My Experience with Work-Based Learning

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.

Heather Taylor

This Week on the Farm 4/26/20 – 5/2/20

This week was our first week harvesting garlic scapes. Scapes are defined as the long internodes that form the basal part or the whole of a peduncle. You can identify them in your garlic patch by the white lump that will eventually open up to flower. We remove the scape to encourage the plant to put more energy into increasing the size of the bulb.

The fava bean pods are starting to fill out. This is a sign the beans are close to harvest (to be eaten as fresh beans).

Weeding continues weekly. We weed to remove flowers, decrease our seed bank, and remove plants that compete with our crops from nutrients, water, or sunlight.

Sweet potato slips are sprouting away in the farm office. We place our sweet potatoes in lined crates, cover them with peat moss, and leave them in a dark, warm office for several months before planting them in the field. The slips are watered with warm water and left to drain outside weekly.

This Week on the Farm 4/12/20 – 4/18/20

We finished anchoring Hoop House South in place.

The large bolt prevents the hoop house from moving during strong winds. In the past, when not anchored, the hoop has moved during a storm.

We continue with our late spring planting in the hoop houses. After installing irrigation, we planted peppers, ginger, turmeric, and tomatoes this week. One of our tomatoes, Sakura, produces fewer suckers and smaller leaves which makes it an excellent option for high tunnel production.

Aji Dulce peppers are very popular among CCCC faculty and farm volunteers. Spanish for sweet pepper, they are flavorful without much spice.

Ginger sprouts out from the soil.

We harvested strawberries, a farm favorite, for the second week. Both beds of Sweet Charlie strawberries, one with mulch and one with landscape fabric, are producing fruit with little pest damage (aside from some damage from birds eating the fruit).

This Week on the Farm 3/29/20- 4/5/20

We harvested bolting brassicas and rapini (the top section of brassicas that have already started to flower) in the hoop house. Toscano kale is the kale variety that tends to bolt first.

Bolting Champion collards

Bolting Toscano kale

James moved soil and graded block 3 to improve issues with pooling water and poor drainage.

We worked in the asparagus bed harvesting Jersey Giant asparagus and weeding bindweed, a common vine-like weed in the Convolvulaceae family that wraps itself tightly around crops.

Bindweed is a dreaded warm season weed.

Several volunteers planted flat green Italian beans in Hoop House A. The beans were planted around bolting kale plants which will be cut at the roots and removed in the next few weeks.