Trip to Pomona

Yesterday a group of nine FEASTers drove out to Pomona to take a look at their farm. We met with Professor Rick Hazlett, Professor Juan Araya and a few Pomona students and alum. Overall it was incredibly inspirational and I can definitely foresee some joint events between our two operations.

The Environmental Analysis program at Pomona has provided a tremendous amount of institutional support for the gardening/farming movement on campus that started as a guerilla garden in the late 1990s. Since then, sustainable agriculture has found its place in the Environmental Analysis curriculum. As with any movement for change, they have experienced administrative road blocks but over time their efforts have materialized. Integrating sustainable agriculture or agroecology into the academic curriculum is a wonderful way to lend legitimacy to a student-run garden. Hopefully we can achieve that here at Oxy in the next year or two. I had an amazing time touring their farm and hearing about the challenges they have faced and overcome. Check out pictures on Facebook and Picasa.

The Farmer and The Cook

I went on the Sustainability retreat organized by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life this weekend for Fall Break. Overall it was an amazing experience and I think everyone had a great time. We left early on Saturday and drove to Ojai where we met Steve Sprinkel and Olivia Chase. Together they run an organic farm, CSA, grocery store and restaurant as the farmer and the cook respectively. We worked with Steve at the farm for most of Saturday, picking pumpkins, brussel sprouts, carrots, potatoes and beans. Then we stopped by the Ojai festival and finished with a fabulous meal at their restaurant. We even ate the potatoes we had picked. I had an eggplant, squash and pumpkin tagine with polenta and we all had amazing chocolate cake for dessert. Here is their website if you are interested!

We spent the night at a campground close by and had a long conversation around the campfire that touched on a variety of topics but most notably sustainability, spirituality, the importance of food and what a great day it had been. On Sunday, after a lazy morning at the campground we packed up and went to local hot springs to eat lunch and take a dip before the drive back to campus.

Tomorrow and Upcoming Events!

Hi Everyone,

We'll be meeting in the garden tomorrow for the usual activities around 5 pm. There might even be some hot cocoa so bring a mug!!

On Friday, October 8th, author Katherine Leiner will be giving a presentation from 1 to 2 pm in the Morrison Lounge. Her book, Growing Roots, profiles young leaders in the sustainable food movement. You shouldn't miss this!

I am arranging a get together with Rick Hazlett, a professor at Pomona who teaches their Farms and Gardens class, and probably some Pomona students who are involved with their farm. It will be on Tuesday, October 19th. It is the Tuesday of Fall Break. We will either meet here at Oxy or go to Pomona and see their operation. Please let me know if you are interested in participating in this!

This Sunday is CicLAvia; it's a 7.5 mile route through the streets of LA, which will be only open for BIKES! Giulia is leaving from the garden at 10 am and anyone who wants to go should bring $1.50 for the train, a bike and some water. The whole thing should take about 2.5 hours. If you don't have a bike, check one out from the BikeShare in the LIBRARY!

Lastly, Tour De Fat is on Saturday, October 23. It is a bike, beer and music festival sponsored by the New Belgium Brewery. If we can get some people to volunteer to help with the "take down" of the event from 5 to 7 pm (tables, tents, clean up, etc), we can make some money for FEAST! As a volunteer, you'll get a free t-shirt and a beer token (if you're 21 or over)! This will be in the Historic Downtown LA Park. Let me know ASAP if you are interested!

KATHERINE LEINER

Come hear Katherine Leiner, author of Growing Roots, this Friday, October 8th, from 1 to 2 pm in the Morrison Lounge. Her book profiles some of the young pioneers in the sustainable food movement and more importantly shares some of their recipes. Hope to see you all there!

Usual Thursday + POTLUCK!

Hey all,

I hope everyone is doing well!

