Sprout! The Connecticut College Sustainable Food Initiative

Inspiring Story

2012-01-19T21:57:00.003-05:00

I thought that this article was very inspiring. It's about a man who observed the rain runoff patterns in the street and used harvested runoff rain water to grow a garden in the city.

http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/2008/08/23/farming-in-the-city-with-runoff-from-a-street/

Interesting Story About Sunflowers

2012-01-09T19:33:00.001-05:00

I thought that this story about Sunflowers on NPR was very interesting. Check it out.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/01/05/144695733/how-the-russians-saved-americas-sunflower

Ten Reasons to Grow Sunflowers

2011-11-03T13:40:00.001-04:00

10 Reasons to grow sunflowers

Attractive appearance

Sunflowers add beauty to your garden and are a delight to the eye.
Pollination

Sunflowers attract and provide food for pollinators such as bees and butterflies, increasing the yields of your crops.
Birds

If you do not cover the heads of the sunflowers with paper bags when they are maturing, you will get to see birds such a goldfinches performing brave acrobatic feats to pluck seeds from the sunflowers. Planting sunflowers is a great way to feed the birds.
Decontaminate Toxic Soil

Sunflowers can remove many toxic metals from the soil, such as lead, arsenic and uranium. This process is known as bioremediation. To clean the soil, grow the sunflowers, harvest all parts of the plant and bring them to a proper facility for disposal. Sunflowers were even used to remove cesium-137 and strontium-90 from a pond near the Chernobyl disaster. Plant sunflowers if soil testing reveals that your soil has unacceptably high levels of toxic metals.
Support for climbing plants

If the sunflowers are given a head start by 1-2 weeks, they can be grown as support for vines such as pole beans and cucumbers.
Edible seeds

The seeds from the sunflower can be harvested to eat as a snack. Cover the sunflower heads with a paper bag when they are nearing maturity. This will protect your crop from being eaten by the birds.
Easy to grow

Sunflowers are among the most simple and easy flower to grow. They only require 6-8 hours of full sun and well-drained soil to grow successfully, and can be grown in most regions of the world.
Allelopathic to weeds

All parts of the sunflower plant emit chemicals that are harmful to many species of weeds, but will not harm most other food crops.
Giant Sunflowers

If you want an impressive garden, certain varieties of sunflowers, grown in ideal conditions, will reach truly impressive heights. The world record for the tallest sunflower was over 25 feet tall.
Colors

Sunflowers come in more colors than just the classic yellow. Orange and red varieties are also available. Sunflowers range in color from a very dark, nearly black burgundy to a very pale, nearly white yellow. Bicolor variations also occur, such as red on the outside of the petals with a ring of yellow near the inside of the petals.

Did you know? A single sunflower is not just one flower, but 1-2 thousand flowers joined together.

The genome of the sunflower contains slightly more genes than the human genome.

A Successful Sproutfest: A Food Day Event

2011-10-24T22:01:00.005-04:00

Steamed kale being served at Sproutfest 2011

Attendees enjoy vegetarian chili, grass-fed beef chili, pasta with cabbage, sweet potatoes, whole wheat bread and pumpkin cookies.

Celebrating the harvest with some local apples.

Tonight sprout held Sproutfest, our annual autumn dinner, featuring local, seasonal foods. The meal incorporated beans, pumpkins and kale from the garden, along with other produce from local farms. Some of the selections included beef from Four Mile River Farm in Old Lyme, CT; sweet potatoes and onions from Philomel Gardens in Preston CT; cheese from Neighborly Farms of Vermont; wheat from Still River Farm in Coventry, CT; apples from Raven Hill Orchard in Maine; and butter from Wildowsky Dairy in Lisbon, CT. The meal also incorporated local eggs, maple syrup and cabbage. Many students and faculty came to the event to eat food and learn more about the sprout garden. The event was put on in collaboration with Food Day.

Gourds Galore

2011-10-14T11:52:00.004-04:00

A small gourd harvested from the garden, more photos to come soon of some of the other gourds.

Today Sprout, together with the help of the Conn College groundskeeping crew, harvested 57 gourds from the garden. Gourds, also known as calabash, have traditionally been used as water jugs, water dippers and bowls. They are now also used for decoration and to make bird houses. Gourds can be carved or painted to create artwork. The Annual Gourd Festival celebrates the many beautiful works of art that have been made with gourds. Looking at the gourds harvested from the garden, I can't help but feel impressed by their smooth, unique rounded shapes and by the different patterns and shades of green that they have on their skin. Many of the gourds are also rather large! Over the next few months, the gourds will dry and become hollow, and can then be used for bowls, containers and/or bird houses. The gourds are natural works of art that can be cherished for years. They will be for sale at harvestfest.

Fall Semester So Far

2011-10-10T21:34:00.005-04:00

A meal of fried green tomatoes and mashed purple potatoes, all harvested from the Sprout! garden.

Fall Harvest: Beans, tomatoes, a baby carrot, rosemary and corn from the Sprout! garden.

A miniature decorative pumpkin from the garden.

Purple potatoes and the last of the cucumbers harvested from the garden.

This area was where the squash, cucumber and sunflowers were growing. It has been cleared out to make way for the fall crops. Soon after this picture was taken, kale, spinach, lettuce, broccoli and cabbage were planted in this area and have now sprouted already.

The Semester So Far:

So far this semester we have had three successful workdays and one farmer's market. We have cleared out the debris from our summer crops, and planted some fall/winter crops. These fall/winter crops include kale, spinach, cabbage and broccoli. We also planted black seeded simpson, a famously cold-tolerant variety of lettuce. We have had abundant harvests of heirloom shell beans, potatoes, miniature pumpkins and winter squash. The hardshell gourds are ripening and drying on the vine and we can expect to harvest many of those soon.

The first hard frost is coming very soon, so we will be setting up a cold frame this week to protect the tender young vegetables from the frost. A cold frame is a miniature temporary greenhouse to help established crops through the cooler fall and winter months, thus extending the short Connecticut growing season. We are building ours out of bamboo poles, rocks, and clear plastic.

Our big event this semester, Sproutfest! is happening in just two weeks on October 24th. We are having the event on National Food Day. We will be serving a local dinner on campus, and giving presentations about the garden. The dinner will feature local produce, including hot soup made with beans and squash from the garden.

This week's harvest and farmer's market

2011-08-26T12:56:00.003-04:00

This is a peach tree that I planted with the help of fundraising from the farmer's market.
Heirloom corn ripening on the stalk. A bean plant is growing up the corn stalk.
This method of growing beans, corn and squash together is called the three sisters.
View of the garden from above.
One day's harvest of cucumbers and yellow squash from the garden.

Hello everyone, I'm Zoe, sprout garden manager and club president. I have been working in the garden and hosting weekly farmer's markets in CRO all summer long. This week was very fruitful for the sprout garden. I sold dozens of cucumbers and tomatoes, along with a few pumpkins, yellow squash, and zucchini in CRO yesterday. Afterwards I sold 12 pounds of cucumbers and 13 pounds of tomatoes to Harris. Earlier this week I sold 14 pounds of tomatoes to Harris, along with a few more cucumbers. The garden is producing extremely well. The weeds are getting a bit out of hand and I am looking forward to more students arriving on campus soon who can lend a hand in the garden. Hurricane Irene is fast approaching, so later today I will head out to the garden to harvest as much as I can before the storm comes. I hope that there will still be something of a garden left after the storm, though I can't have much hope that the sunflowers will stay up. Above are some pictures of the garden from the summer.

Events yo!

2011-03-03T18:02:00.002-05:00

Here are some quick little events updates in the life of Sprout...

Our first event of this semester will probably be the first weekend in April. Dana H. Freyer founder of the Global Partnership for Afghanistan will be speaking about her organization and about the impact of war on the environment in Afghanistan.

Our second event is a Farmer's Cow ice cream tasting and presentation about the Farmer's Cow cooperative and how local agriculture benefits local economies! This will be taking place in Coffee Grounds (because they order from the Farmer's Cow). We are still working on a finalized date with the guy at Farmer's Cow, but thus far, the date is tentatively the second weekend of April (8th or 9th).

The third event is Earth Fest, April 16! Sprout normally oversees the purchasing of food for the picnic. This year, we want to have a workshop on simple gardening! We are expecting to have a local farmer or Art Lerner (or both) come and do a simple demonstration of planting potted plants or something along those lines...

These events are open to the community and we are totally open to suggestions for other awesomely Sprouty events!

Spring garden planning is underway! We should be seeding plants in the green house relatively soon, which means it's seed-choosin' time!

It's been a while

2011-02-26T17:16:00.002-05:00

Hello loyal Sprout followers!

Firstly, allow myself to introduce...myself:

My name is Lizzy, and I have been deemed official blog writer for Sprout.

Secondly, we are all so terribly sorry for not updating the blog on a frequent basis..or at all really. But THAT means lots of fun updates for ya'll!

Let's get down to the goooood stuff...

Sprout had a pretty busy fall semester. Our fall harvest this academic year was mostly a LOT of tomatoes harvested at weekly workdays. In addition to the tomato explosion, we grew sunflowers, swiss chard, kale, nasturtium- all of which was sold to dining services and at a trial farmers market in our student center.

