. This serves the same purpose as the W for planting sprouts, a place for water to collect and be accessible without drowning the plant. Place the asparagus in the hole and cover it, preferably with good soil or compost to help it adjust to its new spot. Then you want to water it an outrageous amount, perhaps a whole watering can’s worth, again to help it adjust.

Asparagus can grow very quickly, sometimes yielding a new harvest over one or two nights. To harvest a stalk that looks ready, you cut it off the plant right below the soil and then cut it again right under where the stalk will easily bend, to mark what is edible.

-Joe Ingrao, Excel Scholar 2014

Filling out the Farm

June 27th 2014

Now that we’re getting far into the growing season, the farm is filling out. Almost every plot is being used either for some established perennial, a nice annual crop, a ground enriching cover crop or a beautiful flower. Our projects all continue to move along and recent infrastructure expansion is assisting our production greatly.

Also this week I discussed at length with my advisers the broader picture as well, why we do all that we do at the farm, why we have a farm, why I’m researching farm infrastructure. We defined the ultimate goal of what we sustainability-focused Lafayette community members do as The Promotion of Stronger Eco-Citizenship. What we mean by that is making more people, at Lafayette, around Lafayette, and hopefully beyond, more conscious and supportive of efforts to bring our society to an environmentally sustainable point.

And everything we do at LaFarm is part of that. As the other workers and I plant cucumbers, mulch tomatoes, and weed herb gardens we are simultaneously learning a plethora of information about the environment and how our everyday choices of what to eat and how to eat it impact it. Several workers at LaFarm intend to become farmers themselves, or otherwise stay connected to the food system in their later lives, and I certainly have been affected by my time at the farm as to push me toward the career path of a farmer myself.

Expanding the farm, employing more workers, getting more food to more people have real effects on their lives and on the efficacy of our sustainable food loop model. And this big picture thinking is important for all food-system workers to keep in mind, as it is easy to get lost in the toils of labor and forget about why we want to do what we do. It should not be forgotten that the purpose of our toil is to live in harmony with the land so that we will not be some of the last to be able to live at all.

-Joe Ingrao, Excel Scholar Summer 2014

Potato Planting

Potatoes have eyes. I don’t know why people started calling the tentacle-like appendages that seed potatoes have growing from them eyes, but that’s what they’re called. Most people know that potatoes are the root of a plant (a nightshade plant, the leaves and flowers are poisonous) but not as many know that the beginnings of their extended root structures are these noodley ‘eyes.’

Potato Eyes

Potato Eyes

To ready potatoes to be planted, you take seed potatoes–potatoes that still have eyes–and cut them usually in half, to pieces no smaller than 3oz. or about the size of an egg. Any potato that’s already around that size need not be cut. And each seed needs to still have developed eyes on it or it will not grow.

You need to have tilled land with 3 foot wide beds separated by 1 foot paths. You take a wheel hoe with a shovel like attachment and run it right in the middle of your beds, making a V in the ground. Then, you simply put potatoes in this V about a foot apart and then close the V back up, watering the potatoes a bit afterward to help them grow. It’s that simple! At LaFarm, we make sure our potatoes are well weeded until the plants are tall enough to lay down straw around without blocking out the potato plant, maybe around 10-12 in. tall.

-Joe Ingrao, Excel Scholar 2014

What are Technique Posts?

There are so many tasks that need to be done on a farm for it to run properly from year to year, and many individual techniques that farmers need to know to accomplish those tasks. Here I am dedicating a bit of space for some details about the techniques I learn on the job. I won’t post the extremely simple and general things like “how to weed,” but instead more specific things like how to plant specific crops.

I’ll try to post at least one of these each week throughout the summer.

-Joe Ingrao, 2014 Excel Scholar

Visions of a Greener Tomorrow

June 20th, 2014
As my third week this summer draws into a close, the future is looking bright. At the farm we have plenty of plants growing,

 


So this growing season is shaping up to be a very green one for the farm. But it’s also becoming more obvious that the further future of LaFarm is going to be very green. As my research on farm infrastructure has gotten underway, the potential for expansion with even small additions to the farm makes future growth seem very within our reach.

Right now, I’m working with our farm manager Sarah, as well as my faculty advisors and now USDA extension educator Tianna DuPont to learn what I need to plan our packinghouse and greenhouse by going out and visiting other farms as well as doing some good old fashioned book learning.

