Ready to learn more about the Principles and Practices of Regenerative Agriculture? The Sustainable Agriculture Program at CCCC in Pittsboro is accepting applications NOW for Fall 2023. Returning students can register for Fall 2023 courses
CCCC Sustainable agriculture program students have the opportunity for “Real Farming- Right Now”. The Pittsboro-based program has an on-campus, year-round certified organic farm that is an integral part of teaching and learning. A commitment to building and stewarding healthy soil through regenerative practices is at the heart of this entrepreneurial focused program.
Boy time sure does fly, seems like not long the advanced crop production class was surveying the orchard and making plans of what to grow and when for the spring CSA. This week for the advanced crop production class started with a walk around the orchard and the farm to see the progress the sustainable agriculture students and volunteers made this semester.
The first stop was in the orchard to check in on how far everything had come. We had several trees in January that were suffering from fireblight, and the fix for this was heavy pruning. I’m happy to report that many of those affected trees have bounced back and already have fruit growing on them, like the apple pictured above. The blueberries are also looking great after the heavy pruning the advanced crop production crew gave them back in January. The bushes have a lot of new growth and each had fruit developing, should be a good year for blueberries!
Moving on to the student farm, pictured above is our potatoes looking great so far! We’ve come a long way from those cold, rainy winter days to our thriving fields and happy plants. We’re at the real start of peak farming as May is when just about everything is growing and there’s so much to harvest. We also planted thyme and nicotania or flowering tobacco in the pollinator garden around the pack shed. On Wednesday we had Owen back as our farm manager for the day and we got a lot of harvesting done for our last box of the spring CSA, as well as some weeding in the asparagus bed.
Each semester the orchard and farm look better and better, thanks to our great sustainable agriculture faculty, students, and volunteers. This spring semester’s drawing to a close, but if you’d like to volunteer time during the summer or fall to the CSA there’ll be plenty of food to harvest! And, congratulations to all the graduating ag students! We can’t wait to see the crops and livestock you’ll grow!
After all the careful bed preparations, transplanting, weeding, watering, covering, mulching, seeding, and even more weeding…the day has arrived for students and staff to enjoy the fruits of their labor!!! Following Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), we harvested bok choy, baby arugula, tatsoi, mizuna, mesclun mix, dill, cilantro, sage, and green garlic. Less known in the western diet, Asian greens (bok choy, mizuna & tatsoi) are rich in antioxidants and micronutrients. Tatsoi, specifically, has more vitamin C than oranges and spinach which can help lower risk of heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Mizuna and tatsoi leaves work well in salads or can be incorporated into a delicious vinaigrette. Bok choy is great in a stir fry, or it can be braised or steamed making it extremely versatile!
Rinsing and storing freshly harvested vegetables
After harvest, it was time to get on the tractor and mow the rye grass in another block to start preparing those beds for cultivation. On the student farm, rye is used as a cultural control for weed management and for its allelopathic properties. The rye releases a toxin that suppresses the growth of nearby plants…and weeds!! The farm manager, Farrell, spent time showing us how to hook up the flail mower properly and safely. Each student then took a turn and mowed a row!
Farrell going step by step with Jada That’s some tall grass Mikaela!
As this week’s farm manager, Anthony did a great job pivoting and keeping us on task. In addition to harvesting and time on the tractor, we planted 200 feet of asparagus crowns and installed drip tape for the beds, planted lettuce, and some weeding with the weed eater. It was certainly a busy day, but the weather was beautiful and we all knew we would be rewarded with delicious food (and some knowledge, of course)! Anthony finished off the day with some Mexican candy/treats and soda! It was a neat experience to taste some different flavors.
This week, our manager of the week was Hailey, and boy did she have the weather do a 180 on her day. It rained Tuesday, and clay does not take too well to the tillage that was planned. However, taking all things in stride, she pushed forward and herded us cats to our tasks!
A few of us (Owen, Charlie, Randall, and Mikaela) learned and practiced how to set up the harvest system according to GAPs (Good Agricultural Practices) and harvested cilantro, dill, spinach, and asparagus. Watch out CSA’ers! Your box will be full and ready for you in a couple weeks!
Randall, Charlie, and Owen harvesting spinach.
Mrs. Cheryl McNeill, teacher at CCCC and farmer of Four Dog Farm, demonstrating how to pack greens.
In the Propagation house, Anthony and Stetson set up shop seeding cucumbers, yellow squash, and zucchini. In the planned Space Ship house for the cucurbits, Danielle and Jada finished getting the house prepared for liftoff. Thank you to the Greenhouse class for setting up the irrigation system!
Hoop House 1 prepped for cucumbers.
The Student Farm is getting prepared for a quick turnaround into early summer crops but don’t forget some delicious spring sweets, such as strawberries!
Strawberry ‘daughters’ cozy and happy under row cover.
This February brought some abnormally warm weather for us and caused many of the plants in our orchard to break dormancy. The last frost date for our area is April 15th so anyone with an orchard or even just a few fruit trees may not get much sleep for the next month.
The orchard on campus has blueberries, pears, apples, a couple paw-paws, and 4 pecan trees that we planted earlier this year. Most of these plants have broken dormancy, but the blueberries have already sent out their flower clusters. Some of the flowers are still closed but some have begun opening slightly. At this stage (depending on the variety) these buds can tolerate temperatures from 24o to 27oF but some loss may still occur.
The NC State Extension for blueberries provides some information on how to combat late freezes:
Prune smaller-diameter shoots because they bloom earlier than larger-diameter shoots
Avoid cultivation (bushes can stay up to 2o warmer on uncultivated soils
Keep the soil moist, more water in the soil = more heat absorption = more heat released.
Irrigate with sprinklers. When water is sprayed on plants heat is produced from the process of freezing.