We will be meeting in the garden this Thursday at our usual time, 5 pm. After planting, preparing beds, tending to the chickens and turning/building our compost piles there will be a POTLUCK IN THE GARDEN (around 6 pm)! We're hosting this with WellFed so you may have already received an email but please come and bring something yummy! Don't forget a plate, silverware and a cup!

See you all there!

Voting and Doodle Poll

Hello Everyone,

We had our first meeting in the garden on Thursday and it was great to see so many old and new faces. This coming Thursday will be an important meeting so try to be there starting around 5 pm! I will explain the club constitution and then we will vote on it. I will have met with Rebecca Dowling (risk management), and give you all an update on our efforts to start a farm cart or get produce into the Market Place. Furthermore, we will be solidifying the positions on the Executive Board for the semester.

IMPORTANT: everyone who wants to have a leadership position please email and tell me which one(s) your interested in. Email even if you already have a position because I want to take stock.

In addition to our weekly meetings on Thursdays, here is a Doodle poll that will develop a rotating schedule of daily duties. These will include irrigating the beds, collecting eggs, checking the food and water for the chickens and letting them out of the coop for a bit. This commitment will realistically take at a bare minimum 30 minutes and probably closer to an hour. It should ideally be done sometime in the morning. Even if you can't come to our Thursday gardening times please feel free to sign up for this! In payment, you are free to take some of eggs for personal use! We will go over the details once a schedule is set up.

See you soon

Fruit Trees

The principle that function follows form holds true for the pruning and training of fruit trees. The geometry that a pruner encourage is purposeful and dictates the growth pattern of a tree. There are generally two different pruning methods: modified central leader and open-centered. We learned about the former and not the latter although both are in practice. This description will pertain to all temperate zone, deciduous fruit trees, excluding citrus, guavas, etc. that are grown on dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstalks. This included apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, plums, etc. The overall tree structure, when viewed from afar, should resemble a cone or isosceles triangle. This will allow for maximum light penetration. Since dwarf or semi-dwarf fruit trees are generally fairly short (10 to 15 feet tall), there will be two tiers of fruit producing braches. From the main trunk, central leader, primary branches radiate out in all directions and ideally the first tier should have 5 to 9 branches. There should be a 1 to 3 foot gap on the trunk between the highest first tier primary and the lowest second tier primary branches. The second tier should have similarly radiating primary branches from the trunk. These main branches are the primary scaffold of the tree and each has multiple lateral and sub-lateral branches. It is important that lateral branches are perpendicular and not parallel to the primary branch. When primary branches are vertical hormones and resources encourage rapid, upward vegetative growth and not fruit production. Furthermore, these will compete with the primary leader. Therefore, weights or ties with stakes can be used to direct both verticality and radial direction of growth. Primary branches should growth at a 45º to 75º angle from the trunk. Fruit trees, when young, are incredibly malleable and branches can be cut and trained to conform to a certain geometry.

For temperate, deciduous fruit trees, only two or more year old wood will produce any fruit, unlike evergreen trees that bear on terminal growth. Shortening cuts can be used to trim branches back to fruit buds on older growth. Cutting branches during fruit production but before the third week of July (approximately) will encourage fruit production and not vegetative growth the following year. However, pruning the winter time encourages growth, therefore it is important to trim unwanted growth during the summer and wanted growth during the winter.

A few photos

Gio's Summer in Santa Cruz

Yesterday I had the chance to visit Santa Cruz and sit in on Gio's class at the Santa Cruz Center for Agrobiology. In the three short hours I was in class I learned SO MUCH! I can only imagine the wealth of knowledge that Gio is going to bring back to FEAST this fall. The farm itself is spectacular! If you are going to be in/around Santa Cruz at all in the next few weeks I recommend trying to get a tour of the farm from Gio. It is on the top of a hill with incredible views of the ocean and the produce is beautiful-- fruit trees everywhere plus every flower and vegetable you could imagine. We spent some walking through the Chadwick garden which is the first garden that Santa Cruz built and seems to be one of the birthplaces of alternative farming in California. The peach trees were heavy with fruit (we got to eat some of the fallen ripe ones :)) and the pear and apple trees are already so overloaded I don't know how they are going to stay standing until fall!