For Harvest Fest we sold Zoe’s homemade bread, homemade salsa, Celia’s crabapple butter, Anne’s delicious heart-shaped apple tarts and some of our kale and chard. It was a yummy hit!

At the end of November, Sprout hosted the Beehive Collective, a totally volunteer-based organization that uses art to speak out against issues of social and environmental injustices.

[ check 'em out>> http://www.beehivecollective.org/ ]

In preparation for the blustery winter days that I just cannot get enough of (sarcasm may be applied liberally...), Eli constructed woodframe raised beds for our hardy winter greens. We have found this to be an improvement over our past use of protective insulating plastic cold frames...the plastic covers, my friend, are blowin' in the wind...The garden is currently buried in a bit of snow, but we are making plans for what deliciousness the warmer seasons will bring!

'Tis all for now, ladies and germinating seeds. Until next time,

Lizzy

Week 10 (July 21)

2010-08-12T12:56:00.003-04:00

Double digits baby! There is about a week and a half before almost all students will be leaving campus. This is a bummer because I have been tapping into my fellow Camels. Ben Loomis has been inspiration with his garden in the front yard of Ridge 3 and has cooked a couple great meals using mostly ingredients from the garden. Alex Marcus, although graduated, has been around a bit this summer and has donated more than a few of his afternoons to help me in the garden. I have started referring to the garden as the jungle because the plants are getting so big but mainly because the weeds are getting even larger. Plus the beetles have really set into the pumpkins and watermelon. They are defoliating the plants and it is going to kill them and others if they spread.

There are a couple recipes for organic pesticides on the internet and I have read about a few. I am going to try the organic soap spray using Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap. There is a spray pump in Earth House basement that I can make the mixture in and spray on the plants.

I just got home from the Greater New London Farm to City Coalition meeting where John Turenne gave a brief overview of the document that his company Sustainable Food Systems just released detailing the food systems at three local institutions (Connecticut College, L&M Hospital and New London Public Schools) and what options they have for starting a sustainable food system. I attended the meeting as the only representative from Connecticut College. Ingrid Bushwack had handled the study but was away on vacation so she couldn’t make it. The document was sent to Ingrid but hopefully she will be so kind as to share and it can help push us forward.

Cucumbers growing up the trellis

SUPER SUNFLOWER!!

aloha,

erik

Week 9 (July 14)

2010-08-12T12:51:00.002-04:00

Pushing on..

Another week gone by in the garden and I cannot believe that the summer is almost over. More heat and little rain means a sweaty and tired Erik. I have started to notice some of the fabled squash beetles on some of the pumpkins but thankfully none on the squash plants have them. When I see them I squish the bugs and try to rub the eggs off the underside of the leaves but they are still around. Just found out that the cucurbit that volunteered up by the corn was in fact a watermelon, glad I kept it. There is one watermelon about the size of my fist and dozens of other flowers. The squash and melons that I planted are still too young and haven’t flowered but I look forward to them.

Eggplants are flowering though! There are three small eggplants that look great!

Soooo many tomatoes in the garden!! Mostly just cherry tomatoes at this point but soon I am going to be buried in tomatoes. They are however, the perfect snack while working in the garden.

Sailfest was great! I met a bunch of interesting people, gave out a ton of New London Shares cards and learned more about the programs that NL Local First has. I met Arnetia Douglas who is the treasurer of the Mitchell College Environmental Action club. This is a great opportunity to collaborate with Mitchell, something that clubs at Conn have been looking for.

Week 8 (July 7)

2010-08-12T12:47:00.003-04:00

DRY and HOT

This is another dry and hot week. I took a nice vacation home for the 4^th but have come back to a very unhappy garden. I sadly report the loss of all of the lettuce and spinach that was planted last week. My plan was to have someone who was around campus during the weekend water the garden while I was gone but they didn’t come through. I am out of lettuce and spinach seed and will have to order more.

I dragged those other hoses out from the basement and they are pretty tangled and have couple splits in the lines. I have to stretch the hoses out to get a better look at them but any parts that wont hold water anymore can be used as mock-snakes to scare off some of our rabbit friends who loooove the beans and carrots. I think that the garden has suffered from this past weekend but with some love and attention everything should come right back stronger than before.

Recently I have started talking with Art Costa, a New London resident, who organizes New London Local First as well as Greater New London Farm to City about Connecticut College’s involvement in his work. Both these groups have a bunch of great stuff going on that is trying to bring a better living environment to everyone in New London and beyond. I am going to volunteer at their table this weekend at Sailfest. Should be a fun time to see New London at its so called finest.

Week 7 (June 30)

2010-08-10T17:40:00.008-04:00

Our dry spell continues and it is more and more difficult to spend long periods of time in the garden. I am watering the garden daily in the late afternoon using a new soak hose but I have to move it regularly. There are a couple hoses in the basement of Earth house that I need to untangle so the garden can be watered over this weekend. Courtney helped plant a bunch of lettuce, swiss chard and spinach in the garden last week and there are plenty of sprouts coming up. We also have a lot of flowers on the Cucurbits. I am harvesting Arugula and Mizuna (mix of Asian greens) regularly. There has been grub or beetle damage to all of the beets and turnips I have pulled which sucks but I will just have to plant some more. I am looking forward to taking a trip home this weekend back to the roots in the Catskills (shameless plug).

Sunflowers and tomatoes along the path.

Potatoes coming along with a Cucurbit in the background.

The tomato and bok choi patch.

Swiss chard sprouts.

Aerial view.

love,

back for another

2010-06-23T19:42:00.013-04:00

welcome back for another posting on the SPROUT garden and some other randomness from yours truly.

yesterday i borrowed a weed-whacker from Jim Luce in grounds and took out all the red clover and other weeds from the NE and NW quadrants of the garden.

it is pretty incredible how large the garden is and we (i guess i should say i) really only cultivate half the space. i have also been trying to reclaim the middle area of the garden, which was being encroached upon by weeds. west of the rocks is currently occupied by bok choi, tomatoes basil and what i have recently been informed is pumpkin (it is nearly impossible for me to recognize different members of the Cucurbitaceae family). the area east of the rocks is settling and lettuce seed will be planted tomorrow with the help of Courtney Dwyer.

Courtney is an intern at the Goodwin-Niering center who is giving a couple hours of her time to help out in the garden in between her busy schedule, which includes conducting studies on CO2 emissions and trash receptacles among other things. she has a full plate for the rest of the summer and i am glad to have her help in the garden however, i cannot help but think that this is too much for one student to tackle.

regardless, there is great progress in the garden. everything is very happy (except our beans, which are suffering from a hungry groundhog) and is ready to burst with yummy veggies.

you are all probably anxious for some new pictures so enjoy!

a robin's nest i discovered on-top of the flood lights on 360. the eggs have hatched and i can hear the chicks chirping. i might venture up to capture a picture but i am nervous of what might happen

an early tomato with some pretty markings. it was tasty.

our 3 sisters row. there are beans growing at the far end.

the squash/cucumber/pumpkin/melon patch. this is after a lot of thinning too.

a young straight yellow squash.

a young hook-necked squash.

one of the bean plants pre-groundhog. imagine it without all those leaves and that is what it now looks like.

swiss chard and beans.

a panorama of the garden as you look north.

looking south.

i am pretty pooped right now but i will post again tomorrow with some of my thoughts about how the college changes over the summer when most students are off campus. it might be scandalous so keep a look out.

many thanks to kristiane huber who has picked up the torch big time on the many issues that have presented themselves within the grant process.

love,

p.s. wouldn't it be awesome if each ridge, winchester house and abbey had composting bins similar to the ones in earth and 360. just a thought for the small grant that was made available this year by the goodwin-niering center. maybe even putting in small cold frames in the front yard of apartments so veggies or herbs can be cultivated by students all year long. just shooting some ideas out there

p.p.s again i love contact so please send me silly messages or fan/hate mail. ekarwato@conncoll.edu

SUMMER '10

2010-06-15T10:31:00.004-04:00

Hey there all you beautiful people,

I, Erik Karwatowski, am going to be your friendly SPROUT! summer garden manager for this summer. Sorry for the delayed posting but I am only just getting a handle on the garden. I am really excited about this summer and I hope you are as well. The garden has already produced nearly 30 pounds of fresh greens that have been sold to Harris and I am waiting to hear back from Fiddleheads about selling our produce in the co-op.
We have corn, beans, arugula, swiss card, carrots, turnips, beets, radishes, lettuce, bok choi, potatoes, rhubarb, garlic, onions, more squash than one can imagine, tomatoes, eggplant, melons, cucumbers and any number of edible wild greens and herbs.

I have learned that it is much harder to multi-task in the garden than elsewhere. I have to focus my energy on a single task and then move onto the next otherwise I will never accomplish anything in the garden.

There are some really great projects that are going to be completed this summer that will benefit the garden. Many thanks to Michael Meade for securing funding to retrofit the gutter system on 360 to capture runoff and store it in a cistern between the garden and 360. The SPROUT! greenhouse is also ready to be assembled in the same area between 360 and the garden. My far off dream is for something like this:

That is all I have for now but I will continue to update the blog with info on the garden. Here are some pictures of the first yield and some of the progression that the garden has made.

Feel free to email me with questions about the garden or any other initiatives at Conn, ekarwato@conncoll.edu.

Peace and Love,

Erik

College Relations Video of the Sprout Garden!