Another common way you could protect your plants is with frost covers but you would either need small plants or a lot of cover for that to be worthwhile. March in the southeast can always be unpredictable so other than these techniques, all we can really do is hope for mild weather!
Blueberry freeze damage and protection measures: NC State Extension. (n.d.).
This week we also got a lot of planting done on the farm. Mikaela was the student farm manager and thanks to her, we transplanted kohlrabi, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, collards, kale, and fennel. This was probably the biggest planting day we have had on the farm so far this year. Not too much longer and we will have enough things growing to fill up some CSA boxes!
We also had Danielle and Anthony team up to install drip tape onto our newly planted beds and they did a great job.
The last task for the day was to put some frost cover over our strawberries which have all started to send out flowers. Strawberry flowers can start to take some damage at temperatures as low as 30 o so getting them covered before things get a bit cold early next week was essential.
There are many ways to improve soil on a farm. One of the most important steps is to amend your soil, or add nutrients and minerals back into the soil. When farming, the plants are up taking the soils nutrients and minerals to produce our food and crops. As responsible sustainable farmers, we must in turn add nutrients and minerals back into the soil.
Hailey spreading saved oat cover crop
There are a few different ways we can do this, one way is to add compost to the tops of our beds, which will directly benefit the soil by reducing compaction, adding nutrients, reducing moisture loss and help to keep the soil covered and cool.
You can also amend and improve soil through covering cropping. Cover crops are plants sown into the field not for profit but instead to hold place in the field and improve the soil during a time the field isn’t in use. Cover cropping is a great way to protect and improve your soil. They adds organic matter to the soil and diversity of plant life, while also covering the soil to keep it from being barren or overgrown with weeds when not in use for production. Cover crops do a great job at protecting soil from hard rainfalls, compaction, and wind. Cover crop roots can also help to break up the soil and mowing cover crops and incorporating them into the soil will help add organic matter and feed the micro-biome in the soil.
Compost tea is a great way to improve plant and soil health. Compost tea is an aerated or non-aerated mix of compost, manure or fish emulsion, with water and other beneficial ingredients, such as oats to feed the microbes or nettles for a boost of nitrogen. This can brew for up to 24 hours and then can be applied to beds, transplants or plants in the field to help improve the soil and plant life.
The last way to amend your soil which may be one of the more straight forward and important ways is by truly adding amendments into your soil. While preparing a bed for your next crop, such as spring brassicas, you will want to add certain direct nutrients and minerals to the soil. Most farmers take soil tests yearly to know what is lacking or what is over abundant in the soil they are growing in. An exceeding or a lacking amount of a certain nutrient or mineral can negatively affect your crop yield and production. This is why testing your soil and amending it to the proper needs is a very important part of farming.
Owen and Mikaela spreading amendments onto beds prior to planting
This week on the farm we amending some beds with feather meal pellets, which is a slow release of nitrogen and other nutrients into the soil. Feather meal is not the best product to use, however it is sustainable in the fact that it is using the parts of chickens that would otherwise be waste and probably put in a landfill. Harmony is a great amendment to use in the soil, however it is not as abundant and easily accessible. We also added a small amount of boron as a micronutrient. And we added sunflower ash hull to add potassium sulfate to our soil, this helps to lower our pH because our soils pH is on the high side. A soils pH being off can also negatively affect the plants and their ability to uptake nutrients and minerals from the soil.
I hope this weeks blog has inspired you to take care of your soil in your own gardens and think about the science that takes place behind growing food and crops in your local community!
The sustainable agriculture program at CCCC is very well known for the outstanding crop production operation located at the Chatham campus. But this week, we get to explore a little bit on the livestock portion of the program, as well as some updates and a brief discussion of an organic practice utilized on the student farm.
At the start of the week, students a part of the Sustainable Agriculture program got the chance to take a field trip to the Cohen Farm in Pittsboro.
Murray Cohen runs the Cohen farm with his wife Esta where they raise grass fed beef cattle, herbicide and pesticide free hay, and breeding stock. Murray’s belief is Take care of the land, and the land will take care of you.
The focal point of the field trip was to learn about the Cohen Farm’s rotational grazing practice. This method of grazing allows the soil to rest and regrow grasses, along with the movement and spreading of manure to distribute nutrients back into the soil.
Back on the Student Farm: The student farm is as busy as ever preparing for the CSA. With Owen as this week’s manager, the crew was able to prepare beds for crops, transplant varieties of lettuces for the CSA, and add mulch Hoophouse North.
Randal and Charlie adding leaf mulch to HH North, and Jada preparing transplant cells for seeds.
But the task that seemed the most intriguing was the flame weeding of the rye beds.
Stetson flame weeding the rye in Block 7
Flame weeding is a practice that utilizes a flame through a propane tank to eradicate the plant’s cells and dehydrate it to prevent regrowth. This method is an organic alternative to using herbicides near crops. Yes, this method kills to the root, but this is known as a slow kill, but can be very effective when utilized properly and safely.
The end result to two applications of flame weeding in Block 7
A special thanks to Murray Cohen for allowing the students to come and view the farm and talk about practices in beef cattle, and a good job to Owen for his great management skills, and a thanks for the muffins and coffee.
Yep. That’s me. The guy in the matching orange pants and hard hat. (Safety first)
You’re probably wondering how I got into this situation. I guess I should start at the beginning. All my life I’ve wanted to learn how to grow food for my family and my community…
And that’s why I came to the sustainable ag program at CCCC! In this picture you can see me learning by doing–the best way to learn, in my opinion. I’m driving those stakes along the bed in block 1 as part of a trellis we built under the supervision of this week’s student farm manager, Charlie (seen here driving the tractor most authoritatively)
While I was driving in the vertical T-posts, Jada and Hailey drove in some U-posts at an angle for added structural support, which were fastened with wire.
Like we learned while building our bamboo trellis in Permaculture last semester, triangles are more structurally secure than rectangles, so we’re protecting the peas from heavy winds with the power of triangles!
