After a fairly mild and somewhat disappointing winter, March has been unseasonably warm! With temperatures more than 30 degrees over the average for this time of year, we have had quite a bit to do to get ready for the next growing season. The wet winter and the hot sun so far this month have encouraged the trees to begin putting out buds in mid-March. For that reason, one of our first priorities became pruning our fruit trees and grapes. While it may seem counter-intuitive to clip off possible fruit-bearing branches, it is actually essential to increase the production and life of the tree. New shoots usually grow straight up and, if let unattended, can break under the weight of the fruit. Through pruning, one can develop a strong framework that will be able to support loads of fruit. Another important reason for pruning is to allow light to reach all parts of the tree. A tree that has a very thick canopy of leaves may actually produce less fruit due to the limited sunlight that reaches the lower branches.

Another important springtime activity at Merry Lea is the proscribed burning of parts of our restored tall grass prairie. Burning is an important and natural method of managing prairies. Grassland fires occur even without human interaction and have many benefits. The spring burning removes much of the old biomass from the prairie, which allows for the new growth. Also, the fire helps to knock back invasive species, allowing the native prairie plants to get a head start. Plants native to tall grass prairies often have roots that extend 5 to 15 feet into the soil. Therefore, the burning of the plant above the ground has no effect on the life-sustaining root system below the soil. With the use of water-filled backpack sprayers and rubber mat swatters, we are able to control the path of the fire and protect areas that should not be burned.

Earlier this month we had the opportunity to assist in the burning of the pocket prairies in and around Rieth Village. The picture above shows Rieth Village with the flames in the foreground. The other photo shows me using a backpack sprayer full of water to protect one of our apple trees from the extreme heat of the flames.

Though the winter has been too cold for growing plants outside, we have been keeping busy with other projects here at Rieth Village.

One of those projects has been season extension. In our greenhouse, the lives of many of our plants were extended well into the winter. In fact, our final tomato harvest of 2011 took place on December 1st! The picture shows a Sungold Tomato plant thriving and producing fruit with snow on the roof of the greenhouse. Also, thanks to our newly constructed hoophouse, we were able to pull some red kale all the way through the winter season. The plants are still providing us with lush, beautiful leaves!

Late in the last growing season, we had started a few pepper plants in the greenhouse. Once the nights began to get too cold for the delicate plantlets, we brought them indoors and placed them on a south-facing window sill. With a little t.l.c. throughout the winter, all six of the plants survived! The picture shows the first pepper blossom that opened on a snowy, winter’s day. In the absence of insect pollinators we needed to pollinate the flowers ourselves. At this point, each plant has one to three peppers developing.

Another project in which we’ve invested time is vermicomposting, or composting done by worms. Since composting plays such a vital role in the work that we do, we thought that introducing vermicomposting would be a great addition to overall education of the students who live and learn at Rieth Village. A worm bin had been created at another of our sites using a 10 gallon, plastic storage container into which holes were cut for ventilation.

The worms were given to us and we revamped the bin a bit, improving drainage. We created layers with strips of newspaper, soil, peat, kitchen scraps and worms. The dry materials help to soak up the extra moisture created by the kitchen scraps. The worms

(pictured here) most often recommended for vermicomposting are Red Wigglers. This is because of their habit of foraging for food closer to the surface of the soil (as opposed to earthworms that prefer to burrow much deeper). Since the renovation of their home, the worms have been happily working away at turning our kitchen scraps into the most wonderful, nutrient-rich compost that will greatly benefit us in the coming growing season.

Since beginning my internship at Merry Lea, I have learned so much about growing food sustainably. There is one invaluable resource that I have always underestimated. Anyone involved in organic farming surely knows the many benefits of compost! Composting is something that can be done easily by anyone, and the benefits are astounding.

Growing up in suburbia without much of a garden, I was largely unfamiliar with compost. To me, the word compost simply implied the pile of garbage that one finds in some backyards. I thought that composting was merely a way to cut down on the amount of waste being put into the trashcan, and eventually the landfill. I now realize that I was not far off and understand better how important composting is. In a landfill, waste is highly compacted with few microorganisms and no oxygen for aerobic break down of organic matter. These anaerobic, decaying materials create methane gas. By composting organic matter rather than putting it into a landfill, we are able to cut down on the green house gases going into the atmosphere.