I wish I had brought my camera along but I guess you'll just have to go see for yourselves!

The Agro-Food System

Here is an interview with Raj Patel that showcases his perspective on the problems that we currently face in regards to food, hunger and sustainability. Raj recently released The Value of Nothing which is one of my favorite books. He has done a lot of work with Food First and the Via Campesina movement. Here's a link to his website.
Hope you enjoy!

Propagation

Propagation is one of the most important aspects of a successful agricultural endeavor. A grower must decide whether to direct seed or transplant a crop. All root crops or ones that have taproots are usually direct seeded while others are commonly transplanted in smaller operations. At the Chadwick, or Up-, Garden at UCSC about 80-85% of the crops are transplanted, a practice that can be used to extend the growing season and ensure a specific crop density in the beds. However, transplants require the additional costs of building and maintaining a greenhouse facility and the extra labor that goes into the process of transplanting. Typically, two different types of trays are used: wooden flats and plug trays (often the Speedling brand). Each method has its own pros and cons. Wooden flats fit many more plants in a small area but require more skill for transplanting and starts can also be kept for a longer period of time in wooden flats before transplanting if environmental conditions are not favorable to transplanting (8 or 9 weeks). Starts from plug trays are much easier to transplant but with limited nutrients the starts must be transplanted within 5 to 6 weeks after planting. Furthermore, there are compaction issues as the soil begins to lose pore space and nutrients. Some varieties of plants simply grow better in one type of tray while others do well in both. The Up-Garden uses more flats in the spring and more plug trays in the summer. Starts can generally be transplanted once they have 6 to 8 leaves but before doing so trays are placed on outside benches for a few days to strengthen cell walls with wind movement and to “harden them off” to the conditions outdoors. This will minimize transplant shock and ensure successful transplanting.

One of the most important aspects of propagation for starts is the potting mixture used in the plug trays or wooden flats. The soil media must physically anchor the plant and provide adequate drainage properties to reduce fungal disease but retain moisture and encourage gas exchange in the pore space. Furthermore, when growing in a greenhouse, the environment is incredibly conducive to growth of all kinds, including diseases and pests. For this reason, some propagators believe in using a sterile mix; simply heating soil to 130ºF for at least 4 hours should kill all of the detrimental seeds, pathogens, pests and diseases but still maintain some beneficials while if the soil reaches around 180/190ºF it is pretty much sterile and not biologically active. At the CASFS farm, they believe in biologically active soil mixtures and are conscientious about trying to utilize local and renewable components. Peat moss is quite common in potting mixes but it is a slow growing resource in the Northern latitudes that is being quickly degraded. Their mixture is primarily soil and compost based, but it includes coconut husks, vermiculite, leaf mold (leaf compost), perlite, sand and sometimes fish, blood or bone meal.

In controlling for pests, pathogens and diseases, it is important to keep greenhouses clean, encourage good air flow through the site, avoid contamination, deal with any outbreaks quickly and aim for idealized soil structure, which is 50% air by volume. Roots grow in the pore space (air content) of soil so it is important that soil structure supports good, even pore space. This pore space should be 50% water and 50% air.

Organic Certification

We heard about the organic certification process and standards from Amy Lamendella, an inspector for California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF). It was enlightening to hear what is regulated under the 2002 National Organic Program. Certification involves a lot of paperwork, documents and receipts; Amy described it as the process by which farmers document their practices and turn a physical enterprise into a verbal description. The National Organic Program is part of the USDA and a certification branch deals with all of the third-party labeling organizations. The USDA does not actually do any organic certifying, that is done by organizations like CCOF, Oregon Tilth, or QAI. Instead, the USDA is the overseer.