Rolling out the wire fence material for the trellis would be a pain and take forever by yourself, but when you’ve got a large, talented crew like this, it gets done in no time.
We trellis peas because their natural growing habit is to climb. Giving them a solid structure to grab onto with their tendrils aids the farmer during harvest, by making the peas more easily visible and accessible, and helps the plants resist disease pressure by allowing more air flow.
In the adjacent beds of block 1, we took turns weeding, fertilizing, and mulching the garlic beds, weeding and mulching the first year strawberries, and prepping a bed for onion transplants.
Speaking of transplants, here are Mikaela and Stetson working on thinning, watering and fertilizing Brassica transplants over at the greenhouse:
According to Pam Dawling in Sustainable Market Farming “in early spring, transplants have the advantage over direct-seeded crops–they grow faster under protected conditions and bring earlier harvests.”
Ever considered a career in broadcasting? Well at CCCC you can try your hand using the broadcaster to spread cover crop seed! Did you think I meant radio or television broadcasting? No, those industries are dying, quit living in the past! Sustainable agriculture is the future!
Here’s more proof of the power of teamwork. If I’d had to lay out this silage tarp by myself on a windy day, I would have gone home and cried instead! But with the whole team on the job, it was a piece of cake!
And don’t forget good hygiene!
Thanks to Anthony we can rest assured that our hand tools won’t be a vector for spreading disease!
Well I hope you enjoyed my little tour of the goings on at the student farm. Charlie did a great job as manager this week! There were a lot of laughs, and a lot of work got done
Now wish me luck 😳😳😳😳Next week it’s my turn as manager!
Spring is fast approaching, and the student farm is in full swing! With warm, sunny skies this week and no freezing temperatures expected for the next two weeks, we are full steam ahead with preparations for this year’s CSA.
Congratulations and great work to Jada (right photo) in her role as our first student Farm Manager this week! During the Advanced Crop Production course, each student will take turns filling the role as Farm Manager. Each student Farm Manager will do a walk through of the farm with Farrell and Cheryl and will come up with a task list for all the students in the class. Jada did a wonderful job keeping the students on task while being safe, and was able to pivot well when she encountered an obstacle…such as when the string weeder went out of commission!
Several things needed to be done in this hoophouse which grew lettuce and salad greens over the winter. Old plastic was removed from the outer border of the hoophouse to prevent the plastic from breaking down any further. One bed is already planted in onions (photo right) and continues to do well . The overgrown arugula was cut and laid down to provide organic matter to the bed. The remaining two rows were forked to loosen the hard, compacted soil and chopped with a bed-forming hoe to break down clumps and loosely reshape the beds (photo below). The final step is to cover the beds with finally chopped leaf mould and soak with water to let Mother Nature do her thing until this hoophouse is put into production with brassicas.
Owen and Hailey spread organic compost and Harmony fertilizer on the beds
Mikaela was busy thinning and fertilizing brassicas in their seed trays (photo below). After thinning to one plant per cell, trays that had true leaves were dipped in fish emulsion at a rate of ½ cup per gallon of water. Additionally, Mikaela misted the sweet potatoes until the leaf mould was thoroughly soaked and removed any rotting potatoes.
In HHA & B, Randall used the BCS to till beds before cover cropping in oats (photo below). It will remain in cover crop until the winter to add valuable organic matter.
What a busy week! The warm weather really got things moving on the student farm. With a little effort towards thoughtful preparation, you may be “saving your bacon” when things are slammed in a few short weeks! Happy Spring y’all!
Last semester was unusually dry, and so far for this semester it is a total 180! This week and last week our Advanced Organic Crop Production class worked through the gloomy weather on the student farm in preparation for the spring CSA. Tools were cleaned and sharpened, beds have been prepared, and seeds have been sown.
Farrell showed this class a great way to propagate “free” sweet potato slips from existing sweet potatoes. We divided up into three teams; a team to cut up cardboard into a foldable box for this method, a team to process and gather up leaf mould, and a third team to start covering another hoop house for future rainy day farming.
The sweet potato propagation method starts with cutting up leaf mould, or composted leaves, as finely as possible. In our case, Farrell safely demonstrated how he accomplishes this by putting the leaf mould in a wheelbarrow and using a string trimmer to cut the leaves up. Next, we sieved the cut up leaves through a fine mesh and the smaller particles are used in the propagation process. In this process we combine peat and the sieved cut up leaves as a soil medium for the sweet potatoes to lay in. We use these two materials because their retain just enough moisture to encourage rooting and sprouting without getting waterlogged or too dry. Then after one team cut up the cardboard to make the boxes for propagation, we staple the cardboard into shape and place them in a strong support tray which are usually used for seed trays. The soil medium and the sweet potatoes are then placed in the boxes, and these boxes are kept on heat mats until the sprouts appear. A pretty slick way to get slips without having to buy them every year!
Hailey seeding green onions in one of our covered hoop houses using a Jang seeder.
These two weeks have been a great push towards our CSA in the Spring as we prep and hope to have produce as early mid March ready for harvest. In the picture above, the Advanced Organic Crop Production class weeded, built beds, and seeded the beds all with hand tools and hard work. Hand weeding throughout the whole production area as well as digging up the soil bordering the beds and touching the bottom of the hoop house to reduce the likelihood of weeds spreading into the beds. We also added leaves into the walkways in between the beds for the same reason.
Mikaela and Stetson seeding lettuce and fennel.
On the day of the picture above the class split up into three groups to accomplish different tasks across the farm. The duo pictured above mixed up a wheelbarrow of seed starting soil mix and started up 15 trays of various winter hardy crops. The other two groups were divided into builders and harvesters. The builders built covered hoops to protect the strawberries as they enter their second year of production. While the harvesters brought the rest of the group heads of lettuce and escarole from our hoop house with leafy greens to sample.
