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!
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!
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.
– Danielle V.
The Student Farm at CCCC 