While reducing the amount of organic matter in landfills is very important, there are many additional benefits to composting. Any avid gardener will tell you the value of adding compost to the garden to improve the soil. The arthropods and microorganisms in compost contribute to building a living soil. Organic matter enhances soil fertility, contributes to improved availability of water, reduces erosion and soil compaction, and even enhances resistance of crops to insects and disease.

As there are many reasons to produce compost, there are just as many ways to go about doing it. Here at Rieth Village, we use straw bales to build the walls of our compost bin and landscaping cloth to cover the pile. This helps to retain moisture and insulate the pile so that it actively composts without the need for regular turning. Another benefit of using straw bales to build the walls is that they provide straw for mulching in next year’s garden as well as organic matter for composting.

In order to monitor compost pile activity, I take the temperature of the pile each week. If the temperature of the pile is not higher than that of ambient air, it is a sign that the organic matter is no longer breaking down. We will then add more raw materials and water to our pile. The small farm of a neighbor who keeps a few horses is a steady source of manure for us. Because horse manure tends to compost hot, we alternate thin layers of manure with thicker layers of straw and plant matter. Water is an important additive to keep things moist and active.

I have heard people complain that sustainable practices are time- and labor-intensive and generally inconvenient. Through this internship, however, I am learning just how easy it is to make simple changes that can reduce our ecological footprint.

In a former post, I mentioned that we have expanded our growing space into another fenced field. With high expectations, the agroecology students planted many young plants that they religiously watered. We then closed the gate, turned the electric fence on and continued on our merry way, sure that our young plants would be healthy and happy in their new home. However, there was one problem that we had hoped to avoid. There were small eyes watching from the edge of the tree line. Once the field was free of humans, the ground hogs came out to check out the smorgasbord that we had planted. Although the fence was electrified, the lowest wire was not low enough to prevent the ground hogs from digging under the fence. One by one our plants were trimmed by ground hogs that enjoyed the fruits of our labor. As the photo of the sweet potato plants show, successive trimmings left our crops with few leaves to photosynthesize and grow.

Once it was clear that ground hogs were going to be regular visitors, we placed several live traps in amongst the beans baited with some delicious cantaloupe. Clearly not knowing what they were missing, the groundhogs turned up their noses at the fruit and continued to snack on our crops.

Following the clearing of some small trees from a prairie, we attempted to discourage the visits by placing wood in their way, but the groundhogs just rolled them back to get to their endless buffet of greens. When we discovered the scenethat you can see in the photograph, we decided to pull out the big guns.

Clearly the only thing that would keep the little guys out was to give them a shocking reminder each time they tried to dig under the fence. We installed a fourth wire just a few inches off the ground that they would not be able to limbo under. That did the trick! Once the plants were allowed to grow undisturbed, we were able to reap a harvest from what was left.

All of our work was worth it as we now look forward to years of abundant harvests from that field. Even now, there are days that I spot a forlorn groundhog sitting up on his hind quarters outside of the fence and gazing wistfully at what used to be an easy meal.

With the leaves turning brilliant colors, the shorter days, and the cooler nights, we know that autumn is upon us. It is time to prepare the gardens for the winter. In the past couple of weeks, we have been blessed with warm and sunny weather thatwe’ve taken advantage of to get a lot of outdoor work done. While some of the crops will continue to produce for a little while longer, others cannot handle the cold weather. For those plants, such as tomatoes, tomatillos, beans, and melons, we harvested the last of their produce for the year. Then, wepulled out the plants to put into our compost bin. Before throwing them into the compost, however, we chopped them into smaller pieces to allow them to break down more quickly and efficiently.

We also took advantage of the warm weather to dig up our sweet potatoes. The foliage of these plants was also cut up and composted.

In some areas of the garden, there was still quite a bit of plant material present from the preceding crops. A rototiller was used to mix crop residues into the soil where they will break down and provide nutrients. After tilling and raking the soil, winter rye was sown as a cover crop. A cover crop is used to reduce soil erosion, manage weeds, and enhance soil fertility.