Even with the cold, rainy days we have experienced the past two weeks, the farm is as abundant as ever. Through our diligence and management of the farm, we can always find work on the farm and ways to grow great organic vegetables and fruit!
Winter break is over and our Sustainable Agriculture students are immersed in farm prep, for the fast-approaching spring! The warm weather has allowed us to spend some time outdoors, giving the orchard some much needed revitalization. This week the Advanced Organic Crop Production class spent some time pruning apple trees, pear trees and blueberry bushes. The orchard is currently home to apple and pear trees, blueberries, grape vines, newly planted pecan trees, and hazelnut trees.
Fruit trees and shrubs should be pruned yearly to ensure maximum yields and superior fruit quality. It is important to prune to prevent disease, allow space for new growth and keep your tree in a more productive shape.
Owen pruning a pear tree while Randall and Anthony supervise!
You want to ensure you get any dead or diseased branches, branches that are rubbing together or impeding growth, and branches that are growing in a less than desirable direction. There is a balance between the root and the treetop that needs to be assessed, you do not want to over prune as this will send up a vigorous amount of new growth and affect your yields.
Charlie V. pruning a blueberry bush with the helpful supervision of Randall!
The blueberry production area will see many welcomed additions in the coming months as a second row of bushes are added. In preparation for this, the crop production students took soil samples to determine the acidity and any needed amendments. Farmer Farrell mentioned that most of North Carolina has a suitable PH for blueberries but the Georgeville soil, here on the farm, has a higher PH more suitable to growing annual crops.
As the days grow longer and warmer the students will see the fruits of their labor as the plants start to wake up and direct their energy to the freshly manicured branches!
The linked recipe uses dried white beans- I just use canned cannelini instead- then this recipe can be done much more quickly and is still very flavorful.
I love to eat orange vegetables with greens, tonight I made sweet potatoes with the kale recipe, but I would also recommend roasting the Seminole squash to eat with it.
If you are not familiar with Daikon radish you are in for a treat. Sweet, crunchy and great either raw or roasted. Also nutritious, with health benefits such as :
These are all fantastic ingredients for a salad or a soup, but if you’re more interested in something fried and breaded, here’s an interesting take on latkes!
Beet and Carrot Latkes
Time to prep and cook: 40 minutes
Yield: 12 latkes
3/4lb russet potatoes
1/2lb carrots
1 small onion
Kosher salt
Black pepper
1 cup shredded beets
2 tbsp fresh parsley
1/3 cup all-purpose flour or matzo meal
1 large egg
Vegetable oil
Sour cream, for serving
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F
Grate potatoes and carrots on the larger of a box grater, then transfer to a colander over a bowl. Grate the onion, then add to the colander. Sprinkle 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Firmly squeeze the mixture with your hands and extract as much liquid as possible; blot dry on paper towels if especially wet. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and mix in the beets and parsley. Add the flour and egg, stir until thoroughly combined.
Line a baking sheet with paper towels. Working with 1/4 cup of the mixture at a time, form tightly packed pancakes about 3 inches wide. Transfer pancakes to the prepared baking sheet.
Heat 1/4” of vegetable oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Working in batches, fry the pancakes until golden brown and crisp (about 4 to 5 minutes per side.) Transfer to a baking sheet, then put in the oven while cooking remaining pancakes.
“It seems Thanksgiving Day is upon us.” – Charlie Brown
From “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving”
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Or rather… Happy Black Friday! I hope you are enjoying a restful holiday week up to this point and are being safe if the holiday shopping bug has bitten you. The campus is currently closed for student/faculty break and will resume on Monday for the final few weeks of classes before the semester ends.
This time of year, I am always humbled by the blessings in my life as I reflect upon them. My family and friends always top the list; it’s insane how a group of people can lead to loss of sanity yet keep you grounded simultaneously. One of the biggest blessings in my life the past two years has been the Sustainable Ag program here at CCCC. Not only have I met some fantastic people with a diverse background and incredible ways of problem solving, but also the educators which have imparted invaluable skills and knowledge to me and for that I am thankful.
A prime example of how important this program is can be seen here.
Pictured on the left are the beautiful rows of lettuce and salad greens saved from freezing temperatures earlier this week, thanks to one our hoop houses and plastic cover protection.
Having season extension tools available on the farm paired with a knowledgeable farm manager means we can enjoy delicious, fresh produce year-round outside of their normal production climates.
Students in the program are able to learn and see in real-time what these skills can do for them so when they graduate, they can feel confident in themselves and what they can accomplish.
Enjoy the remainder of your holiday and stay safe out there. Don’t forget to reflect on your blessings this week and every week because nothing lasts forever and nothing is guaranteed.
Although sitting in class learning gets the job done, going to a Sustainable farm will always be the most enjoyable. On the student farm there are many opportunities to learn about crop production, however, there are no animals for those of us who are focusing on livestock. This week, the Animal Science class went to Cane Creek Farm of Graham, NC.
While on the farm the class was able to learn more about the hardships of farming on the days where you may want to give up, and the joys of seeing the smiles on your consumers faces once they get their products. The products that you have raised from birth to slaughter.
The class learned about multi-species grazing and how diseases can be prevented through this method, along with rotationally grazing. Ex.) Cane Creek Farm allows their chickens to roam behind the cattle, this disrupts ‘cow patties’ and spreads the manure. This is a Sustainable practices that many farms have in place, letting the animals do what they love, while getting the job done without heavy equipment.
If you ever have a chance to tour a Sustainable farm with Regenerative practices, TAKE IT, especially if there are plants and animals involved!
2 delicious Fall “heading” crops this week: broccoli and cauliflower. What else? Golden beets, kale winterbor, salad radish, chard, carrots (!).