So far, I’ve visited Pennypack Farm and Education Center in Horsham Pennsylvania. Their 12 organic acres were very nice to see up and running with the help of their Farm Manager Devin Barto and their interns like Jenny and Josh, whom I met and who were nice enough to talk to me about Pennypack and farming in general as I helped weed for an hour.

I’ll hopefully be making more connections with more farmers soon.

-Joe Ingrao, Excel Scholar 2014

Getting into Gear at LaFarm

June 13th 2014
As my second week of work closes, LaFarm is really starting to get its production underway. On the 9th, Eric, Jenn and I took a few hours finally filling in the herb garden around the gazebo at the center of the farm. Now we have a nice rock-covered herb garden growing basil, bee balm, and several other healthy, fresh plants to beautify our scenic outdoor break room and meeting space.

 

The cover crop that we planted just last week has already begun to push itself up out of the soil, and our peas and strawberries are ready to harvest!

We sold 2 ½ quarts of strawberries and almost three pounds of sugar peas and snow peas to Gilberts and Marquis, to be eaten right here on campus.

Our June 9th Harvest

Our June 9th Harvest

 

On the 10th, we planted 515 row feet of tomatoes! That was a whole dang lot of tomatoes. Varieties from various Heirlooms to Roma to Amish paste are all in the ground now, fully staked and ready to grow.

 

Tomatoes, freshly planted. Featured stake drivers are Jenn Ruocco and Kelly Carpency

Tomatoes, freshly planted. Featured stake drivers are Jenn Ruocco and Kelly Carpency

Flowers from the greenhouse, about to be planted

Flowers from the greenhouse, about to be planted

After getting so much produce in the ground, we planted 4 rows of flowers in the back of the garden too! Now we’ll have celosias, salvias, zinnias and several other flowers growing up and making the whole garden feel like home. To round out the day, we also planted leeks and thyme.

 

 

Taking a look around the Easton Farmers Market this week, I decided to take notes on what’s currently available in our area. Our local mushroom growers, Primordia Mushroom Farm, had 6 varieties for sale, white trumpet, white elm, shiitake, blue oyster, crimini, and portobella. The various veggie farms had for sale a long list: asparagus, arugula, beets, broccoli, bok choy, carrots cucumbers, escarole, fennel, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, onions, peas, radishes, scallions, and swiss chard, and anyone selling fruit is still just selling strawberries. As for the herb market, basil, cilantro, chamomile, dill, mint, parsley, and verbena were all around.

Also, this week my job gained a lot more purpose connected to the future of the farm. In conjunction with my myriad bosses, Professors Cohen, Reiter, and Brandes, and of course Sarah here, I’ll be doing my best to plan a packinghouse and greenhouse for LaFarm, so we can expand our production and get more people involved with growing organic and local. First thing I’ll be doing is going out to visit other small farms to see what they’ve done when they went through similar expansion. Keep a watch out for more about what we’re doing here!

-Joe Ingrao, Excel Scholar 2014

First Week back at the Farm

June 4th, 2014
After a hiatus for my second academic year at Lafayette, I’m finally working out at LaFarm again, and this year I’ll be out here a lot more, doing a lot more.

In only 2 days I jumped right back into work weeding, laying cover crop, planting and transplanting potatoes and asparagus, and watering our strawberries, rhubarb, horseradish, and pleurisy root. I also got to meet three of my co-workers for this summer: Jenn, a recent graduate and aspiring farmer; Kelly, a fellow rising junior; and Serim, a rising sophomore.

In just these two days, we have already done so much.

 

Rhubarb, under a tarp. you can see the leaves poking up where there's straw!

Rhubarb, under a tarp. you can see the leaves poking up where there’s straw!

Here is what will be, in a few years, a (hopefully very productive) strawberry patch!

Here is what will be, in a few years, a (hopefully very productive) strawberry patch!

And we cleaned up our new beds of rhubarb and strawberries.

Much of these patches just look like indiscriminate dirt with maybe some straw right now, but it won’t be too long until these plants are recognizable and even producing food. That’s the magic of agriculture, with a little help from humans, nature does the hard part (actually growing into food.)

I wasn’t able to post anything here until this week (the week of June 20th) so I’ll be posting everything up until this week right away, but from then on expect weekly updates!

-Joe Ingrao, Excel Scholar 2014