2010-03-31T20:56:00.001-04:00

FRESH Work Days (Spring 2010)

2010-03-14T21:23:00.004-04:00

We have had several great work days with the FRESH New London Organization this spring helping build and install raised beds, plant seeds and bring the farm's greenhouse to life. Arthur Lerner, the head of FRESH has been very helpful in teaching us the ins and outs of community agriculture.

We have also been able to work with some of the local New London youth which has been a fun experience. We are so pleased to have the opportunity to help promote a more sustainable, self-sufficient food system in New London while also gaining valuable knowledge in the field of community-supported agriculture and food education. We are especially excited to continue work on the garden at the Winthrop Elementary School and continue developing the potential of the farm greenhouse to produce food and provide agricultural services (such as vermicomposting) throughout the year.

Weeks 9 & 10 Update

2009-08-03T20:08:00.012-04:00

Week 9

Week 10

(note the new compost area left of door, and new sign on door)

Hello All!

The harvest has been picking up these past few weeks. Snap peas, beets, pumpkins, bush beans, lettuce, arugula, dill, mint, nasturtium and various other veggies have been delivered to the dining hall. Tomatoes, potatoes and carrots are about ready to be picked. The straw mulch I laid a few weeks ago has been helping with the weeds, but many weeds are able to grow through it, especially the japanese knotweed. I talked to Jim Luce, Conn's Grounds Supervisor, and he proposed a weed-suppressing black plastic instead of the mulch. It is something to consider for next year, and after constant weeding I am willing to try anything.

Another great haul!

Jim and I have also been discussing plans for a hoop house (instead of the greenhouse idea) as a place for Sprout! to start its plants and grow cold-weather crops throughout the year. This is a structure that looks like a cylinder sliced down the middle, with a row of PVC hoops covered by a plastic sheet. A 20'x50' house (adding 1,000 sq. feet to the garden!) would give us plenty of space to begin all of our crops, which would make the entire process of starting and transplanting crops more organized. In the past, we used the Arboretum's greenhouse, but space is limited there and things get complicated. I feel like a hoop house is a lower-cost option that can be conveniently placed directly west of the garden, with a slight hill as a NW wind buffer. Stay tuned for what happens next!

Unfortunately the groundhog problem has not been resolved, and he has eaten most of my beans. Here is a before and after shot of what they've up to:

Before

After

As you can see, groundhogs prefer the tender young leaves at the top of the plant. I've been looking into an electric fencing system in addition to other methods to keep them out...

Hogs are shy and avoid humans, so hopefully a scarecrow will do the trick.

Insects continue to be a problem as well. I've noticed some defoliation on cucurbits due to japanese beetles and mexican bean beetles. I've noticed more and more japanese beetles, and less mexican bean beetles. Stinkbugs, striped cucumber beetles and root-boring insects (of which I have yet to identify) are also making an impact. Many turnips had been damaged beyond repair by these boring insects. They look like centipedes, are about an inch in length and are dark brown. I see them all over and they took out many turnips (which are all harvested by now).

Aside from basic garden management, I've made a sign for the garden's door, constructed a compost bin in front of the garden that will hopefully fill up a bit more and cleared the "pumpkin patch" as I've been calling it. This was an area overgrown with pumpkin plants that had started overcrowding everything else. College Relations also contacted me last week to make a short video about the garden for the college's website. I will try to post the video on the blog when it is available (or I'll post a link at least).

The cleared "pumpkin patch" and the resulting harvest.

I've also been getting off campus a bit. I visited local farmer and author Peg Moran at her spread in Stonington, CT to see what she's doing. She cultivates only a 1/3 acre (a bit larger than our garden) yet operates a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) with ten clients. She's writing a book titled One Acre Plus, describing her experience as a small farmer and how she does it. I don't want to say much more about it because I don't have any more details, but she's a fascinating person and hopefully Sprout! will maintain the connection. She spoke at an event this spring in Coffee Grounds.

I'm still working with New London Farm 2 City Coalition and FRESH New London, and I'll update you with any developments. That's it for now.

-Eli

Week 8 Update: 7/20/09

2009-07-20T20:46:00.010-04:00

Hey Everyone! This is Eli, the new garden manager for the rest of the summer. I apologize for the blogging dry-spell, but I did not have a camera until now. The garden is coming along, and there has been plenty of sunshine in the past two weeks so everything is really taking off.

It has been a very busy two weeks for me. I tilled the areas where weeds had taken over and planted all sorts of vegetables. The area near the tree is now growing kale, mizuna, dwarf peas and pole beans. I've also planted beds of nasturtium, amaranth, purple beauty pepper, dwarf sunflower, spinach, carrot, oregano, parsley and cilantro in places that weren't producing much. My goal is to bring 80% of the garden up to cultivation, with 20% fallow (where we will plant late-season cover crops later in the summer). I've been laying "Mainely Mulch" all around the garden. It's a sterile mix of straw and hay that will suppress weeds, retain moisture and fertilize the soil. I don't think I want to keep up with the weeds manually, so this will be very helpful.

The newly planted area of the garden. Herbs in the foreground, vegetables behind.

Speaking of weeds, I've started a campaign against the weeds surrounding the garden. With the help of a machete, a hedge trimmer provided by the wonderful Arboretum staff and old carpeting, the inexorable advance of invasive japanese knotweed has been temporarily broken. Groundhogs, mexican bean beetles and japanese beetles have been the major pest problems, but hopefully I'll get some good prevention tips from New London agricultural extension agent Susan Munger in a meeting on Friday.

Improvised weed suppression.

My ultimate goal for the carpeted area is to plant some native shrubs and groundcovers to keep the knotweed out. I've also been talking to a few student sculptors at Conn about some outdoor sculptures in this area, which could happen at any time. Email us at ccgarden@gmail.com if you're interested in this project.

I've also planted four berry bushes and two fruit trees; blueberry, blackberry, two raspberry, a semi-dwarf granny smith apple and a semi-dwarf peach (semi-dwarf means that a dwarf tree was grafted onto a non-dwarf stem, therefore making a hybrid that will grow to about six feet). Hopefully these plants will attract insect-eating birds and provide delicious fruit.

Frost Peach

Granny Smith Apple

(Left to right: Raspberry, Raspberry, Blueberry, Blackberry)

Aside from work in the garden, I have been working with local groups that share Sprout!'s goals of providing local, organic and healthy foods to New Londoners. I have been volunteering at Fiddleheads Food Cooperative in New London, working with FRESH New London on their one-acre farm in Waterford and attending New London Farm 2 City Initiative meetings to represent Connecticut College as a stakeholder in the New London food system. These organizations are all doing great work in New London. Stay tuned for more updates!

-Eli

Fourth of July Update

2009-07-04T12:57:00.004-04:00

The plants really appreciated that there was finally some sun this week, although of course it still rained a lot!

There are so many flowering squash plants. And, some baby zucchini, as well. The corn and tomato plants have really grown since last week; the sun did them a lot of good. The pepper plants also seem to have finally started growing, although they are still pretty small. Some more beets, chard, and arugula have sprouted as well.

Beets, Scallions, and a a flowering nasturtium

The peas and beans are still struggling after having been mostly eaten by a woodchuck which chewed through the fence. I've put up some metal fencing along the areas where it chewed through the most until we we can buy fencing to go around the whole perimeter.

Squash beetles and cucumber beetles are still the biggest problems in terms of bugs in the garden. However, they haven't done any really serious damage, and I have gotten many of their eggs as well.
I have seen the bees buzzing all around the garden, pollinating all of the squash flowers that are now blooming. I also have spotted many butterflies.

We are going to start getting coffee grounds from Catering, which will be great for composting and the soil.
The rainwater collection on 360 is on a temporary hold because I could not find one place that sells rain barrels in the New London area. Instead, Kristiane is going to look for two barrels up where she is and bring them down next time she visits.

Turnips

And after today, Eli will be taking over for me. I''ve really enjoyed all the time I've worked in the garden, and happy Fourth of July!

SO MUCH RAIN!

2009-06-23T16:23:00.010-04:00

It has been raining all week again. Just to give everyone an idea, average rainfall in New London for the month of June is 3.91 inches. So far, we have had 5.94 inches of rain, and there has been recorded precipitation everyday except one since June 8th. And, there is already rain predicted for the rest of this week, and next week. It's barely gone above 65 either, and it has gotten as cold as 37. Very strange weather indeed, and the plants are growing pretty slowly. But they are growing, especially plants in the squash family. We even have our first zucchini flowers!

The herbs have sprouted in the herb garden! I was worried the constant rain would wash the very tiny seeds away, but a lot of the seeds actually stayed put and are now growing.

The bees are doing great, and all four hives are producing honey. According to Mr. Woronecki, the first honey should be able to be harvested in 4 to 6 weeks.
We are also setting up a rainwater collection system on the gutters of 360! That should be done by next week.
I worked with the campus sustainability intern, Sally, last week in the garden. Hopefully she will be helping out more in the coming weeks.

Summer Update 2

2009-06-15T21:52:00.008-04:00

A lot has been happening in the Sprout garden! For one, we have bees on campus! They were moved to the north end of the garden last week. I've spotted many buzzing all around and in the garden. Tomorrow, I am going to be getting a closer look at them with Stuart Woronecki, who moved the bees to campus.