Although temperatures are getting cooler as autumn sets in, our gardens are still producing! Not only do we continue to harvest produce, but we are planting new crops! In the past, the gardens were ramped down following the departure of the agroecology summer intensive students. Usually, a winter rye cover crop would be sown on the gardens at this time of year. But with our weekly campus sales continuing, we would like to be able to provide produce to the staff and students as far into the season as possible. For that reason, we have not allowed the gardens or greenhouse to retire for the year just yet. There have been a few crops that have reached the end of their lives and we have removed those plants from the garden. After a thorough weeding, we till the ground to prepare it for the next occupant. The greenhouse has had some turn over as well. As old plants are removed from the beds, the soil is turned and compost is added.

Some of the newly planted additions include crops that are known to be able to handle the cooler weather such as turnips, Swiss chard, and kale. We’ve also recently planted cilantro, Malabar spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and an assortment of greens to include in a salad mix.

On August 5, the nine-week Agroecology Summer Intensive came to a close. Rieth Village has been much quieter now that the students have gone their separate ways. However, as the summer wanes, the activity here at Rieth Village does not! The crops that the students helped to plant and tend continue to flourish and with five fewer enthusiastic farmers on hand, those of us left have been quite busy keeping up with the gardens and greenhouse!

When the students were living on site they utilized most of the garden produce. Now that they have moved out, we are left with a plethora of produce and an exciting opportunity! We have begun to market our produce to the faculty, staff, and students of Goshen College. Our first customers were those who live and work here at Merry Lea. Our weekly trips to the Learning Center were well received by all, especially the graduate students who live at Merry Lea. Despite a very positive response we were left with quite a bit of produce at the end of our sales each week. Although we continue our donations to the Wolf Lake food pantry, we decided to expand our market to those on the main campus of Goshen College.

We began our campus sales on August 26. We were expecting our customer base to be made up mostly of faculty and staff because most students had not yet arrived on campus. We were very pleasantly surprised, however, to find quite an interest among the student body! Our very successful first sale was quite encouraging and we look forward to our continued interactions with our campus customers every Friday from 2 to 5pm outside of the Schrock Science Annex.

There is so much going on in the agroecology department at Merry Lea but unfortunately it has been quite some time since anyone has routinely updated this blog. I have recently been hired as an intern in this department to be of aid to Dr. Dale Hess. One of my duties includes updating you on our activities.

So first off, here is a little about me: my name is Amy Hartzell and I am a 2009 graduate of Juniata College located in Pennsylvania. I grew up in western PA (just SW of Pittsburgh) but have spent time living in central PA and also western Washington. But enough about me! Here is what we have been up to here at Merry Lea:

This year's Agroecology Summer Intensive (ASI) began on June 6 with six enthusiastic participants. We are now in week seven of the program and I think that all of the students would agree that it has been a rewarding experience that has taught them quite a bit about sustainably growing their own food. They have finished their first two courses working with vegetable crops and soils, and are beginning courses in agroecology and small farm management.

However, don't be fooled into believing that these students spend most of their days in a classroom! They start each day growing a wide assortment of crops in the Merry Lea gardens and greenhouse at Rieth Village. Through weekly field trips to diverse local farms, the students have witnessed a variety of approaches to sustainably producing revenue for a family by providing healthy food to consumers.

Because our agroecology program continues to grow and develop, we are preparing more land to be farmed. In June, the agroecology field was fenced to keep out the local wildlife. Just last week, the students tilled and planted a portion of that field for the first time. The picture on the right shows Ross transplanting okra into the new field plot. Today, another expansion is under way! The hoophouse that used to stand at the farmstead was installed in its new location to the west of the greenhouse. This allows us to expand our protected growing area and thus lengthen the growing season. The picture below shows the students putting in the posts to support the hoophouse.

The ASI program is designed for students from a variety of backgrounds who have an interest in learning how to grow their own food, on some scale, in the future. This may be in the form of a window box or small garden plot to supplement food for themselves and their families or on a much larger scale of selling produce for a profit. It is so appropriate, then, that the students have had the opportunity to experience this process from start (tilling the new plot) to finish (harvesting and enjoying their own crops)!