Contrary to popular belief, organic does not mean that pesticides are not used. Basically, synthetic substances are not allowed in organic agriculture unless specifically approved under the National Organic Program and all naturally occurring substances are allowed unless specifically prohibited. As a result, some natural and synthetic pesticides are still used in organic agriculture. However, farmers must document pest management strategies and show evidence that previous methods have failed before they are allowed to use some of the stronger pesticides.

Organic farms must purchase organic seed, if available, for both food crops and cover crops. Furthermore, soil organic matter must be maintained or improved under organic management. However, the National Organic Program does not regulate labor practices; inspectors turn a blind eye to illegal labor conditions and practices since it is not part of their protocol.
The organic program also has strict regulations for compost, specifically for piles that contain animal material. For organic certification of compost piles with manure, egg shells, or other animal products, piles must reach and maintain a temperature between 131ºF and 170ºF for 15 days and be turned at least 5 times during that period. However, if the compost is going to be applied to a field that will not have crops harvested from it for more than 120 days these requirements are not necessary. The certification of organic compost is incredibly important for farms that make and use their own compost. The piles at the CASFS farm at UCSC are tested to make sure that they meet the standards.

When farms seek organic certification, there is a three year transition period from the last application of prohibited substances. During this time, it can be hard to survive economically since conventional practices are prohibited but produce still can’t garner the organic price premium. One of the most interesting things is that if gross annual sales are not more than $5,000, growers must register as organic with the state but are not required to be certified. In other words, if our on-campus garden registers, our produce can be sold as organic as long as we adhere to the organic standards without having to pay for third-party certification.

Agroecology Practicum, UCSC

This summer I wanted to learn more about gardening and agriculture in general, basically how to grow things! Early last semester I thought about interning on a farm or finding a summer educational program to take. Through both internet research and word of mouth I found the Agroecology Practicum at UC Santa Cruz. It is part of the Environmental Studies department and it is a summer course that counts for upper division credit. There are two sessions of the class; each one is five weeks long. The curriculum is a mixture of both hands-on work, in the gardens and on the farm, and classroom-based discussions and lectures. As students, we get integrated for work in the fields with the farm apprentices, who are taking a 6-month apprenticeship program that focuses on all aspects of organic farm management. The apprenticeship program seems amazing; most of the 37 or so apprentices live communally in these tent cabins and they learn about organic farming while operating this amazing on-campus educational farm. About 7 get paid to stay for a second year to help run the program. The farm is part of CASFS, the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. UCSC is one of only a few schools to have such a strong program in agroecology, which is basically the intersection of agronomy and ecology. It seeks to integrate ecological principles and phenomena with the goal of improving agricultural practices to increase yields, minimize environmental degradation, promote land stewardship and achieve long-term sustainability. I highly recommend taking the practicum and seeking other educational offerings in agroecology.

I will follow this post with others about specific topics that we've talked about in class. We've covered a ton of material so far and some of it is hard to explain without visual aids and hands-on experience but I'll try. Feel free to ask for any clarification!

Video

Here's the embedded video:

You should watch this! Emily sent it to me. Its about the relationship between climate change and agriculture around the world as well as the food system's impact on the climate. Check it out.

The Food and Climate Connection from WhyHunger on Vimeo.

Originally posted by Elissa!

A LOT of exciting news

For all of those who read this:

THE CHICKENS ARE LAYING EGGS!!!


We got the news last Monday night: Mat found the first egg, barely larger than a quarter. I still have to ask him/compare the egg to the other eggs to figure out who was the very first. We are all really excited and tonight I am making poached eggs on toast with mustard and garlic chard and swiss cheese.

In other news, there are tomatoes, corn, eggplant, melons (just starting to ripen), more summer squash, and we have one VERY large potato plant.