Many more vegetables have been planted in the garden. This includes more beets, carrots, butternut squash, kale, onions, basil, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and sunflowers. It has been raining almost every other day, and the plants are growing quickly. We've been getting daily harvests of absolutely delicious strawberries.

I also have dug and planted an herb garden around the rocks in the center of the garden. There are many types of herbs including sage, rosemary, lemon balm, lemon grass, chamomile, just to name a few. However, it was a little late to direct seed herbs, but hopefully we will still get at least some mature herbs later in the season.

Pests, especially cucumber beetles, are still causing a lot of damage to zucchini and cucumber plants. Also, I saw today that the tops of a few plants, especially the peas and beans, had been chomped off. I discovered a few places where some animal has chewed its way through the fence. The workers who are renovating 360 and Earth House told me they have seen a wood chuck in the garden. For now, I covered holes with big rocks, although I think we are going to need a more permanent solution than that.

Besides just working in the garden, I will also be meeting with Physical Plant later this week to discuss the possibility of modifying the gutters on 360 and Earth House in order to setup a rainwater collection system. Given they are already doing construction on these buildings now, it seems like a perfect time to set this up. I also hope to focus more on making contacts off of the Conn campus and in New London later in the week. We may even have enough mature produce to sell at Fiddleheads this coming Saturday, as the turnips, radishes, and bok choy are looking almost ready for harvest.

Zucchini, bok choy, and turnip plants

First Summer Update!

2009-06-03T22:57:00.006-04:00

Over the past week, the garden has been growing extremely fast. Many seedlings, including beets, chard, various lettuces, shallots, and carrots, have sprouted and are looking healthy. Also the turnips, peas, and bok choy are doing extremely well. There are a lot of volunteer zucchini plants all over the garden. And, we have really delicious looking strawberries, some of which are even starting to ripen!

Clearing out the weeds and digging up beds has been keeping me really busy. I have cleared out and dug up almost the entire middle section, and I am almost finished clearing an area to dig an herb garden around the rocks. I have also checked out the seedlings that were started in the greenhouse, and all of the trays look very healthy. Most recently I got the tomatoes and peppers in the ground. I will be getting more plants from the greenhouse in the ground over the next couple of days including more tomato, onions, kale and eggplant.

Flats with very healthy tomato plants, and bean plants in the background

There have been many good and bad bugs flying all around the garden. So far, the only pest that has been any real trouble is the cucumber beetle. Yesterday I spent a long time picking off cucumber beetles and eggs, there were quite a few eating the squash plants.

We have a great crop of radishes, which will be sold to both Catering and the Dining Hall. Also, the word is that honeybee hives will start being moved onto campus tomorrow, which is extremely exciting!

A Big Workday May 8th

2009-05-09T16:55:00.010-04:00

The labors were intense, but the outcome victorious!

Friday, the last day of classes, provided enthusiastic sunshine for enthusiastic farmers. We planted a good number of beds with squash, cucumbers, beans and peas, but the bulk of the work done was putting the fence back up with a new and improved experimental ground-hog deterrent system (it made us feel good to dig trenches and weigh down the fence with bricks before covering the whole thing over with soil and rugs, anyway. I'm sure the groundhogs were watching and snickering).

the big boss directing his labor force

We also had large machinery come to our aid, operated by Mike, a stalwart grounds employee who spent a few hours of the afternoon in the backhoe lifting the boulders out of our garden. Thanks, Mike!

Eli working hard while Mike & the backhoe make quick work of the boulders

Everyone taking a break to observe the heavy machinery

We also attacked the knotweed and transplanted raspberry bushes!

"call me Stephen scissor hands" taking out the knotweed!

A big thanks to who came out and put in great work on a beautiful day!

Earth Fest!

2009-04-21T14:55:00.002-04:00

Saturday, April 18th, Sprout was out in force representing organic agriculture at the annual Earth Fest on Knowlton green. Locals, faculty and students alike were out enjoy the environmental vendors and activities on a blazing spring day. Sprout took orders for our highly-sought after artistic organic cotton t-shirts and sold baked goods and tea from last year's crop. Feastable tickets were also up for sale, but people were not biting! We've got to step up our advertising and get people to invest in tickets for this amazing day of local food, speakers, and creative hands-on activities! Thanks to all who helped table!

be my honeybee

2009-04-15T21:51:00.007-04:00

Sprout field trip to Stuart Woronecki's honeybee farm

Sunday, April 29th, Sprout members braved the backroads of Connecticut to be initiated into the world of beekeeping with music professor Stuart Woronecki at his farm in Hanover. We drove in through the old stone wall, greeted by two dogs and a fleet of children. Stuart had just driven up from Georgia the day before with 60,000 bees to replenish his hives. We had the opportunity to help him transfer them from the travel boxes into the hives he had prepared. Everyone (even the more timid members of our group) got a chance to place the queen bee's sugar-capped cage into last year's honeycomb inside the hive, and with a sharp tap to gather the sleepy bees at the bottom of the box, slip off the cover and flip it upside down over the opening into the hive. Bees were swarming around us constantly, buzzing close but rarely making contact. It made a comfortable, low hum in the air while tried to handle the bees as smoothly as Stuart (he learned in his youth from his neighbor, an elderly man born in 1896!). As the day warmed up and more bees started getting active we backed away from the hives and Stuart and his son donned protective suits to keep working. He also showed us the honey room in the barn where the culmination of all this activity is harvested. The details of bees' lives are fascinating-- here are a few facts we learned from Stuart:

*A queen bee's natural life cycle is 3-4 years, while the worker bees only live an average of 2-3 weeks (except in the fall, when the queen bee feeds her workers a different hormone and most of them live through the winter!)

*The queen emits a strong pheremone which quickly permeates the hive and all of the bees within. They can smell her particular odor on each other to know who's family and who's not. If the queen bee dies without a replacement the bees will find a new hive. If the hive gets too large the queen bee will nurture another queen and the hive will split into two.

*The queen only mates once in her life, then stores the semen to fertilize new larvae at will.

*Bees are a very 'hygienic' insect--they will clean their own hives and eject the unwanted debris.

the hives!

*When they collect nectar they mix it with an enzyme before depositing it in the wax honeycomb. It's very liquidy at first and must evaporate until there is almost no water content. The water is evaporated by the heat that the bees produce in the hive, easily reaching temperatures of 110 degrees on warm days.

*Beekeepers know when the honey is ready to be harvested because the bees cover over the comb with a wax seal. Then the honeycomb slats are put in the 'honey-spinner' where the centrifugal (or is it centripetal?) force extracts the honey and it is drizzled into jars.

a honeycomb slate

*100 hives (the number Stuart keeps) can produce six to sevent thousand pounds of honey every summer!

*The reason very young children are warned against eating honey is because it contains trace amounts of botulism.

*Honey is sometimes used as an antibiotic because of its dessicant properties.

We lingered on the lawn, drinking in the sunny day and the exuberant chickens sprinting across the grass. The call of schoolwork sounded distant behind the hum of the honeybees. We reluctantly said our goodbyes.

As soon as the flowers start blooming Stuart will be transporting two hives to the northern border of the Sprout garden! (We finally got the official go-ahead from Ulysses Hammond) so they will be pollinating our garden all summer and producing honey! Zoe will be working with Stuart over the summer to make sure the queens are happy and all is well in the hives.

Sugar Maple Tapping Begins!

2009-03-03T10:24:00.003-05:00

It is time. For the second year, Sprout! has begun to tap sugar maple trees on campus in order to make our own, home-collected, maple syrup. This past week, four Sprout! members, Ian Phillips, Stephen Rossiter, Hans Eysenbach, and Eric Dooley-Feldman covered the CC campus scouting out new and old sugar maples to tap. So far five trees have been tapped and we are gathering more supplies to expand our production. After we collect enough sap, we will boil it down to make our very own Sprout! maple syrup. Yum!

Real Food Summit 2009

2009-03-03T10:09:00.003-05:00

Wow! What a weekend! February 21st and 22nd marked the second annual Real Food Summit, sponsored by the Real Food Challenge. The Real Food Challenge is a nation-wide campaign and network aimed at offering students the chance to make connections and learn from one another how to increase the amount of fair, local, and organic food on their campuses. This past weekend was full of a variety of workshops and speakers addressing topics such as farm worker rights, food bill policies, sustainable dining systems, recycling of organic waste, and much, much more. Sprout! brought 9 members to the event, one short of the max per school. All of us were extremely excited to meet such passionate, like minded students, and look forward to the event next year!

Nearing The Big Cold

2008-12-08T17:01:00.003-05:00

We're making our way through the transition to the cold season. We planted the rest of the garlic and lined the outsides of the coldframes with mulch for added insulation. Unfortunately, we had lost some arugula the week before when a cold snap penetrated the coldframes. Double-layers of plastic are in order, although they would have been too hot earlier in November!
Planning is in action to bring honey-bees to campus, and it's looking promising! On another successful note, we have received approval to sell food at Fiddleheads next fall!
In the interest of celebrating food, hard work and good company, we held a Sprout dinner for our own in Earth House. As you can see by the wide smiles a good time was had by all and we'll be holding another shindig next semester.