What to do with chard? Sautéing is a favorite way to cook chard; often with at least some garlic, others will sauté onions and garlic first then add the chard. Chard cooks a lot more quickly than the other Fall greens so keep an eye on it. Chard is a relative of spinach, so it shrinks up a lot, like spinach does when you cook it. Chopped and sautéed chard can be used in place of spinach in a quiche.
6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, more to garnish
4 medium cloves garlic, finely minced or grated
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Cut cabbage into 8 wedges (about 1 inch wide), keeping core intact.
Combine Parmesan, garlic, oil, vinegar, soy sauce, and salt in a small bowl. Arrange cabbage wedges, cut side down, on a large rimmed baking sheet. Brush all sides with the garlic-Parmesan mixture. Roast until the edges are golden brown, about twenty minutes. Flip and roast until the cabbage is tender and golden, about 10 minutes more. Garnish with crushed red pepper and/or Parmesan, if desired.
Recipe: peel and cube squash and sweet potatoes. coat lightly with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 400 degrees.
Tear up kale into bit-sized pieces for a salad; add the roasted squash and sweet potatoes and dress with a fresh minced garlic/lemon juice and olive oil dressing.
Top with nuts of your choice; eat your vegetables!
This past week students, staff, and alumni from the Sustainable Agriculture program at CCCC were celebrating 20 year anniversary of the AAS degree in Sustainable Agriculture. In honor of this occasion, lunch was catered on Tuesday for the program, by Lilly Den, a local farm and food establishment.
Students and alumni congregated together enjoying regional food and sharing experiences. Alumni were able to share stories of their experiences with students in the program and how it has influenced their lives and careers.
Amongst those attending were, homesteaders, farm owners and non-profit organizational staff, all contributing their skills and knowledge to the sustainable food and farm industry. Laura Maule is the Community Garden Coordinator at Interfaith Food Shuttle; Lindsey Carver is at Farm to Senior Services with CEFS; Emily Moose is the Executive Director of A Greener World; Emily Fuller is owner of Heartsong Farm, offering a Flower CSA and selling at markets; Emma Stapleton is also at Heartsong Farm.
Students also shared experiences at the farm and enjoyed comparing the changes at the farm over the years with alumni.
This week’s harvest bared lots of sweet potatoes, Students also had hands on experience in the changing of tractor implements. An exciting project this week was converting the BCS tractor (walk behind tractor) into an electric key start. Prior to this upgrade the BCS tractor was difficult to start, especially without enough arm strength and speed. The key start allows all students to start the BCS themselves without difficulty.
This week on the farm was full of celebration, fall festivities, and fall harvests. Alumni, students, and staff were all able to connect, enjoy good food, and celebrate 20 years of successful sustainable farm education at Central Carolina Community College.
The cold weather may have ushered out the last of our summer crops but it will do wonders for the kale! Some fall and winter crops produce more sugar to help cope with the cold, this will create a sweeter and more diverse flavor.
This week’s box:
Winterbor Kale- curly cooking kale
Salad Mix- lettuce and mixed baby greens
Butternut Squash
Baby Ginger
Red Russian Kale- tender salad kale
Sweet Potatoes
Garlic
Arugula
Being an arugula lover, my suggestion is to throw some in everything you eat from now until the end of harvest! Keep reading for another delicious recipe suggestion for this week’s box!
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius (425F). Place the cubed butternut squash, broccoli florets and red onion on a baking tray. Cut the top off of the garlic bulb and place it on the baking tray. Drizzle everything with 1 1/2tbsp olive oil and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt. Place in the oven to bake for 20 minutes until the butternut squash is tender.
To prep the kale, remove the stems and chop the leaves into bite sized pieces. Place the chopped kale in a large salad bowl and sprinkle the leaves with a pinch of salt. With clean hands massage the kale leaves by scrunching it between your hands for about 1 minute. The kale will become darker in colour when you do this.
Squeeze the cloves out of the roasted head of garlic and place them in a blender or nutribullet. Add in the olive oil, balsamic, pepper and optional egg yolk. Blend until smooth and creamy.
To assemble the salad place the shredded kale in a bowl, top with the roasted butternut squash, broccoli and red onion, top with the chopped almonds and toss with the dressing.
Fall cooking greens are new this week, and our recipe includes three of the items you will get from the Student Farm in your box, including, as the star, collards!
Other items: Baby ginger (!) Garlic, 2 weeks supply of green beans (I’ve been roasting mine-delicious!) Red Russian kale, Shishito and Carmen peppers, Ruby Streaks mustard (isn’t it beautiful) and the collards, which will be tender, delicious and full of nutrition.
Prepare the collard greens. First, remove the leaves from the stems. Then chop the leaves into bite-sized pieces. You won’t be using the stems in this recipe. They can be disposed of, composted or used for something else.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic and the ginger and cook for about 1 minute, or until fragrant.
Add the collard greens to the skillet. Toss well with the garlic and ginger to combine. Season with salt and paprika. Toss again.
Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the collard greens reduce in size by about one-half.
Add the rice vinegar. Stir to combine. Cover and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the collards are a dark green and the liquid is mostly evaporated. Some may dry or turn a very, very dark color. This is okay — just scrape this part into the bowl too. It’s delicious.
The CCCC student farm provides real-world chain saw training, last week in the agriculture mechanization class a tree was felled and we were able to safely practice on a few logs. afterward, we stacked them neatly for future use for the pizza oven. This tree was particularly problematic since it was blocking much of the light for our crops towards the west side of the farm. In our permaculture class, we planted three fig trees last week. along the perimeter of their beds, we planted comfrey to block weed pressure, and onions to deter pests. The mulch protects their roots during frost and also helps with weed pressure. They don’t look like much now, but in the spring they will really shoot up. In a few years, we should have plenty of delicious figs as well as more habitat for beneficial incects.
As the fall CSA kicks off, we hope everyone has been able to dive into their first box from this week, and is enjoying the last tastes of summer and the first flavors of fall!
