Starting Up

Hello again!  Today I'm going to bring you up to speed on everything we've been doing out at the farm over the past couple of weeks.  I'll also show you some pictures of our beautiful farm!

We've been doing mostly prep work out at the farm lately.  Roots is brand new this year, so there was a lot that needed to be done to get the farm ready to go.  The first order of business was to build our hoop house.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with that term, a hoop house is just another name for a solar greenhouse.  We assembled our hoop house in one day with the help of several AmeriCorps volunteers and a crew from a business called Nifty Hoops.  Our hoop house is thirty feet wide and about seventy-five feet long.  It consists of a series of metal arches covered in thin plastic called polyethylene.  Here are a few pictures:

It was pretty amazing to watch a patch of flat ground turn into a complete hoop house in a few hours.  It was a tiring, hot day, but it was fun!

Once we put up the hoop, we had to start prepping it for planting.  We spent a few hours laying out the beds inside, and then we forked them out and spread compost on them.  The hoop house is part of our demo farm, except for three beds on the end that we are leasing to one of our farmers.  Once the beds were prepared, we planted cucumbers in them.  Most of them have now sprouted.  We planted several seeds together to make sure at least one would grow, so on Friday we had to go through and thin out the sprouts so they won't have to compete with each other for nutrients.  After that, we watered the plants to keep them from drying out while they are young and delicate.  

Cucumber plants before thinning

After thinning

We have also started planting potatoes.  To do that, we dug several trenches that were about six to eight inches deep.  Then we dropped in pieces of potatoes that had eyes on them.  The eyes are where the sprouts will come from.  Finally, we covered the potatoes back over with a few inches of soil.  None of them have sprouted as of yet, but we should begin to see some come up in the next few days.

We have also done a few other things around the farm to get things ready.  We have installed electric fencing around the plots, laid out more beds for melon and squash, and begun prepping the community gardening area that is adjacent to the demo farm.  Some local farmers have also been kind enough to disk and till the field for us.  We're very close to being ready to bring in the farmers and get going at full speed.  Once everything is ready we will be doing much more work caring for the plants in the demo farm, putting on workshops for the farmers, and more.  

I have really enjoyed being outside at the farm and learning a little bit about growing the produce so far.  This is something that I never pictured myself being involved in, but I am loving it!  I would definitely be interested in pursuing a career in this area after college.  I find it very interesting, and I think this program will really benefit the Lansing area.  Hopefully Roots can serve as an example for other communities to follow.

Thanks for reading!  I will write again soon!  Until then, here are a few more pictures of the farm.  Enjoy!

The community garden 

The field where the farmers' plots will be

Another shot of the field

The windmill that pumps our water from the well

Our potato trenches

The squash and melon beds

The field again

The pond behind our field

The pond and pavilion behind the field

The lane leading back to the parking area by the demo farm

Thanks again for checking out my blog!  See you next time!

About Me and My Internship

Hi!  My name is Tyler.  I will be a fourth-year student at Michigan State University in the fall.  I'm majoring in General Business Management and specializing in Environmental Studies.  With that course of study, I'm hoping to one day be a part of a nonprofit organization that is involved in sustainability or environmental stewardship work.  I've taken a step in that direction this summer by becoming an intern at a really cool program called Lansing Roots.

Lansing Roots is a brand new program created by the Greater Lansing Food Bank.  "Roots," as we like to call it, is an incubator farm project that is meant to help people in the Lansing area with limited resources start their own gardening and farming businesses.  For a small leasing fee, Roots provides participants with a plot of land and equipment.  We also provide instruction and conduct demonstrations to teach the farmers how to grow their own produce.  The farmers then take the food that they grow and sell it at farmers markets.  The goal is for the farmers to gain the knowledge and earn the money necessary to be able to one day leave and run their own farming or gardening businesses without our help.  In doing so, hopefully they can generate enough income to increase their economic well-being.

Roots will have some other great benefits in addition to helping the participants support themselves.  The farmers will be selling their produce at local farmers markets, so Lansing-area residents will have increased access to fresh, locally-grown produce.  The produce we grow at the demonstration farm will be donated to the food bank, so the food bank will benefit as well.  Another overall benefit is that the program will have a minimal environmental impact, which I will discuss further below.

You might be wondering how this internship relates to my coursework and career goals.  In a nutshell, I wanted to learn more about sustainable agriculture.  Food is a big part of the sustainability issue, and Roots is a prime example of a sustainable agriculture program.  The food will be produced with minimal use of harmful chemicals like fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.  Most of the work at the farm will also be done without mechanized equipment, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Selling the produce locally also will reduce emissions.  We will also make use of water conservation techniques like drip irrigation.  As a result, this program will have a much smaller impact on the environment than typical commercial farming operations.  Being an intern at Roots, therefore, is a great chance for me to expand my knowledge of sustainable agriculture and contribute to the betterment of the community.  My duties will include caring for plants in the greenhouse and demonstration farm, assisting with workshops for the farmers, coordinating volunteers, keeping crop and volunteer records, and more.  As a result, I will be able to develop my skills and gain experience and knowledge in a variety of areas.

I'm really excited to be a part of Roots this summer.  I think that the program is an awesome idea and will benefit the community economically and environmentally.  It will provide food to people in need and increase the availability of locally-grown organic produce.  It will also help the program participants support themselves and boost the local economy as a result.  The best part is that the program will do all if this in a manner that is friendly to the environment and sustainable.

We've been hard at work getting things started out at the farm over the last two weeks.  In my next post I will discuss some of the things we've been working on and show you some pictures of the farm.  I'm excited to see what the rest of the summer has to bring, and I look forward to detailing my experiences for you.  See you next time!

Tyler

P.S.  In the meantime, click here to visit the Greater Lansing Food Bank's page about Lansing Roots if you would like to learn more about the program.  There is a general overview as well as an FAQ page with more details about the program.  Enjoy!