Garden Update

2008-11-03T19:34:00.003-05:00

This Sunday we ripped out the last of the eggplants and the peppers. We also planted some more mizuna, spinach, and tatsoi (which we were so kindly given the seeds of from Tobacco Road Farm last weekend). We also set up three more cold frames, which are looking better and better each time. Bring on the frost!

Winter Growing Workshop at Tobacco Road Farm

2008-10-28T09:31:00.005-04:00

Last Sunday, some of our sprout members had the wonderful opportunity to visit and be given an interactive tour of Tobacco Rd. Farm, which was sponsored by NOFA CT. It was an unbelievably beautiful and inspiring. We were not only given some seeds for our garden, but learned some incredible organic gardening techniques that we can apply to our garden. Below is a brief recap of some of the information we picked up:

use high quality compost with significant worm activity
when testing soil, one's best bet is to add nitrogen to the soil to improve its fertility
tilled beds with mulch filling are best for keeping a successful winter crop
when covering crops with plastic, use a double layer (if one layer is damaged, the other will protect it) and after it rains, recover and vent the ends
covering crops with a plastic tunnel can create an atmosphere that is 35 degrees warmer on a sunny day and about 5 degrees warmer in the evening
even when it snows, the plastic tunnel will survive the elements by becoming a quasi-igloo for the crops
chickens are wonderful for eating crop residue and providing nutrients for garden soil
bare soil is not good, it is best to cover it with mulch, greens, or cover crop
first cut hay has lots of grass seeds and cannot be used with slow growing crops (such as onions or leeks)
insects and disease are usually a product of the soil
lettuces are least productive over winter, it is best to seed in early December for a Spring Harvest along with beets and carrots
dandelion and garlic are great winter crops (low maintenance)
liquid nutrients include: raw milk, maple syrup, liquid kelp, and molasses
wasps aid in pest (caterpillar) control by feeding on flowering and killing caterpillars in the spring brassicas
to curb the flea beetle problem, over-wintered brassicas so they can become more resistant and save the seeds & don't seed when the plant should be flowering or the problem will be perpetuated
only seed broccoli or cabbage after the summer solstice
most importantly, keep crops in their natural system

Harvestfest

2008-10-28T09:21:00.006-04:00

This past Harvestfest weekend was quite a success for us. We sold Misha's home-made strawberry-rhubarb jam, Sprout! organic cotton t-shirts, tea & herb bundles from the garden, and baked goods to the Connecticut College community, making over $ 1,300! If you weren't able to make it, we will be ordering more t-shirts and selling our tea at the Blue Camel Café. Send us an email at sprout@conncoll.edu if you are interested in ordering a shirt.

BRUMALIA!

2008-10-27T11:56:00.001-04:00

October 18th marked the first ever Brumalia, a fall festival organized by a collection of environmentally oriented clubs and organizations on campus, including REC, Spokespeople, SAVE, and SAC. Sprout! organized and prepared a local, organic, and delicious dinner for the event. The meal included soup from New London restaurant Mange Tout, grilled veggies and mashed potatoes from White Gate Farm in East Lyme, a pasta dish from Pauls Pasta in Groton, home-baked goods from Earth house, and hot cider from Clyde's Cider Mill in Mystic. Over 160 people were served at the event!

After the dinner, an amazing evening music, fire-juggling, step-dancing followed. Thanks to everyone who helped make Brumalia such a success!

2008-10-04T11:39:00.001-04:00

Preparing for Fall & Winter Crops

2008-10-04T11:27:00.004-04:00

This week we cleared the back quadrants of the garden (harvested 20 pounds of remaining potatoes) and planted winter rye for cover crop. We also harvested the tomatoes, which are struggling as fall approaches. The tomatillos are fairing a bit better, and we except to have a few more tomatillo harvests. We also placed Irish Spring Soap on the garden fence and sprayed a concoction egg, spoiled milk, and cinnamon around the garden periphery in hopes to deter curious and hungry deer from entering the garden.

Garden Update

2008-09-22T14:07:00.006-04:00

We had another beautiful day in the garden on Sunday. Things are looking much changed from only a couple weeks ago. We've been pulling out many summer plants and putting in new ones for the Fall and Winter. We are planting many lettuces and cover crops for the colder seasons, expanding on our selection from last year.

Though it may be officially Fall, we are still harvesting Summer crops like tomatoes, peppers, and many others. We've been delivering to Dining Services and also to Catering for events that they have been holding this school year.

We've got many other projects on the horizon. Stay tuned right here for updates.

4th Annual Sproutfest! featured on CC webpage

2008-09-20T14:30:00.005-04:00

Click on the title above to see an article about Sproutfest! on the college's webpage. Stephanie Blennerhassett '11 is featured in the article about our event this past Thursday.

The event was a tremendous success. Many faculty and staff attended. It was orchestrated by Steph, a chair of Sprout, and she was aided by many Sprout members eager to help cook.

All attendees greatly enjoyed the hors d'oeuvre offerings, many asking for recipes. After eating, Misha Johnson, Eric Dooley-Feldman, and Steph gathered attendees to tell them about Sprout. And afterward a tour of the garden was given.

September is in full swing!

2008-09-09T10:06:00.003-04:00

Greetings. All is well here at the Sprout! In the first two weeks, weeks since the beginning of school we have done a tremendous amount in the garden and are now working on a host of different projects outside of the garden. Students are showing up in larger numbers and with more interest than ever. We had almost 50 people at our first meeting last week and almost 20 at our workdays, which is tremendous. We are now working to form into subcommittee/work-groups to better tackle all of these projects that we have.

In the garden we've been doing a lot of weeding and harvesting. And now we are going to start pulling plants and putting more emphasis on Fall and Winter crops such as peas and lettuces. Luckily Hurricane Hanna wasn't as bad as predicted this past weekend, so there was no severe damage to crops. The majority of the damage came to the sunflowers.

Workday #1: What a great day!

2008-08-31T17:25:00.003-04:00

Today was incredible to say the least. We had a great crew come out for the tour and garden workday. We worked for a couple hours and harvested over 40lbs of vegetables (our largest amount ever), and we were able to weed and organize many other areas of the garden. We did so much in just two hours. It makes a huge difference when we have a large group out there. Great work!

If you weren't able to make this workday, have no fear. We have workdays multiple times every week, and I'm usually out there every day of the week, if you want to stop by. We'll keep you updated through emails about wordays etc.

Back to School Update!

2008-08-26T11:15:00.005-04:00

Welcome back Sprout!

The garden is in full swing at the moment. We're harvesting more than ever. Almost every day we've been delivering some assortment of tomatoes, squash, basil, parsley, and cucumbers with MANY MORE fruits on the way! We're still going after the woodchucks, insect pests, and powdery mildew, but the garden looks very happy!

We have many events lined up including one today. A Learning Lunch hosted by Sprout!, Dining Services, and the Health Peer Educators. It is at 12:45 in the 1973 Room in Harris. Come to learn about your resources for food on and off campus as well as tips for eating healthy. There will be more events like this coming up this semester.

The New London Farm-to-City Initiative had its second meeting last week. With another great attendance we were able to keep our momentum going. We have set up a website http://nlfarm2city.weebly.com and now a Google Group to serve as a central point for our information gathering and communication. If you would like to get involved or have questions about this initiative please email sprout@conncoll.edu.

New London Farm-to-City Forum #2

2008-08-16T11:41:00.003-04:00

The initiative will be having our second meeting this coming Wednesday at 6pm at the New London Public Library. We had a tremendously successful meeting in July and we're very excited to keep this momentum going into our next meeting.

Click here to check out our newly constructed website for more information about this initiative and our next meeting.

2008-08-05T19:32:00.000-04:00

Jiǔcài (Garlic Chives)

2008-08-05T11:40:00.006-04:00

On Monday, Aug 4, 2008, I planted Garlic Chives, also known as jiǔcài, Chinese chives, Chinese leek, and ku chai. The scientific name is Allium tuberosum. The plant has straight thin leaves that are some where between garlic and onion leaves. It gives off a very distinct smell, and in its adult hood tends to be very fiberous.

Jiǔcài is used in many chinese dishes, dumplings, soups, chinese pancakes, fish, chive pockets, fried dishes, because of its distinct flavor.

David Wu
Assistant Gardener
Enviromental Sustainability Intern
Goodwin-neiring Center

Week 9 Update

2008-08-01T12:32:00.007-04:00

The garden is looking great right now. We finally had strong rains this past weekend. It probably totaled a handful of inches. I haven't had to water all week.

The woodchucks are not gone. I found another one in there yesterday eating the kale, which had been starting to recover. The traps are still set and I also have the surveillance camera still set up to see when the animals come in, and if there are deer.

Vegetables now going to Harris: radishes, turnips, tomatoes, watermelon, peas, beans, cucumbers, summer crookneck squash, zucchini, basil, parsley, and nasturtium flowers. More coming soon!

Clockwise from top left: purple podded peas, a sunflower and potatoes, cherry tomatoes, onion.

The New London Farm-to-City Forum on Wednesday night went very well. We had over 30 people show up from all of the stakeholder groups that we were hoping for. We had very productive discussions and advice from CitySeed as well. We will be posting more information including a video of the meeting soon.

3 Squirrels, 4 Skunks, and 4 Woodchucks: Pest Update

2008-07-29T23:20:00.006-04:00

Things are going better in the pest management department...