Here are three pictures of my dinner last night, mostly all from the garden:

Basil*, tomato*, eggplant*, zucchini* linguine with fresh Mozarella




and Corn* salad with cilantro*

Video

Sorry I don't know how to embed videos...but you should watch this! Emily sent it to me. Its about the relationship between climate change and agriculture around the world as well as the food system's impact on the climate. Check it out. If any of you know how to embed videos please repost this is a sexier way (and then tell me how you did it).

Hey Everyone!
I know it's been a LOOOOONNNGG time since we last posted, so here is an update on the garden. We have three summer garden managers Mat, Taylor, and Nick who keep the garden running. The chickens are great (we expect them to lay in the next month). We have corn AND Potatoes AND Eggplant. Instead of telling you what is happening in the garden, I'll just show you.

Ronde Nice Summer Squash (our biggest crop this year)

Strawberry Picking!

Hi everyone,

The strawberry picking excursion is on-- leaving this Thursday morning at 8:30 from the fountain.

FEAST Video

WATCH THIS!

A huge thanks to Dylan Sittig and Laura Frankel

Semester's End

Hey all,

The semester and the school year are coming to a close. This Thursday will be probably be our last formal meeting day in the garden and we'll be composting, maybe planting, and generally taking a break from studying. Come out and join us! Also, a huge thank you to everyone who came out and supported us on EARTH DAY. We sold a ton of t-shirts which will totally boost our publicity and the film screening was fun albeit a little bit depressing for me. I was able to hold on to the dvd so if anyone is interested in watching it again or for the first time let me know and you can borrow it. We'll be watching it again informally in Erdman at 7.30 this Thursday.

IMPORTANT: Thursday morning at 9.30 am in the Green Bean we are having a meeting for the leadership of FEAST. For everyone who is currently on the executive board who wants to continue in a leadership role, either be there or let me know if you have a conflict and we can figure out a time that I can fill you in over the weekend. We will be primarily discussing the internal structure of the club, clearly defining individual roles and responsibilities, discussing the expansion of the garden to our new site and outlining a plan for next semester. Please come with ideas and a clear view of any roles that you would like to take on especially if you are interested in heading one of our main improvement projects for the garden, which include working with the Marketplace to get our produce served, installing a drip irrigation system, getting a shed and a small greenhouse for the garden. BE THERE!

Next week Elissa will be leading a strawberry picking and jam making expedition so if you are done with finals early and would like to participate email back and let us know. It will be an awesomely fun time with delicious fruit!

I hope all of you are doing well and GOOD LUCK on your work and finishing out the semester! I know it's hard to find time but the Thursday morning meeting is incredibly important for the future of the club so try your best to make it!

T-shirt Printing

Here are some pictures from printing the last batch of the FEAST T-shirts of the year.

Ava did an AWESOME job!

Check this out!

These are some amazing statistics about energy consumption!

"if all the world’s 1 billion PC’s were powered down for just one night – it would save enough energy to light up New York City’s Empire State Building – inside and out – for more than 30 years!! And the amount of energy wasted by leaving the computer on overnight (across the country) is equal to 20 million tons of C02, roughly the amount produced by 4 million cars on the road!!"

from this website

EARTH DAY

Hey all,

We got a lot going on this week cause tomorrow's EARTH DAY! yay! VOTE FOR THE RENEWABLE ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY FUND AMENDMENT! (amendment #1)

For starters, there will be tons of festivities during the lunch hour tomorrow. I'm not sure if it's too late to sign up but anyone interested in cooking should definitely participate in Organic Iron Chef. We'll also have a table in the quad selling FEAST t-shirts so stop by as well. We will have composting and other garden work as usual around 4.30 then around 7.30 Tapped will be screened. If the weather's good it will be in the garden and if not, we have MOSHER 1 reserved. It's a potluck so bring some food! (preferably something easily eaten without utensils). If we're outside it might get a little chilly so maybe bring a blanket as well.