From Emma...

Another week of the summer has come and gone. The work in the garden has finally shifted from mainly weeding to harvesting. Our purple and yellow string beans are coming in droves, the cucumbers are getting big faster than we can pick them, and we have more kohlrabi than we know what to do with. A highlight for me this past week was Tuesday evening, the 27th. Earlier in the day we had dug potatoes and picked a large tub of green beans so we decided to cook a big meal and eat the fruits of our labor all together. So together we scrubbed and diced the potatoes, snapped the peas, cut onions and fried up sausage. It was a simple meal, but surrounded by friends, it was a feast. Plus, as Angie pointed out, almost everything was grown from a spitting distance away.

Another exciting part of the week was when we visited Tillers International, a non profit organization that focuses on international agricultural development. A large part of this is using draft animals to work the field. Everyone in our class got the opportunity to take a turn behind a plow pulled by a team of oxen. It was interesting to see how livestock and animals tie into sustainable agriculture.

We had our last Small Farm Management class on Thursday with Melissa Kinsey. We shared with each other our final business plans for our hypothetical farms. It looks as though we all will have very successful sustainable farms, or at least it appears so on paper.

On Friday morning, Roberta gave us a brief canning lesson and we canned dilly beans in a hot water bath. We also froze several more bags of string beans. So now we know how to preserve all the food that we know how to grow.

To learn more about the Agroecology Summer Intensive, visit the Merry Lea web site.

Soils

From Angie...

There we were … undoing deposits left behind by glaciers that retreated some 11,000 years ago. Stones of all shapes and sizes dotted the plowed field. What were we thinking picking up those bits of Canada’s geologic legacy and tossing them into the wagon? As Agroecology students, we’ve learned a bit about the geologic history of this part of northern Indiana. One might ask what geology has to do with growing tomatoes and cucumbers. Quite a bit, it turns out.

That’s the thing about Agroecology … while many farmers and gardeners are mostly concerned about what goes on above ground—and rightfully so, we’ve discovered that a lot goes on under ground. An area’s geology and soils contributes to what can be grown there. Indeed, if we pay close attention to what’s going on with our soil—such as knowing the soil texture, knowing where the water table is, knowing what has grown there before, and knowing how the soil was treated (was it tilled when it was too wet or has it been driven on and compacted?), then we’re better able to respond appropriately to the soil conditions at hand in ways that will allow the soil to dance with life. The results are sure to be bountiful harvests produced by healthy plants. Indeed we’ve seen examples of how plants respond to living soils time and time again, here at Merry Lea and at the farms we’ve visited … especially after the stones are removed!

To learn more about the Agroecology Summer Intensive, visit the Merry Lea web site.

From Lisle...

Well, it is very hard to believe that we are over halfway done with our time here at Merry Lea. Last week was week 5, and as it went by we said goodbye to our first two courses: Vegetable Crops and Soil Management.

After a Fourth of July cookout of bratwurst and oversized marshmallows, it was a busy and slightly stressful week for us—we had two exams (one on Tuesday and one on Thursday) and we had book reports and research papers about vegetable crops and their pests due on Thursday as well.

However, some of the stress was relieved by an entertaining trip to Larry Yoder’s family farm, where soybeans and asparagus are grown. We enjoyed looking at some of the problems with the corn in his gardens, and we helped mulch his tomatoes. We took a tour of the whole farm, which included a gravel pit and the Yoder Maple Sugar bush. There, they tap sugar maples for sap, which is boiled down to maple syrup during the late winter and early spring. Other highlights of our trip included pancakes with homemade maple syrup for lunch and a refreshing swim in the pond just before we headed home.

Between the schoolwork and the field trip, our kitchen gardens were somewhat neglected. Friday morning we weeded some of the walkways, which were quite overgrown. We enjoyed using a flame-weeder to attack some of them!

In addition to weeding, Friday was a return to coursework. We drove in to Goshen for a lecture from Ryan Sensenig on grazing, which kicked off our Agroecology course, which will occupy us for the next four weeks along with a class in Small Farm Management. We’re looking forward to the rest!

To learn more about the Agroecology Summer Intensive, visit the Merry Lea web site.