Big Critters: as you see from the title I have been catching larger critters, that have been voraciously eating the garden. Now things are starting to grow back quickly...I have also been generously loaned a motion-sensing camera from the Arboretum so that I can catch a picture of any animal eating night or day. I have a theory that there are deer eating the garden but have yet to find tracks. Image above of woodchuck in a Have-a-Heart trap.

Insects: While there are many beneficial insects in the garden, there are also many non-beneficial insects. While the Cucumber Beetles, Colorado Potato Beetles, and Flea Beetles are very few in number because their eggs were gotten rid of before hatching. Stink Bugs and Bean Beetle larvae are the worst right now; they have hatched over the last couple weeks and aren't doing any permanent damage, but need to be taken care of before they take over...They love the Curcurbits (cucumbers, pumpkins, squash). See images below: large image is some of the worst damage, then below on the left are newly hatched stink bugs, and on the right a bean beetle in larva form.

New London Farm-to-City Forum

2008-07-29T15:48:00.007-04:00

Time: Wednesday July 30th at 6pm

Location: 1941 Room in Cro

Questions to: sprout@conncoll.edu

Re-New London Council, a New London-based non-profit, and Sprout!, the sustainable food initiative at Connecticut College have partnered to provide a forum for the creation of an alternative local food system for the New London area.

This is a preliminary meeting. No commitment is required from any of the attendees.

At this meeting we will be discussing different ways that we might achieve a more local and sustainable food system for the greater New London area, including Connecticut College. We hope that many farmers, institutions, businesses, restaurants, consumers, and any other groups or individuals interested in this goal will attend and be able to contribute valuable ideas and advice on how we might proceed.

CitySeed of New Haven will also be speaking on their experience at this event. http://www.cityseed.org/

I hope to see you there!

Week 7 Update: Harvests, Pests, and Sunshine

2008-07-15T17:52:00.006-04:00

Harvests are starting to move into full swing at this point. I've been making deliveries several times a week for the last couple of weeks. I am now delivering: kale, amaranth, basil, and nasturtium flowers. See picture below of today's delivery baskets...(clockwise from top: kale, basil, amaranth)

Many more things are going to be coming soon. Cucumbers, zucchinis, beans, peas and tomatoes are all coming along very rapidly. The weather has been very dry for the last few weeks. I don't think we've gotten a really good soaking in quite a while. Luckily we have irrigation, so as you can see in the top photo, things are still green and flourishing...But it is always good to keep in mind the rains. In my mind, nothing is as good as a strong rain.

The real problem at the moment is that there is an animal(s?) eating a bit of almost every plant in the garden. This problem has been persisting for a while. I believe I first mentioned it in the last blog post. No plant has died, but many are now stunted. I now have two Have-a-Heart traps set, and so far I have caught two squirrels and one skunk with apples and peanut butter. My encounter with the skunk was little unnerving, but as you'll see below, I put it under a sheet so it could not spray me (advice from Jim Luce).

I've been shoring up the fence to make sure deer and others stay out. It's a difficult task (I wish I had a surveillance camera with night vision so I could see what keeps eating at the garden).

That's all for now. I will soon be posting about projects I'm working on outside of the garden.

Be well,

Misha

Week 5 Update

2008-07-01T10:06:00.004-04:00

Things are looking great in the garden. We had a period of cooler weather with rain almost daily for a couple weeks and that really helped a lot of the plants get going. The plants are all thriving. Even the flea beetle-attacked eggplants are coming back to life. The number of insect pests seems to have subsided, though I think some larger critters are starting to find the garden, so I'm in the process of inspecting the fence.

David Wu, a rising sophomore, started last week as the Summer Sustainability Intern through the Goodwin-Neering Center. He will be helping me a few days a week in the garden. Last week We emptied both Earth Tubs and brought the compost over to the garden to cure. The compost is looking much better than the first two batches. We are definitely getting better at making compost, which is great news. Compost is ESSENTIAL to sustainable agriculture...Speaking of which, I've also been spreading the horse manure that we received around the garden to fertilize plants.

Weeding is constant in the garden. Since much of this area is virgin soil, there are years and years of weed seeds that have built up here, so I'm constantly cleaning things out. But as our plants have grown in size and volume it has become less of a problem because they can now outcompete (for light) the small weeds.

I have also been delivering kale to Dining Services. It is our first ready vegetable this year, and soon we should have others as well. I have noticed a few cherry tomatoes that have popped up and will soon ripen, and many others are on their way.

----------------

Outside of our garden I have been working on many things. I'm working with CC Curtiss, to create an educational campaign for the Fall around food and nutrition. I've also been working with Professor Sue Warren of the Biology Department on a Freshman Seminar that she is teaching entitled "Healthy Choice."

I'm also working on ways to bring more local, organic, fair trade, and healthy foods to the campus. I've been meeting with community members, farmers, and Dining Services to work on this. I will keep you updated on any progress.

I went and worked at the FRESH New London Garden at the Waterford Country School this Sunday. They have a beautiful campus and farm that I recommend you all to check out. FRESH is growing quite a lot and gets help from community volunteers. They can always use more help though, so if you're in the area or perhaps when you return to school, ask me and I can put you in contact with them. You can also check out their website here.

That's all for now. Happy Independence Day!

Misha

Sprout! featured in The Day (New London Newspaper)

2008-06-24T10:32:00.005-04:00

Click here to read the article.

CC Alumnus visits garden, brings horse manure, and dryer drum method

2008-06-23T16:15:00.012-04:00

Below is an account of Rob Freeman '95's visit to the garden. Included in the end is some general advice from him about farming and/or buying local produce in your area. He also recommends some readings and places for further research. This dryer drum method of his was recently featured in NOFA's newsletter as well. It was a pleasure to have him come visit and bring valuable advice about farming in this area as well as some delicious and nutritious horse manure!

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On June 21st, 2008, Rob Freeman CC '95 who is now an organic farmer in Plainfield, Connecticut, brought a truckload of horse manure and a dryer drum to the garden.

Rob showed me his "dryer drum" method of making raised beds. A dryer drum is a bottomless barrel salvaged from dead clothes dryers. It is a method for doing French double digging in a

more efficient way. It was also partially inspired by the old Thanksgiving

story about Squanto teaching the Mayflower Pilgrims how to grow corn, squash and beans in the mounds with the fish buried in the mound. It begins with digging a hole that approximately the diameter of the dryer drum, only about 3 to 6 inches below the ground. Shovel the dirt into a wheelbarrow or into a pile next to the hole. Put the dryer drum in the hole, and refill the drum with a mixture of the native soil and horse manure, or whatever soil amendments you may have. Then stand on the filled dryer drum to pack it down, as Rob is doing here:

Then pull the dryer drum off:

At this point you have a mound. You smooth out the mound, and you can make a water trapping "bowl" if you like:

And then you have a very nice planting mound. Here I am planting kohlrabi seeds that Rob brought.

Rob has collected a half dozen dryer drums and he fills several at once in a line, and then rakes the mound into a raised bed.
Rob has found that using a rototiller or a tractor makes for "disturbed" soil that doesn't hold moisture as well and requires more frequent additions of soil amendments. Soil is a living thing, and running over it with machines and "beating it into submission" reduces it's quality and sustainability. French double digging with dryer drums is a slow process, but it only needs to be done once every few years, and after the first time you get all the garbage and roots and rocks out. The dryer drum method is a good way to fold in amendments such as horse manure while turning the soil. Be sure to have walking paths in between the raised beds, and to put hay or grass clippings on the beds once the plants are established. A mulch of hay or grass clippings suppresses weed growth and holds in moisture.

If you decide that you want to grow your own food, Rob says you need about 2000 square feet per person. He recommends fingerling potatoes, kohlrabi, heirloom winter squash, heirloom tomatoes (save the seeds!), beets, bush beans, pole beans, pickling cukes, peppers, eggplant, hazelnut bushes, grape vines, paw paw trees, Asian pear trees, gooseberry, currant, blueberry and blackberry bushes and strawberries, and onions and garlic. The garlic can be started from bulbs, the onions work best when started from started plants. He gets his onion plants from www.dixondalefarms.com

Rob feels that one should get to know farmers in your area by buying stuff from them, even if it's just a dozen eggs or a bale of hay. Also you can join the organic farming association. Here in New England it's NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association which is at www.nofa.org. Horse farms usually want to get rid of their horse manure. It helps to have a pickup truck or know someone who does, but if you don't, Rob recommends renting a dump truck for a weekend and make several manure runs. Also he recommends collecting your neighbors' bagged leaves and pile them up, and put a layer of horse manure on top of them and let it sit a year. The leaves will heat up under the manure and rot into a nice, reddish soil. After this, you do the double digging method with the dryer drum and mix the amendments with the native soil into nice mounds and/or raised beds.

Lastly, Rob feels that growing your own food is a way to get people out from their televisions and organized for political activism that we can all agree on, whether left wing or right wing. Few people would be in favor of genetically modified "terminator seeds" or poisoning and eroding millions of acres of Midwest topsoil or seeing people suffer obesity and diabetes from the corn syrup ingredient that is part of most food. A good reference for all this would be a book by Michael Pollan, such as "The Botany of Desire" or "In Defense of Food," or Eric Schlosser's groundbreaking "Fast Food Nation."

