Sprout Gardeners Against Monsanto

On Friday September 7^th, Bob Burns, ex-marine turned Buddhist organic farmer and sustainability activist, came to Connecticut College to share his knowledge with the class of Cultivating Change, an Anthropology seminar taught by Professor Cole.  He invited the class, and anyone who wanted to come, to join him for a rally against Monsanto, a company selling genetically modified seeds around the world and doing their best to cover up their trail.

On Saturday September 15^th, members of the class and members of Sprout journeyed to the Monsanto headquarters in Mystic, CT to rally along side Bob and his crew of organic farmers, organic food vendors, and supporters of the fight against Monsanto.  The cry of the people was for truth.  Monsanto has been hiding the truth by not including the poisons they’re putting into our bodies on their labels.   We need to be informed about the food choices we’re making.  The group motto was: “Label today, ban tomorrow!”

There was an impressive turnout for the rally of up to 72 at its peak and about 40 steady.  The group consisted of people of all ages, including toddler organic farmers-to-be helping by coloring in the letters of signs (See photo above).   Bob pointed out that education of the next generation is what will make a difference in the future of farming.  A number of people, including Bob, spoke about the truth and what we can do to add to the fight.  According to Bob, “The most radical thing you can do is to start your own organic garden.”  Well Sprout is already on it!

An additional speaker was former congressman, Rob Simmons.  He observed that, “We label everything in this country.  We even label ourselves!  Why not label our food?  We deserve truth in advertising and the right to know what’s in our food so we can make the choice.”   He encouraged us to become “smiling pests” to government officials and the press and urged us to all write letters to the editors of local papers, then “There you go.  You’re an activist!”

After the rally, we were all invited to come back to Bob’s farm, Aiki Farms in Ledyard, CT, for a sprouting seminar, tour of the farm, a Zen tea ceremony and an organic feast.  What a gracious farmer!  After a reception in his living room, a beautiful open space with thick wooden beams and a swing in the center of the room, we headed down to the basement for a detailed demonstration of how to grow sprouts (See photo below).  We each got to bring home a sample of the pea sprouts, which are a delicious snack!

As we were thanking Bob, he expressed that he wants his connection with our Sprout Garden to be a permanent relationship.  He wants to help us in any way he can with sharing knowledge, supplies, and support.  He even said he would come double dig and plow our land!  We look forward to the growing relationship with Bob. 

Spinach Recipes

For those of you readers who are in New England, this is the time of year to enjoy fresh spinach from your garden or your local farmer's market.  Check out these easy and delicious spinach recipes by Mark Bittman in the New York Times.
Spinach Recipes

Quick Update: Early season crops

Yesterday (Sunday April 1st) Sprout members planted our early spring cold-tolerant crops, spinach, chamomile, mixed greens and potatoes.  We used the trench method to plant potatoes.  We dug a trench 12 feet long, four feet wide, and 1.5 feet deep.  Then we planted the seed potatoes at the bottom of the trench, under two inches of loose soil.  The seed potatoes used were blue potatoes saved from last year's harvest, and white potatoes from Maine that a sprout member kindly contributed.  We piled up the soil dug out of the trench along the sides of the trench.  As the potato plants grow, we will fill in the dirt to cover the stems of the potato plants.  When the stems are underground, they will become rhizomes which produce the potatoes.  The deeper the potato plants are buried, the longer the rhizomes become, and the more potatoes they produce. 

Potatoes can be planted when the forsythia bushes flower.  This is an example of phenology applied to gardening.  Phenology is the study of the timing of biological events.  For more about phenology, check out this document. 

Seaweed in the Garden

Seaweed as a mulch has many benefits to an organic garden. It has been used traditionally in nearly all coastal regions to improve the fertility of the soil, although Ireland and Scotland are especially famous for their traditional use of seaweed in agriculture. Some of the benefits include:
The salt and the sharp edges of dried seaweed repel slugs.
The seaweed also forms a barrier to prevent loss of water by evaporation from the soil, sealing the moisture into the soil.
It blocks weeds.
Seaweed supplies mineral nutrients in an easily absorbed chelated form to the plants
Low in fiber, seaweed breaks down quickly to add organic matter to the soil, loosening compacted soil

Luckily, the Sprout garden is located conveniently close to the shore, so we have access to an ample supply of this beneficial mulch. At our last workday, a group of students went to the beach to gather seaweed and brought back many bags of it to the garden. If you are not near the coast, concentrated kelp emulsions are available in most home gardening stores, so that you too can benefit from applying seaweed to your garden.

Learn more about seaweed for gardening at Eartheasy Blog.

I hope all of you located in New England have been enjoying the beautiful and unusually warm March weather. Here at the Sprout garden, we have been taking advantage of the warm weather by cleaning out our garden and preparing it for spring plantings.

Planning for 2012!

Above, a picture from the 2011 growing season of a cat basking in the summer sun in the Sprout garden.

The days are getting longer and spring is just around the corner. Sprout has begun preparations for the 2012 growing season. We cleared out the garden, which still has abundant kale, due to the hardiness of this crop and an exceptionally mild winter (for Connecticut). We turned over our compost pile and found it nicely decomposed.

At our most recent meeting we ordered seeds for the garden. We also have some seeds saved from the past growing season. We ordered the Snowdown collection from horizon herbs, a collection of crops selected for their ability to withstand the cold. Planted in late summer, the crops will continue to produce through the winter with heavy mulching and protection from a cold frame or hoop house.

Sprout is also beginning the planning and implementation of a relocation of the garden. The new area will provide us with more space, and convenient location near the new sustainability center on campus. More details to come in blog post soon!

Below is the list of crops we will grow in 2012:

Herbs:

Basil

Parsley

Chives

Lemongrass

Thyme

Rosemary – we already have in the garden

Peppermint – we already have in the garden

Cilantro

Sage

Marjoram

Oregano

Fruit vegetables:

Zucchini

Eggplant

Tomatillos

Onions

Ground cherries

Tomatoes (for fresh eating)

Paste tomatoes for tomato sauce

Cucumbers – from saved seeds, also bought a packet

Tomatillos

Five kinds of hot peppers

Delicata squash

Sugar pumpkins

Sugar snap peas

Green beans – from saved seeds

Hard shell gourds - from saved seeds

Green Leafy Vegetables:

Collard greens

Kale

Swiss chard

mixed salad greens

Flowers:

Sunflowers

Nasturtiums

Lavender

Chamomile

Marigolds

Seed Vegetables:

Soup beans – from saved seeds

Pumpkins (the kind grown for the seeds, not the flesh)

Anasazi sweet corn

Root vegetables:

Blue Potatoes

Radishes

Snowdown, a collection of seeds for the fall/winter:

Beet, Touchstone Gold

Broccoli, Green Sprouting

Cabbage, Chirimen Hakusai

Carrots, Scarlet Nantes

Greens, Collard, Champion

Greans, Creasy (Winter Cress)

Kale, Vates

Leeks, Bandit

Lettuce, Winter Density

Peas, Snow (Mammoth Melting)

Radish, Daikon, Miyashige White

Spinach, Winter

Inspiring Story

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

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

10 Reasons to grow sunflowers

1. Attractive appearance

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

2. Pollination

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

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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

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

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

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

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!

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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,

e

back for another

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,

e.

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

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