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