So gardening and preserving food and becoming self sufficient is the way to get people in your community organized and talking, and the next step is to organize political activism. This Stan Goff article
http://www.alternet.org/environment/86943/?ses=f88f5cbb6d1cae35995655bbfac96cd0
expresses that next step very well.

Rob hopes that you will check out these links. If you have questions about local agriculture, the dryer drum method or anything else you can get in touch with him at foodnotlawnsct@yahoo.com

Week 3 Update

2008-06-16T10:50:00.005-04:00

Hello Sprout! Week 3 is here and a lot more is happening in the garden. After last week's rain and heat wave the pests came out. We have Colorado Potato Beetles, Cucumber Beetles, Flea Beetles, and one other pest whose name I don't know.

The flea beetles are the worst at this point. They have really been going after the eggplants (some of which, I'm sorry to say, may not make it). I'm working hard and learning how to manage them. It's organic farming so it requires more time spent picking off bugs. I've been doing a lot of companion planting, and I've also been making garlic to spray on plants popular with pests.

Since last week many of the crops have started to take off such as the potatoes, peas, melons, and radishes, and more. It's very exciting to see the garden coming alive. I have also been working on the herbs and flowers in the garden. I've planted many culinary and tea herbs as well as edible flowers and berries. All of this should help bring in many more beneficial insects to the garden.

Thank You to Seniors

2008-06-04T11:54:00.005-04:00

I would like take this time to thank all of the seniors for their dedication and work over the last few years to make Sprout grow and thrive in and outside the garden. Cara, Baylin, Heidi, Kathryn, Linnea, Brian, and Brent all dedicated themselves to making Sprout better and the college more sustainable and healthy. Your passion has manifested in what Sprout has become. So I thank them for their time and hardwork, and I'm sure the college will too for many years to come.

Good luck new graduates and remember Sprout is your home. Feel free to come by at any time for a tour, or maybe another delicious cherry tomato.

June Update: Week 1

2008-06-04T11:48:00.002-04:00

As you may or may not know, Sprout received a generous gift from a family foundation to allow us to have a garden manager position for the summer, for the first time ever. This means that we will have someone whose full time duty is maintenance of the garden. This is a tremendous step for us and it means that the garden will be able to produce a much larger quantity of vegetables throughout the summer and fall. It also means that we will able to organize many aspects of Sprout outside the garden that include educational programs and more.

Seizing on the opportunity, I will be the one doing this position. Yes, I have graduated, but I am very excited to stay for the summer and continue work on the garden. I have been here for just over a week and already the garden is looking great. Baylin Coddington came down at the beginning of last week and helped me in preparing the garden and transplanting vegetables from the greenhouse. The space is now looking great and ready to produce.

The vegetables we are growing include: summer and winter squash, carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, lettuces, melons, watermelons, chard, kale, brussels sprout, broccoli, onions, and more. In most cases there are multiple varieties of a type. We are also growing a number of herbs and flowers in the middle section of the garden with the rock pile.

Outside the garden I am currently working with CC Curtiss, the Director of Student Wellness & AOD Education, on an education campaign for the fall and beyond. I am also working with Professor Sue Warren on a freshman seminar that she is offering in the fall entitled "Healthy Choice." I will also be maintaining the Earth Tubs and working with Dining Services on food offerings.

This past Saturday at Reunion Weekend I participated in a panel on sustainability at CC. Also on the panel was Glenn Dreyer, Amy Cabaniss, and a couple of alumni active in sustainability issues. About 50 alumni showed up to the panel and they got very engaged and excited about what we are doing at CC. I spoke mostly about the garden and Earth Tubs. They were very interested and afterward I gave some a tour of both.

The Conference

2008-04-06T13:46:00.006-04:00

Our conference was yesterday and it was a tremendous success. Each panel (and panelist) was very informative and interesting. The panelists truly displayed their passion for the issues that they talked about. I think everyone left the conference feeling much better informed and still optimistic about where we can go even in the face of so much adversity.

Many people came to the conference from Connecticut College and New London. People also really enjoyed the free Sustainable Lunch featuring local and organic: soups (Mangetout in NL), cheese (Beaver Brook Farm), apples, honey (CC Professor Stuart Woroneki), and bread. There was also fair trade and organic coffee from Bean & Leaf in New London along with some other drinks and baked goods. The live jazz, organized by Brent Thomas, was the perfect touch on a delicious meal.

A special thank you is deserved for all the students who have worked so hard this semester to make this event a reality and to many other members of the CC community, from Dining Services, who donated time and materials, to all of the departments and offices that made donations to this cause. Thank you!

Below are a few pictures from some of the panels and from the lunch. ** The conference was also videotaped so if you are interested in a DVD of the conference please send us an email.

Food with Though: an interdisciplinary conversation about food and agriculture

2008-04-02T08:51:00.013-04:00

**The food conference is this weekend! I have uploaded the schedule of events. I hope to see you all there!**

Movie on Friday, April 4

7pm-9pm: King Corn - This documentary is about two friends who follow corn into the food system and what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat and farm.

Panels on Saturday, April 5

10:00-11:15: Sustainable Agriculture and the Community (Ernst Common Room)

Panelists:

• Bryan Connolly: Bryan is professor at the University of Connecticut and a former professor of Connecticut College. He is a renowned local agriculture expert. Bryan will discuss definitions of sustainable agriculture and its practical implementation.
• Art Costa: Art is a director of Re-New London, a broad organization working towards the localization of New London companies, educational opportunities, and community outlets. Art will speak towards the type of work that Re-New London does and why community unification efforts are important and possible.
• Brent Thomas: Brent is a senior Government major at Connecticut College. He will speak about farm subsidies and the formation of industrial agriculture.
• Arthur Lerner: Arthur is a co-founder of F.R.E.S.H. New London. F.R.E.S.H. works to implement and guide practical, agricultural & gardening projects in New London as a way to educate and empower citizens towards personal wellness, community health, and environmental stewardship. Arthur will discuss the importance of local, sustainable food and the relationships it fosters among farmers and the surrounding community.

11:30-12:45: Panel on the Health of Humans and the Environment (Ernst Common Room)

Panelists:

• Katie Jeffrey-Lunn: Katie is a local nutritionist for FitNutrition, LLC in Mystic, CT. She specializes in nutrition counseling, her presentation focuses on the health of organic and local foods.
• Bart Staub: Bart is an ayurvedic consultant from the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. He will be talking about a holistic approach to health and nutrition as well as eating with the seasons.
• Tammy Collier: Tammy is one of the Connecticut Chapter leaders of the Weston A. Price Foundation which focuses on restoring nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism.

2:00-3:15: Panel on Social Justice and Human Rights (Ernst Common Room)

Panelists:

•David A. Canton: David is an African Studies Professor specializing in 20th Century American Social History, the Civil Rights Movement, and Urban History. He'll be talking about Martin Luther King Jr. and the Human Rights movement.
• Manuel Lizarralde: Manuel is a Connecticut College Botany Professor. His talk will focus on the production of ethanol involved with producing food.
• Davis Lewis: David is an owner of Flavours of Life, the fair trade store in New London. He is also a very active member of the New London community. He will be talking about fair trade.

Our Table at the Fiddleheads Market

2008-03-29T16:01:00.004-04:00

On Saturday, March 29th we had a table at the Fiddleheads Market, which is a winter/spring farmer's market that just started up at the Fiddleheads Food Co-op every Wednesday and Saturday from 10am-2pm. It is a great place to go every week to find delicious local and organic produce from area farmers...and it's wonderful environment too with live music and happy people.

At the market we sold some lettuce and lemon verbena tea. Both were very popular and the lettuce sold out in only 20 minutes! We were also advertising for the upcoming food conference. We are hoping to have many people there from CC and the New London Community.

Below are a couple images. One of a view of the market and another of Heidi Cook at our table. Brent Thomas was also there at the market to help out.

what's possible

2008-03-24T16:27:00.003-04:00

As the signs of Spring appear around us with blooming flowers and chirping birds, our garden continues to thrive. Having returned from Spring Break, I went today to check out the status of the lettuces planted in the Fall...they live. All of the many varieties of lettuce that we planted survived the winter with no maintenance. It seems remarkable, but what this proves is that anyone, with hardly any labor, can have lettuce to eat all winter long. All that is needed is a little wire and some plastic covering (even a shower curtain would work). This little experiment of ours was a success and next winter I can only expect that we will be able to improve our modest harvest.

Below is some freshly harvested lettuce (my dinner tonight) and another image of lettuce growing under the plastic covering.

Happy Spring!

Misha

Earth Tub Composting Update

2008-03-17T20:28:00.004-04:00

We are now composting in ALL OF THE DINING HALLS ON CAMPUS. This semester we have added Harris, Knowlton, and Smith dining halls to the list of places that we pick up food waste from. We now get hundreds of pounds every day and we are rapidly filling the tubs. After a slight learning curve from students and staff, the idea of composting is now catching on, and people are very enthusiastic about the amount of waste that is now being diverted from the piggery. The first batch of compost is going to Sprout and the second batch will be going to FRESH.

There was also an article recently published in E (the Environmental Magazine) with a section on the composting project featuring Tyler Dunham and Misha Johnson. Click here.

Below, Alana Harris and Mike Seager transport food waste from the dining halls to the Earth Tubs, and a look inside of one of the tubs with newly added food waste.

