*Record Scratch* *Freeze Frame*

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!

-Owen Phillips