This Friday there is a free screening of the movie "dirt - A story with heart and soil" at 7 pm at the Historic Raymond Theatre 129 N. Raymond in Old Pasadena (Next door to the Armory). It is in partnership with "City of Pasadena Greening The Earth Day & Armory Family Arts Festival"


Here is some info about the movie:
Filmmakers Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow tell the story of the life-giving wonders of soil with depth and visual flair, from the Big Bang to present day. Based on the book Dirt, the Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, the film explores how environmental degradation and industrial agricultural practices are damaging one of life’s most essential elements. Author William Bryant Logan appears in the film along with such luminaries as leading global sustainability activist Vandana Shiva, Nobel Laureate and Green Belt Movement founder Wangari Maathai, TreePeople’s Andy Lipkis, physicist Fritjof Capra and many more pointing to hopeful restorative efforts under way around the world. Narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis with a music soundtrack selected by original Morning Becomes Eclectic host Tom Schnabel. DIRT! is call to action for human beings around the world to unite to literally save the earth.
Master Gardener Mark Rice will lead a community discussion following the film. Admission is free. This special Conscientious Projector event is co-sponsored by Sustainable World and EDEN (Environmental Defense of the Earth Now), Peace & Justice ministries of All Saints Church, in partnership with the City of Pasadena and The Armory Center for the Arts. For more info, contact Marty Coleman at 626.792.4941 or visit www.dirtthemovie.org .

T-Shirt Printing and EARTH DAY!

Hey all,
It's nearing the end of the semester and it's closing in our one-year anniversary as a club!! Imagine that!
We'll be meeting in the garden tomorrow for some harvesting and composting as well as caring for the chickens. We also have more t-shirts to print so we can experiment with that as well. Those can be sold for Earth Day! Hope to see you all there.

Next Thursday is EARTH DAY and we're arranging a film screening for that evening. At 7.30 pm we will be showing the movie Tapped which examines the mostly unregulated bottled water industry, its impacts on human health and how it is destroying our environment. It will be show in the garden so bring blankets, towels, beach chairs, etc. for sitting. It'll be somewhat of a potluck so feel free to bring food of any kind, preferably finger food (hors d'oeuvres and desserts that don't need utensils). That's when we'll be celebrating our one-year anniversary! BE THERE!

Olive Branches and FEAST

FEAST finally accomplished one of our primary goals: to get kids up in the garden!

This morning we partnered with Olive Branches and had about 10 awesome kids helping us out.

We did composting, plant identification and tasting, chicken playing, seed planting and even some seed transplanting. It was really relaxing to see the children running around, playing, hanging out and just being kids. I really hope this can become a permanent fixture in our garden: wouldn't it be great if we could meet every Saturday and do this?

NYT Article:Push to Eat Local Food Is Hampered by Shortage

This is one of the issues we are up against in the local food movement -- we have the momentum in terms of growing, raising animals, etc. but we don't have the infrastructure to support it. Read the article here.

Getting Settled In (for emily)

Article

Here is an interview with a young farmer who is starting a network of resources and events for young people interested in farming professionally (Giulia?).

CHICKS!

Hey guys,

Are you all ready for the CHICKS! They're gonna be moving into their new home on campus this THURSDAY! We will be meeting in the garden for our usual activities at 4.30 pm NOTE the change in time (it gets dark later with daylight savings time). It will be a fiesta so you all better be there!

In the near future there will be a whole set of new responsibilities now that we have live creatures. In addition, as the weather is getting warmer we are gonna need to water as well. So, we are setting up a rotating schedule for watering the beds each morning and the care of the chickens for each day of the week. For the chickens, we will need someone to check food and water every morning and evening. We will definitely have a thorough meeting about this before anything starts so look out for that but right now we would like to see who is interested and when you're available. To establish the schedule, we have set up an event survey on Doodle, so just enter in the days and times that would work for you.

In light of the meeting on Sunday, some exciting events are in the works so we'll keep you posted with regard to those. Hope to see you all there this Thursday!