The Week at Merry Lea

From Meg...

The weather was great this week with a short break from the humidity and heat. Everything in the garden is growing along nicely, and it's the time of the summer were it feels like the tomatoes need to be tied-up every-other day .

This week we spent time mulching with hay in the kitchen garden to prevent weeds from growing and moister loss. We also worked with the compost to get some new bins going and rotted hay bales out.

It was a week of pests: weeds, diseases and arthropods to be specific. We heard lectures from Dale and Dr. David Miller on pest management rather than pest control. On Tuesday we looked at the specimens we collected with our bug taps, comparing insect life found on a bare plot, mulched plot, and plot with a cover crop. We examined lots of mites, ants, springtails and even a few centipedes and pill bugs.

Mid-week we took a trip up to Michigan State's Kellogg Biological Station. There we got a tour from Dr. Doug Landis of their fields planted to research bio-fuels. With test plots for corn, switchgrass, prairie, miscanthus, and many others they monitor everything from insects to carbon emissions on these possible bio fuels of the future.

We finished out the week with bird banding on Thursday morning and a soils lab and lecture Friday. While bird banding we got to help Lisa Zinn in the banding of a few catbirds, an indigo bunting, and a bluebird. Friday we tried out both new and old tools for determining slope and the effects of erosion in agriculture.

Thank you to everyone who made it a great week to be an agroecology student at Merry Lea!

To learn more about the Agroecology Summer Intensive, visit the Merry Lea web site.

From Anthony...

As a biology major and one of the two Goshen College students in this year’s Agroecology summer intensive, I was familiar with Merry Lea and the accompanying facilities beforehand. The connectedness that Merry Lea offers to the environment and its biological elements is what drew me here.

It has only been three weeks since the intensive started, yet already we have all comfortably fallen into the daily routine. It is hard to believe there is only a week and a half left in the first half of the intensive. But they say time flies when you’re having fun.

On Monday this week we visited Sustainable Greens, located just north of Constantine MI, where we were given a tour by the owners, James and Kate Lind. We learned how using only 4 acres of land, they are able to supply many restaurants in Chicago and still have enough product to sell at the farmers market.

Tuesday and Wednesday this week we had Vegetable Crops classes, Thursday and Friday was Soils. Outside of class we mulched parts of the Kitchen Garden as well as the Permaculture Garden and many of the trees at the Farmstead. The Kitchen Garden also received chicken wire around the bottom half of the existing fence because the rabbits have been, or were, showing great interest in our garden.

To learn more about the Agroecology Summer Intensive, visit the Merry Lea web site.

From Angie, an ASI student this summer . . .

A wise friend once observed that without plants, we all die. Every single meal I eat, without exception, would not have been possible without plants. So, I decided that it might be a good idea to foster some kind of a relationship with the rooted members of the Earth community. 


About 10 years ago, I participated in the Master Gardener program … then in 2006, I earned a Masters Degree in Earth Literacy from St. Mary-of-the-Woods College in Terre Haute, Ind., writing my thesis on how community gardens can contribute to food security in Indianapolis. 


But I wanted to delve deeper into the plant world. As it is, our global food supply relies primarily on a handful of grains. But to attain true community food security, shouldn’t we relearn not only the diversity of available plant foods that that our ancestors took for granted, but also how to grow them in ways that nourish the soil? 

To that end, I’m participating in Goshen College’s Agroecology Summer Intensive so that I might understand more of what my Hoosier ancestors understood, and so that I might share my learnings with others in the community.

And what better way to spend a summer learning than with six motivated and engaged college students and a great Merry Lea faculty and staff!


Photos submitted by Angie.


To learn more about the Agroecology Summer Intensive, visit the Merry Lea web site.

Agroecology Summer Intensive gets underway

The 2010 Agroceology Summer Intensive (ASI) at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center began this week.  Students will spend 9 weeks taking four credits and applying their knowledge by working in the Kitchen and Permaculture Gardens.  In addition, nine field trips to area farms and related businesses are scheduled giving students opportunities to see agroecology principles in action.

The cohort of seven students is the largest in the 3 year history of the program.  And it’s an especially diverse group.  Geographically, students have come all the way from New York and New Mexico – and places in between – to study at Merry Lea for the summer.  One Hoosier rounds out the group.

Already two classes have started:  Vegetable Crops and Soils.  The first field trip to Metzger’s Farm near Wolf Lake took place on Tuesday.  Planting in the Kitchen Garden is almost complete. 

On Thursday morning, the ASI crew joined other staff and volunteers to plant the program gardens.  These plots will be used as a learning tool in Merry Lea’s fall Farmcraft programs.  In a blitz of activity, 1,750 square feet of space was planted, watered and mulched.  Also, the herb garden plot got a thorough and much needed weeding.

One more thing the students did:  they harvested and ate fresh lettuce, spinach and radishes from the hoophouse garden which had been planted in anticipation of their arrival.  It’s the first of many opportunities over the summer to savor the fruit of the land and of their own labor.


To learn more about the Agroecology Summer Intensive, visit the Merry Lea web site.

RM 

Visit to White Yarrow Farm, Marcellus, Michigan

Agroecolgoy Summer Intensive students traveled to White Yarrow Farm near Marcellus, Michigan on July 14. Farmer Dale Hasenick and intern Luke Nofsinger hosted our visit.

White Yarrow Farm offers a mix of vegetable, cut flower, meat and egg production. Dale and his wife Jo Beachy own and operate the farm.

White Yarrow Farm has about 5 acres of vegetables under cultivation. Half of the produce is distributed through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares, and the remainder is taken to the Goshen Farmer’s Market. There are about 60 CSA shares; boxes of fresh produce are distributed on Monday in Kalamazoo, Michigan and on Wednesday in Three Rivers, Michigan.

It takes about 8 weeks to raise chickens to butchering size. Dale can produce three batches per season. The chickens are kept in open bottom cages that are moved every day. The animals eat much of the vegetation, and also receive a grain supplement.

Laying hens are kept in another pasture. They have coop on wheels that Dale and a volunteer built several years ago. Both eggs and frozen whole chickens are available for sale to CSA members.

Beef cattle are also a part of the farm mix.

Our tour of the farm included the heated greenhouse where seeds are started, the chicken pasture, vegetable plots, and the washing/packing stations. Along the way we stopped in the garlic beds where two volunteer/shareholders were working. We joined them in harvesting and tying up bundles of garlic which will be dried in the barn and then distributed later to CSA shareholders.

Later when it was time to gather eggs, Dale invited us to help. We collected a pail full of fresh brown eggs, some of them still warm under the hens.

When asked about the most important lesson so far this summer, Luke responded, “straight rows!” He has learned that every field task through the remainder of the season is much easier if seeds are planted in straight rows right at the beginning.

Visit to Clay Bottom Farm near Goshen Indiana

On Thursday, July 9, Agroecology Summer Intensive (ASI) students visited Clay Bottom Farm owned and operated by Rachel Hershberger and Ben Hartman. They were able to purchase the property in fall 2008, and are spending this growing season conducting trials, planning drainage and irrigation, and getting ready for full scale production. They continue to rent land for vegetables this year.Though they have been growing and marketing vegetables for several years, Rachel and Ben started offering produce this year under a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) arrangement. They have 11 shareholders, each of whom paid at the beginning of the season for a weekly box of food. Clay Bottom Farm runs the only on-farm CSA in the Goshen area.

Our visit began with Rachel telling us about CSA models and about the history of Clay Bottom Farm. Later Ben gave us a tour of the farm. We saw the moveable greenhouse, cover cropping, compost bins, tractors, implements, and the farm buildings. Most intriguing was a chest-type freezer adapted to serve as a refrigerator for produce.

Moveable greenhouse in the Clay Bottom Farm trial plot. Ben is working with a local welder on finding a way to put wheels on his larger greenhouses.

Agroecology Summer Intensive students check out the compost set up. Clay Bottom Farms gets duck manure from a neighboring farmer. The manure is composted and then spread on the soil as fertilizer.

L to R Darin Swartzentruber ASI student and Ben Hartman of Clay Bottom Farm. Both Rachel and Ben shared their suggestions for helpful farming resources.



RM 07-15-09