Next week’s box can be picked up Wednesday, Oct 12th. The box will include: – Arugula – Baby Kale “Red Russian” – Baby Mustard Greens “Ruby Streaks” – Green Beans – Garlic – Carmen “Corno del Toro” Italian Frying Peppers – Aji Dulce Sweet Peppers – Sweet Potatoes
The sweet potatoes will be fresh & uncured, and that starchiness will make them perfect for whipping up some sweet potato fries!
Remember those bags! In case you missed it, here is our new pick up procedure: – Boxes can be picked up any time on Wednesday after 2pm – Your labeled box will be in clear tupperware in the glass front cooler – Transfer the contents of the tupperware to your reusable bag (the tupperware stays on the farm) – Enjoy your box!
Here’s an easy recipe for the week!
Sofrito From Scratch: – 4 aji dulce peppers – 9 medium cloves of peeled garlic – 1 medium onion (chop into big chunks) – 2 cubanelle peppers (or our corno del toro peps, remove stems & seeds, chop in large chunks) – 1 bell pepper (remove seeds and roughly chop) – 2 roma (or similar paste-type) tomatoes (cut into chunks) – 1 bunch of cilantro (or add according to taste, wash and roughly chop) – Kosher salt (add to taste)
Steps: – Add onions and cubanelles into a food processor or blender, and blend until coarsely chopped – Add remaining ingredients to the mix and blend until smooth. Add salt to taste. – Store in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze for later use. Makes ~ 2 cups.
Robert Wells attended the Sustainable Agriculture Program at CCCC for three semesters from 2017-2018. It was my family’s dream to homestead after my retirement from the Army in 2016. That year we purchased our 43 acres in Stokes County north of Winston Salem. However, I had no idea how to grow food sustainably and I had two and a half years to kill until our two oldest graduated HS and we could move. I stumbled on CCCCs Sustainable Ag program online. I quit my job on December 31st 2016 and began at CCCC on January 5th I believe. It was the absolute best decision I could have made. I truly enjoyed the program, the instructors, and learning to provide for my family. Definitely a highlight of my life. I felt like a kid again with all of the fun field trips we took.
Work Based learning has given me an invaluable look into the life of a farmer as things change day by day. Working on a flower farm that has vegetables and places great importance on preserving food and flowers, as well as being sustainable and using organic practices, has been an awesome experience. Mikaela is wearing the orange hat; and in good company! Emma, (middle) and Emily (farm owner, right) are both CCCC Sustainable Ag farmers too! photo courtesy of Debbie Roos.
This summer six Sustainable Agriculture students are completing their work-based learning requirement. Students work at the farm or agricultural business of their choice in order to learn new skills and complete specific learning objectives.
Anthony is working on helping this colt learn to be comfortable with human interaction and lead rope training; the opportunity to spend more time one on one with the horses at the farm (they also raise cattle and hay) is part of Anthony’s learning objectives for the summer. WBL students work under the supervision of someone more experienced at the skills they want to gain; in this case Anthony has also learned proper vaccination technique and handling of a mature horse.
Working at the CEFs Farm in Goldsboro, under the high tunnel research project has been a great learning experience!
The project tests the difference between 1 layer vs 2 layers of plastic covering over the high tunnel. We are growing tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and several cucurbits on trellis. In addition to learning how the plants react and adapt to the warmer, and sometimes intense temperatures, I have also learned to identify many new insects, and plant diseases and how to control, or not to. Its been rewarding to take the gained knowledge from the CCCC Sustainable Ag program and apply it to an actively working research farm.
Thank you Robin, and all the instructors that are dedicated to this teaching! And Thank you to Dr. Sanjun Gu for giving me the opportunity to work at the CEFS Farm.
Anna Shafritz at the CEFS Research Farm, Goldsboro, NC
Me showing off the beautiful garlic braids at market.
The work-based learning credit, in my opinion, is one that strikes fear into the hearts of students.
Am I ready?
Will I remember everything I learned?
Can I find a place to work?
This credit experience is one that is unique to each of us. I chose to work as an intern at the student farm. Usually students choose to work off campus at a local farm. The goal is to pick somewhere that is going to resemble what you are hoping to do when you graduate. Ideally, you also get paid.
Thai Basil
I chose the student farm for several reasons:
Proximity to my house
I was really impressed with the farm manager as a teacher and wanted to glean whatever knowledge I could
Working here gave me the opportunity to continue where I left off in the spring semester with Advanced Organic Production
I knew there would be heavy focus of the fruit and veggie production, but we also finished up the CSA, started the on-farm market for the college, and I really got to feel like part of the next phases for the farm
I knew I would get to bring home loads of fresh food that I grew
What are some of my most memorable learning moments?
I was putting in t-posts to make a trellis in the peppers. I accidentally cut through the fabric and cut the drip tape. I decided to treat it like I was working on my own farm and not as a student and just took care of it. It was probably one of the first times I’ve done something like this and it was really empowering to not have to bug my boss.
Market Days- getting to know my customers every week and what they want. Thinking about how I would approach the following week or even the following year based on feedback from my customers. I feel like it really put me in the mindset I’ll need to be in when I start my own farm.
I was asked to demonstrate several things on the tractor to Robin’s class as well as come in to teach them how to braid garlic. I LOVED IT! I hope to incorporate teaching on my farm someday or find some other way to teach the next generation and give back to my community. This experience has reinforced that desire.
There was a week that my boss was on vacation. I was basically acting farm manager. It was awesome. I had a loose list of what needed to be done, but I had to choose when and how. I also was able to see other things that needed doing and get those taken care of. I took initiative and really took my job seriously as I filled my bosses role.
Haha and of course there was getting my first and second bee stings in the same month! I learned that I’m not really allergic so I guess honeybees are on the list of must haves for my future farm now!
I love being ready for market.
Mixed in with all of these experiences are just the daily grind. Plant, harvest, prep, repeat. All of that happening during all sorts of weather and challenges.
My biggest takeaway from this experience is that before I hoped I could do it, but now I know I can do it. My confidence has grown so much. My goals have solidified somewhat. My fear of the unknown and my abilities has diminished greatly. The greatest thing I’ve learned is that every time I fail (lots of failures happen on a farm for various reasons) I gain a new opportunity to learn from that failure and hopefully do better next time.
CCCC is ready to prepare students with the skills it takes to farm including tractor skills. Monday we did tractor training on the student farm. We were shown how to maintain, and handle tractors and their implements. We were shown the safety features and dangers of tractors. We all got a chance to use the tractor, and we worked together to change the implement which was a challenge but was good practice.CCCC also provides managerial practice. Our student farm manager for the week was Erika. She did a great job organizing us into groups and putting together our task list. Thanks to her we got so much done including planting in the field and in transplant trays, and harvest of delicious salad greens.
March brings the start of one of the busiest seasons on the farm: spring planting. Everything seems to be waking up, including the frogs, which were a constant background noise coming from the forest this week.
Potatoes being green-sprouted in the seed-starting house
Potatoes haven’t gone in the ground yet, but the seed is being activated with light and warmth to produce green sprouts and give them a little head start, while the beds are prepped with trenches and a cover of rye in every other bed to confuse the potato beetles.
Beds prepped for potatoes, with rye interspersed
The hoop house (seen above) has been leveled and glazed after jumping over one block the previous week, and it’s ready to bake out the weeds and any solanaceous diseases that might be lurking in the soil. The tomatoes that we seeded last week will go in here after the sanitization is complete.
Carrots, a crop that is especially slow to germinate, are just starting to pop up in block 3. A precise douse with the watering can along the Jang-seeded rows keeps the crop growing while denying water to the recently scuffled weeds in between the rows.
Carrot cotyledons just poking through the soil
In the Advanced Crop Production class, a prevalent topic of discussion, introduced by Kathy Jones and promoted by Eva (this week’s farm manager) was the observance of astrological cycles as a management tool for farming. At the very least, these practices can provide structure and sequencing to a farm’s calendar. To any skeptics out there who defer exclusively to hard science for their decision-making, have a close look at quantum mechanics and see what that says about the interconnectedness of all things. In that vein, as the warmth continues to build and the growth speeds up, we’ll be giving the farm a continual dose of the best fertilizer of all: the farmer’s shadow!
It has been a productive couple of weeks at CCCC’s Student Farm. A lot of work goes on during the winter months for a successful harvest. Students have been busy amending soil, planting cover crops, deciding which seeds to sow for the CSA, caring for transplants, installing irrigation, and cultivating beds to ensure a beautiful 2022 growing season.
Lars and Micah from Advanced Crop Production plant various peppers for future transplant.
Rio and Rich preparing onion beds in Block 8 with one last weeding. Onions do not do well when made to compete with weeds for nutrients and space. This task is crucial for a successful onion harvest.
Cabernet Onions patiently waiting in Hoop House A to be transplanted in Block 8. Also, check out those gorgeous pea shoots!
We warmed the soil under a plastic tarp to give the Asian Greens a jump start on germination. It worked like a charm. We had the cutest little cotyledons emerging by Wednesday!
Anna and Erica working together to make sure the irrigation system to the Asian Greens is running efficiently.
Monday’s cold and rainy weather was really no joke! Nonetheless, we still set out to get some work done and seeded a few different herbs, including lavender and thyme, in 500 cell flats. Before Monday, I’ve always wondered why it’s always so dang hard to grow herbs from seed.. but we learned that sometimes herbs need cold stratification for germination! So if you’re like me, hopefully this will make you feel a little less insane when trying to grow herbs.
Germinated arugula saying hello to the sun
On Wednesday, we took advantage of a nice warm day and continued to knock out tasks in preparation for the upcoming CSA season. Last week, we seeded arugula, kale, radishes, and salad mix. We covered them with clear plastic to heat things up and encourage germination, and sure enough they’ve started popping up! We started the day off by pulling back the row cover and letting them see the sun.
Garlic
As groups set off to start working on their tasks, some of us headed to the amendments to prepare beds for peas and onions. We also top dressed our garlic that was planted over the fall with blood meal for a boost of nitrogen. Blood meal was the nitrogen source of choice for this because it breaks down quicker compared to feather meal. This is important because by the time the spring equinox rolls around, we want the garlic to start sending its energy into bulb production as opposed to growing leaves.
Aaaand- Peas growing in the hoop house!
It was a busy week! Everyone’s working really hard and looking forward to a great CSA!
Last week you may have seen that we were hard at work on the student farm prepping beds for potatoes. Everyone pitched in to pull the old crops and weeds and throw them between the crop rows.
Wait…between the rows? Why did we do that?
Before starting classes at CCCC, my experience with mulch was that it was chipped up wood that you used to cover areas in your landscape that you didn’t want grass. In home gardening I would have never thought of adding it to my garden let alone between the rows.
Mulching has so many benefits to the farm and garden:
It introduces organic matter that will break down and feed future crops as well as the various beneficial critters and microbes that live in the soil
Mulch reduces weed pressure that reduces our overall workload and keeps those nasty weeds from stealing nutrients and moisture from the crops
On the day that we mulched it covered up some of that sticky mud and makes walking between the rows easier
This leaf mulch included pine needles that will help lower our pH as it tends to run a little high on the farm
As the days start to warm the leaf mulch will help retain some moisture and keep the clay soil from drying out and crusting on top
Mulch can also help regulate soil temperature
Aside from all these amazing benefits, leaf mulch is something that is readily available local to us and helps us reach our sustainability goals.
So next time you see your neighbor raking up their leaves ask if you can have some for your garden!
Fall 2021 CSA to begin on October 7, 2021 written by Connie Roland.
Our student farm manager, Farrell Moose has 12 years of experience in providing a CSA for Central Chatham County. Our farm is tended by many hearts and hands. Under the watchful eye of Farrell, students help tend the farm while attending classes. Some of the classes include Agricultural Mechanization, Welding, Plant Science, Plant Propagation, Organic Crop Production, and Soil Science. Our goal with the student farm CSA is to supply faculty and student volunteers with healthy organic produce while putting learned methods into practice. CSA boxes will be filled weekly with vegetables and herbs grown on Central Carolina Community College Student Farm.
This weeks CSA (October 7th) will include:
Aji dulce peppers
Frying Peppers
Yellow Crookneck Squash
Tan Cheese “pumpkin” really a winter squash
Red Russian Kale
Sweet Potato Greens
Arugula
Eggplant
Sage
Cheese Pumpkin makes a wonderful soup vessel
Aji Dulce Pepper have a sweet, fruity and slightly smokey mild heat flavor. Good for roasting, stewing and sautes.
Below are some very tasty recipes to make use of your cheese pumpkin.
It has been an interesting week. The early April weather has up and down as. We only had class Monday April 3 because the school is on spring break. We divided into 3 groups. Some of us were stepping up the baby tomato plants into bigger vegetables cell trays, other group washing what we needed to use for harvest and then harvesting, and last group made sure the wash station was clean.We got over 20 heads of Tatsoi, a bunch of green garlic, asparagus, parsley, dill and spinach. Most of what we harvested was for us to take home and enjoy over spring break. I have enjoyed so many good dinners this week from everything we harvested. It has been really good for my overall health. The asparagus, spinach, and green garlic has such a good taste, so many health benefits and makes the house smell really good when your cooking it.
Like many other leafy green vegetables, tatsoi is high in micronutrients. It is High in calcium, almost twice as milk. Calcium is essential for strong bones, blood pressure and heathly teeth. Tatsoi is also High in vitamin C..
Tatsoi we harvested. The beauty of this farm both on the field and under the tunnels is that nothing is sprayed. It has been over 3 years since an y has happened and our farm manager tries to find natural ways to handle stuff. Observing and reacting to it is key. Asian greens dont have as many pest as some things but brassicas have lots of little bugs coming at them.
Fresh green garlic and asparagus we harvested on Monday. we worked hard harvested everything as a team and making sure we had some great food to eat. I enjoy doing the prep for the harvest washing everything, getting in rhythm. some people are really on point in the class and great at washing stuff, leading the crew. Our teacher always makes sure we are working hard, and efficiently getting stuff done. It feels real good working with the farm manager, classmates and our teacher. Such a good mix,
Getting ready to bunch the asparagus crows, Jada and Mikaela work to get it all done before class ended. They did and it was fantastic.
Bagged tatsoi and the green garlic sitting side by side . waiting for us to pickup as class ended.
This week on the farm we got a lot done. It was the last week of winter and it was a cold week. Monday and Wednesday when we were out on the student farm, it was around 30-37 degrees at the start of class both days. We were all a little cold but once you start moving around the weather didn’t seem as bad. One thing that was tough is when it would go from being really warm but got cold again once that wind starting blowing. Wednesday was especially bad first thing but we are all tough farmers, out there in the elements getting stuff done. By the end of next week the high will be 80 degrees. Just a huge shift in the span of a week. Welcome to the jungle!
Danielle was our farm manager this week and she did a great job. Really good at directing, while also working with us. We got a whole lot done in class this week and she did a good job of making sure we got everything we needed complete. It was really important to get stuff done because it is spring break next week. Short week so we needed to be productive and on point.
We did mostly prep work on the farm which resulted in weeding, putting row cover on all of the brassica beds we just planted, making sure the strawberries were all covered. One thing that was really impressive was how we dug up a bunch of leeks and onions that were started in low tunnel. We then went out and planted a 100 ft bed full of onion and leeks right as a few of us went in and dug the rest of them up. We did 3 row of onions and leeks on a 100 ft bed.
The Agribon ag- 30 row cover was used on all of the beds to protect them from the chilly nights we will have this week. It normally takes 4-5 of us to put the row cover on but to also take it off. All of the brassicas we planted last week in this bed, we covered this week. (kale, broccoli and cauliflower.) We had to get some metal rods to use as our arch. A lot of rods had to be bent a little bit to get them in ground right. Many hands make quick work when working with 100 ft beds and starting seeds. The row cover is huge because when we didn’t have it on last week a few brassicas got hit a bit by cold. They can recover but it was telling of the overnight lows we’ve had lately.
This is where we planted all of the brassicas last week. I wish I would have posted a photo of all of us putting row cover on. I think it was on my other phone that decided to stop working on me where I had photos. The ag-30 will keep all of these plants from getting too cold and tapping out before they had a little bit of time to get some roots and get big for us.
There were 5 of us taking this silage tarp of this block. The potatoes are going to be planted here soon so it was time to take it off. Everything was mostly dry and the wind was going to take care of the rest of it considering how windy it has been lately.
Owen, Jada and Hailey start our solanaceous transplants. Smiling while you work is the way to do it and these 3 do it well.
Making sure the leeks are covered. Once they get zapped by the cold there is normally no going back. We got all of this covered up and the strawberries as well to the left in this picture.
Danielle was not only managing her crew today but also getting down and doing some hand weeding on probably the hardest thing we had to weed today. The perennial flower bed.
I am excited to see how everything looks in a couple of weeks that we planted and the solanaeous seeds we sowed in the Greenhouse. This is such a great group of classmates and farmers. There is no ego and we all get along really well. Everybody here is more than capable of not only running a farm but also managing workers as well. I am very impressed of what we all got done this week in this cold weather. This was big for the farm and for the CSA that will be starting in a few weeks.
The Student Farm at CCCC 