Maple Syrup March Madness

2008-03-17T19:07:00.007-04:00

In late February, just a couple weeks before Spring Break we started to tap some sugar maple trees for sap. This project came to fruition with the guidance (and some extra materials) from Jim Luce and the initiative of Brent Thomas and Liz Wall. We tapped about a dozen sugar maples and then just before break we tapped a few red maples, which yield a sap with slightly less sugar content, so it takes more sap to make the same amount of syrup. For sugar maples it takes about 40 parts sap to make 1 part syrup. It takes about 12 hours to boil down the sap, which we have been doing in the kitchens of the dormitories Abbey House and Earth House.

This whole project is tremendously exciting and it allows us to continue our goal of showing what is possible in the area that we live in. Maple syrup is a sustainable alternative to imported refined sugars. And of course it is DELICIOUS!

Below, Brent Thomas and Eric Dooley-Feldman gather the sap from some trees and then filter and boil it in Earth House.

Yearly Report and February Update

2008-02-12T11:08:00.000-05:00

Please follow the link below and click on "Yearly Report for 2007" to check out a summary on what happened this past year and what we are looking ahead to for this new one.

http://sprout.conncoll.edu/wheelbarrow.htm

We have hit the ground running this semester and are working on having many events including a conference focused around food issues in early April. I will write again soon with more details on that and our other projects.

Done for the Year

2007-12-17T22:05:00.001-05:00

As finals are wrapping up for students around campus so too have we been tying somethings up with the garden. We had our last workday a couple weeks ago and now the only thing out there are the lettuces, which are still surviving under the thick layer of snow and ice that now coats the campus.

We're currently looking ahead to next year and working out where the garden will be going. Over the winter break I will be publishing our yearly report. Below are a couple pictures with some Sproutees from our last meeting of the year and some mizuna under cover in the garden.

Happy Holidays,

Misha

Garden Update

2007-11-26T10:17:00.001-05:00

While the garden is mostly asleep for the winter we are still working on a few projects. The winter lettuces are doing very well, and were very popular when delivered to the dining hall a couple weeks ago. If all goes well we should be able to continue to harvest them for quite a while longer.

The spearmint is still growing strong, though it will be harvested soon. And will hopefully be delivering some lemon verbena to Bean & Leaf café in New London quite soon.

We are also working on the shed. It is coming along quite nicely. This is our main project right now. The goal is to have it finished by the end of the semester.

Composting Project Opening Ceremony November 19th

2007-11-26T10:08:00.000-05:00

On Monday November 19th we had the opening ceremony for the composting project. Many students, faculty, and staff came down, and there were news crews from the Day and Channel 3. Tyler Dunham and I made short speeches and introduced CC president Leo Higdon, who spoke about the importance of this initiative for the College and the New London Community. We then did a demonstration and a ceremonial "Dump 'n Grind" (as the ceremony was called).

The event was on the Channel 3 evening news:
mms://streaming.vmsnews.com/media/wsxtemp/9142908D-BE95-4392-8A06-9E50047AC021.wsx

It was also featured in the Day newspaper:
http://www.theday.com/re_print.aspx?re=8ac304eb-4a40-4cb0-83ba-d07d0b78d525

And on the Connecticut College homepage:
http://aspen.conncoll.edu/news/3867.cfm

If you have any questions or comments about the project please feel free to send us an email.

Real Food Conference @ Yale and Recent Workday

2007-11-04T19:51:00.000-05:00

Saturday and Sunday Liz Wall, Stephanie Blennerhassett and I went to the Real Food Summit at Yale. It was an event organized for the purpose of bringing together people from universities all around New England to discuss the ideas and projects that we all have. There was a mixture of speakers and smaller discussion groups based around different issues that are trying to be tackled in the sustainable food movement. It was a time for sharing ideas as well as hearing those of others. Every school (47 in all) had a different context that they were coming from but each had something to offer, whether it was advice or a novel idea. The conference also gave a sense of being part of a greater movement that is happening not only in New England but also across the country and around the world. I think we all learned a lot and personally I've come back with ideas flowing like Niagara. I, and I think Liz and Stephanie too, would love to share what I learned with all of you as well. We will hopefully do that at the meeting next week. We also picked up some really interesting materials that we should be able to use this on campus to educate the student body and create a more sustainable dining system...As always feel free to contact me with any questions.

Today we had another work day (that Baylin ran). He and a few other people fixed up the cold frames that have been set up and are now covering some of the head lettuce. The beets, cover crops, hot peppers, and loose leaf lettuces are still going strong as well. The tomato plants were also taken out and are hanging upside down outside Earth House. Evidently we can leave them hanging upside down for a few months and the tomatoes will ripen. The shed also got worked on this week and the walls are continually looking better. Keep up the good work everyone!

October 21st Workday

2007-10-23T18:36:00.002-04:00

This workday was tremendously successful. We had a nice large group show up and it allowed us to do many of the important things that needed to be done before a frost comes (although it probably wont be coming too soon). We weeded the new Fall and Winter lettuces, cleared out a lot of the built-up leaf litter and rocks, broadcast more buckwheat, cleared so more land to expand the garden, and laid down more compost. The Fall and cover crops are coming up really well (The rye is the "grass"-looking plant in the pictures. The buckwheat and a couple of the loose-leaf lettuces are also pictured). Everything is certainly made much easier by the fact that it is not cold yet. Other crops like our tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers are still alive but not producing as much fruit, possibly because of the diminished amount of light reaching them. It's all still delicious though.

Recent Workdays

2007-10-09T21:52:00.001-04:00

We've had quite a lot of workdays recently. We've been bagging tea, broadcasting cover crops, tending to our Fall crops, harvesting, and gathering compost for the garden. It hasn't been raining much although it is supposedly in the forecast, and the weather (although uncomfortably balmy) has allowed our tomatoes, eggplants, zucchinis, beets, and herbs to keep on growing strong.

Sustainable Dinner on October 3rd

2007-10-09T20:00:00.001-04:00

Dining Services, with the initiative of Kristine Serwinski, hosted a Sustainable Dinner. The meal set outside of JA, was catered by 5 local farms that have been providing foods to the dining halls. Sprout was also there talking with people about our club while also educating students about local, organic, and sustainable agriculture. Many students showed up to enjoy the delicious local feast. They also filled out surveys, learned more about the individual farms, and talked to farmers.

Harvestfest and More...

2007-10-01T20:20:00.000-04:00

A lot was done this past week for Sprout. We sold pumpkins, zucchini bread muffins, jars of tea, salsa, and tomato sauce for Harvestfest (everything was homemade). Our table was very popular and almost sold out of everything. It was a great fundraiser for us.

This Sunday at the workday we planted the rest of the lettuces (for a total of 6 wide beds), and we will continue to plant successions of others as the Fall progresses. The cover crops will also be going in the ground this week.

And the Earth Tubs arrived on Friday! We will probably start composting right after Fall Break.

September 16th Workday

2007-09-16T18:39:00.002-04:00

We had another great workday today. We finished weeding the entire garden area inside the fence, so that we can now plant some cover crops for the winter. We also harvested some eggplants, zucchini, hot peppers, tomatoes and all of the herbs (lemon verbena, spearmint, lemon balm). We received a request from the Blue Camel Café for some herbs so they should be showing up there in about a week after they are done drying. We also harvested and removed all of the corn plants so that they may dry and we can save the seeds.

We also planted our first succession of lettuces for a Fall crop. We will be planting more in the coming weeks.

3rd Annual Sproutfest! @ Earth House

2007-09-15T20:23:00.001-04:00

On Friday we hosted Sproutfest! It is an annual event held at Earth House for faculty and staff of the college. It serves as an opportunity for us to raise awareness about our projects among the CC community beyond the students. We spent the entire day cooking (with as many ingredients from the garden and/or organic ingredients as possible) at Earth House.

We made: vegan pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie, cucumber soup, focaccia, baba ganouj, eggplant parmesan, veggie/fruit juice, and zucchini bread. We also served a big dish of our delicious cherry tomatoes (see picture). I think people really enjoyed what we made.

We also gave them a tour of the garden and an explanation of what we are growing and some of our future goals.

Thanks so much to all who came and to those who made some delicious food for our guests.

September 9th

2007-09-09T17:08:00.000-04:00

We continued the work on the garden this week doing a lot more weeding and cleaning up of the whole area. The plants are looking much stronger this week since they've been cleaned up and watered all week. Many of the fruits are weighing down on the plants. We will certainly be harvesting a lot this week.

We also started up work on the shed once again. We have finished the rock base and are now starting to place glass bottles on top of those to build up the walls (they will serve as windows to provide natural lighting to the shed. Once the walls have been built up enough we will build a wooden frame on which to place the roof. We're hoping to finish it this fall.

First Workday of the Fall Semester

2007-09-02T21:58:00.001-04:00

We had a very successful first workday in the garden. We had a large group that was able to work hard and efficiently. The garden had a lot of weeds so we spent the bulk of the day weeding around the bases of the plants to give them some breathing room. We also harvested a large amount of gourds and pumpkins. We have many peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, zucchinis, and corn that a looking beautiful and ready to eat. We should be having a larger harvest soon for the dining halls. We also set up the drip hose to water the plants, which are looking a little low on water.