Favas! best. news. ever. !!

breaking news:

there are beans on the fava plants!

last week we all had the sinking feeling that the plants were going to flower but not fruit. but fruit they have!

The Chicken Coop!

Tomorrow and a Weekend Meeting

Hey all,

I hope everyone had an awesome and rejuvenating break! We'll be composting, harvesting, clearing some beds, and possibly planting tomorrow at our usual 3.30 time. So come by and help out. The chicken coop is finally done so now it is just waiting for its future inhabitants to be big enough! Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures tomorrow to put them up on the blog. The coop looks pretty pro if I may say so myself and it probably has enough locks to classify as a safe!

Also, this weekend, on Sunday we will be having an e-board potluck meeting around 11 am in the garden. To anyone who has ideas to share, projects in mind, or is interested in the leadership of FEAST you should come. Please bring something yummy to eat so that we have enough to go around. Also, I hope everyone on the e-board can make it. If not make sure to let me know because if enough people have conflicts we should probably change the time. See you all tomorrow and on the weekend.

New Study

An international research team just put out one of the most comprehensive reports on the impact of the meat industry on the environment. Read the whole report here: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/march/livestock-revolution-environment-031610.html

Among the findings:

• More than 1.7 billion animals are used in livestock production worldwide and occupy more than one-fourth of the Earth's land.
• Production of animal feed consumes about one-third of total arable land.
• Livestock production accounts for approximately 40 percent of the global agricultural gross domestic product.
• The livestock sector, including feed production and transport, is responsible for about 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Fava Flowers and CSP: The first Chicken Shit Pile! Of many to come...

Michelle Obama on food deserts/childhood obesity

FINISHING THE COOP!

Hey all,

Come to the garden as usual this Thursday starting around 3.30 pm for harvesting, composting and coop building. The chicks are growing quickly and the coop is almost complete. If all goes as plans it should be done after this week!! Elissa is bringing upside-down blood orange cake as a nice treat!
Our t-shirt selling extravaganza in the quad went well last week; we made $230. We still have a lot of shirts to print and sell which we can continue to work on this semester.
Due to rain and other circumstances the trip to Ojai did not happen this past weekend but we will be going in the near future. So listen up in the upcoming weeks about it!
Unfortunately I won't be able to make it this Thursday cause I have a midterm during garden time, but I'll be there in spirit. Enjoy the blood orange cake for me!

Spring Garden

Seedsseedsseeds!

Giulia and I have both been collecting seeds when possible for the spring garden. I just got a bunch in the mail from the Seed Saver Exchange-- a website where you can find heirloom varieties of all kinds of seeds. We got a bunch of different kind of tomatoes, melons (watermelon chanterais, boule d'or), summer squash (ronde de nice)...we also want to do a lot of strawberries. Keep your eyes out for cool seeds, we'll plant as much as we can! Also, leave some suggestions in the comments section. please.

Some pictures...

Chicks!!!!!!!!!!

Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food | Video on TED.com

Gardening, t-shirts and OJAI!

Hey all,

Get excited for the chickens! They're coming soon. Get ready for this Thursday cause hopefully we're gonna finish the coop! We have composting as always and
we can do some planting as well. Also, we will be selling FEAST t-shirts on the quad on Friday at lunch from 12:30 to 1:30 in the quad. Bring ten dollars to buy one and a big smile to help get others to buy one too! All proceeds go directly to our club account...proceeds that are sorely needed! Also, anyone interested in visiting REAL LIVE organic farms in beautiful Ojai this coming Sunday should contact Elissa (echandler@oxy.edu). It will be an awesome all-day affair.

See you all on Thursday!

Trip to Ojai this weekend!

Anyone interested in visiting some real farms in Ojai this coming Sunday the 21st should contact Elissa (echandler@oxy.edu). In the meantime, here are some pictures of the farms we will be visiting: