FARM SCIENTISTS RECAP

Spring Semester 2021

What a magical semester we had! Here’s a summary of our time together…

week 1 / apr 16 - what is a seed?

Due to a threat of rain and thunderstorms, we stayed close to the tasting room area in case we needed to move indoors. We studied seed anatomy, transplanted culinary herbs behind the vineyard house, explored native plants on the nearby cattle ranch, and wrapped up the day with games of “slap flower” with our plant ID cards.

 week 2 / apr 23 - meet the worms

Another rainy day. Our farm chores included chicken care, adding compost to the row beds, and building more compost with the never-ending supply of weeds. We took advantage of the cool spring weather to plant indigo, woad and coreopsis starts in our dye garden and medicinal herbs in the hugelbeds that we built last semester. Our lesson today was all about earthworms. We observed our new shipment of red compost worms and dispelled some of common myths, such as surviving being cut in half (they can’t!) We then built a stackable worm bin to house compost worms - they make some of the most nutritious compost available for a vegetable garden. It’s also a great way to compost your kitchen scraps if you have limited space. For our art project, we moved inside and made seed mosaics to wrap up our seed study.

 week 3 / apr 30 - compost tea brewer project

Today we started building a compost tea brewer (aka aerator) out of a 35 gallon trash bin, PVC pipes and fittings and a large pump. While a compost extraction can be made by simply stirring, it's made even better if continuous oxygen is incorporated into this "compost broth" which can increase the original numbers of microbes into the billions. This is known as AACT or actively aerated compost tea. In this case, our worm casting tea along with water, molasses (to feed the bacteria,) and kelp extract (to feed the fungi.) Compost tea benefits the soil’s ability to retain nutrients, buffers soil and plants against pollution, improves moisture retention, increases plant disease resistance, and increases plant resistance to stress, such as drought or pests. Our farm chores included potting up pepper seedlings into 4 inch pots. For our games, we had an impromptu limbo dance and also played “6 of 1” where students have to find collections of assigned opposites (e.g. living / dead, warm colors / cool colors, dark / light) then have the other teams try to guess the categories.

 week 4 / may 7 - screech owls pt.1

This week we continued building the compost brewer, transplanted more pepper seedlings, and weeded our square foot garden. We started our study of the Eastern Screech Owl in preparation for building an owl box for the farm. Despite the heat, we ended the day with a fast-paced game of Life and Death in the Forest.

 week 5 / may 14 - screech owls pt. 2

For our farm chores, we harvested edible flowers and weeded a very challenging and overgrown garlic row bed (without too much complaint!) We built our Eastern Screech Owl nesting box and learned some fascinating facts about these little owls. Some of our favorite facts: they actually whinny instead of screech; when threatened, an Eastern Screech Owl will stretch its body and tighten its feathers to look like a dead branch to avoid detection; and nestlings fight fiercely amongst themselves, sometimes to the point of siblicide (fun new vocabulary word!) We also did a plant family scavenger hunt for the 9 common plant families we’ve been learning since the winter. In the afternoon we make flower confetti canapés with cream cheese and edible flowers. (I must have been having too much fun and forgot to take more pictures. Sorry!)

week 6 / may 21 - bug day

It was all about spiders and insects today. During our usual sit spot meditation, we heard a ruckus from a few students. Turns out they discovered a HUUUUGE spider, which we identified as a Giant Lichen Orb Weaver. This conveniently led to a discussion on the fact that as an organic farm, we never use chemicals to kill invading insects. Instead, we encourage predatory insects that like to eat the plant-eating insects. Some of our best insect friends are lady bugs, praying mantises, and lacewings. We also like to attract pollinating insects like native bees, honeybees and butterflies to help our plants produce more vegetables. What would happen to the good bugs and worms if we sprayed toxic insecticides? We took a closer look by doing a sheet shake where insects are shaken out of shrubs and trees onto a sheet, then captured in a magnifying box. We identified them with our good bug / bad bug field guide, then kept our favorite specimens to run a bug race! We also installed our screech owl box and had a chance to take a sweet class photo.

week 7 / may 28 - flower pressing

After our morning games and farm chores - more weeding, ugh! - we tended our square foot garden, collected some gorgeous late spring flowers and built flower presses from scratch. This was Tiger’s last day, so we wished him bon voyage as he leaves for summer travels.

week 8 / june 11 - rocket stoves

No class on June 4th due to the bridge closure at Hamilton Pool Road and the Pedernales River. We picked up again on a very warm and muggy June 11th. Suddenly it’s summer! After our morning games and farm chores, we built some beautiful flower presses and learned how to make a rocket stove. These stoves are highly efficient and simple to build - they sure would have come in handy last February for those of us who lost heat and gas during the ice storm. We also picked more flowers to press, potted up more pepper plants, played Seed Catalog Scavenger Hunt, then moved to the A/C indoors for some board games. We didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to Ari last week, so we sent him this last photo.

week 9 / june 18

Another warm day! We started off by planting a row of pumpkin seeds, which have to be planted by early July if you want them for Halloween. We then collected orange cosmos flowers and put our rocket stove to use to make a fresh dye pot. (Why do we keep making fires when it’s so hot out, Ms. Bridget??) We discussed the use of mordants in dyeing and tested our dye on wool yarn using alum and cream of tartar. We also learned how to play Bananagrams, a new class favorite.

week 10 / june 25

We made it to the last day of spring semester! We celebrated the summer harvest by picking some of our amazing heirloom tomatoes and making up a big batch of pico de gallo salsa. We also made fresh corn tortillas and dug in! For lunch we took a hike up the hill behind the vineyard to catch a nice view of the farm. We enjoyed a picnic lunch and a last round of Bananagrams. We then headed back down to the field behind the tasting room to enjoy water play and volleyball with the summer camp kids. The perfect ending to an amazing farm school year!