It is hard to believe that eight weeks of the semester have gone by, and so quickly already. It is also hard to believe that there have already been three farmers markets on the Richmond KPU campus. With that being said, though, there is still a lot of time to do things that we (the students and professors) want to do this semester, and time to make changes for the betterment of the terraces and the orchard. With lots of hard work, through good and bad weather, we were able to reach our goals this week and problem-solve, as we usually do, on the fly!
The Tuesday class (June 21st) was a quieter harvest day for the terraces. We did not have as much to harvest as we usually do (well, besides lettuce that is) so we spent some time going through the terrace gardens talking about what had been done recently and what needed to be done that day.
The tomatoes, at that point bearing young fruit, were looking good. The indeterminate tomatoes needed to be trellised to support their hefty vegetative growth. This was to be done by a few students with 4-5 foot stakes and string, creating a weave pattern that was to support several plants between each stake. Unfortunately for the Bonnie Best variety of tomatoes, they had been planted in an area that had not received compost last year, so their growth has been rather underwhelming. We will be adding some alfalfa and bone meal to the soil around them next week to give them a boost. However, there was some good news on the tomato front: we do not have late blight, so far. Mike, one of our professors, had taken a leaf sample of what he had suspected to late blight and had let it sporulate in a plastic bag. When he checked it under a microscope, though, he saw no lemon-shaped spores (late blight) but did see lots of nematodes. The nematodes were likely from the soil, brought to the leaf by soil water splash. Their presence reminds us of the diverse array of organisms in an agro-ecosystem.
After admiring the tomatoes for some time, we moved on to the other side of the terraces to have a look at the progress of the rest of the plants. We did make the difficult decision to take the finished pea plants out the garden. Even though peas had been a best-selling item at the farmers market, the plants were finished and it was time to put something else in their place. Once the pea plants and their trellises were removed, sweet potato plants were put into their place. There was some discussion about the difference between yams and sweet potatoes, and some discussion about the taste of sweet potato leaves. The young leaves are high in antioxidants and great in a stir fry.
We then moved onto one of the more unique plants on the terraces, the tobacco plants. The seed for these plants had come into the possession of the department a few years ago and had been planted to not only fill space, but to see how the plants would do up here on the West Coast in a much cooler climate than they have traditionally grown in. They looked like they were doing quite well, as was the next plot of plants we looked at. Although the ground around the already producing peppers was covered in Purslane, we were reminded that this plant was doing a service for us. By aggressively covering the ground, the Purslane was preventing the harder to control grass weeds from getting a grip on the area, saving us precious time that could be devoted to other tasks.
We did look at other parts of the garden, including the then foot-high Sorghum grass we started from seed a few months ago, and much of it looks like it is coming along quite nicely. Some of the lettuces needed replacing, having been harvested from several times, but the rest of the garden needed to be harvested again. Thus, for the farmers market that week we had onions, scallions, lettuce mixes, kale and chard.
On the Thursday class (June 23rd) we went to the Orchard. It has been a while since I have been out in rain like that; our rain gear got a good workout for the few hours it rained. The first order of business was to check some of the traps that had been laid out the week before around the carrots. The traps had been put out to investigate whether there were any Carrot Rust Flies present. Unfortunately, we did find some. However, we did find one very interesting specimen, which we were told had been infected by a beneficial fungus (see the insect at the top left border line of the most central square).
After inspecting and removing the old traps, we got down and dirty (literally) and planted about 120 more strawberry plants in a large double row between the potatoes and the pear trees.
After planting the strawberries, we moved over to the other side of the orchard and planted out a bunch of pumpkin plants, some of which included the hull-less pumpkins that we are doing a research trial with. There were also some squash planted in the same area, all of which were planted at 80 cm apart in 10 rows. The compost that had been spread in class last week in the same location has packed down a bit from the movement over it and the recent rainfall. By planting the pumpkins into the compost, we were hoping to give the pumpkins the best start possible without stressing them too much.
I am super fortunate that my job leads me all over the lower half of BC, allowing me to meet very like-minded people with a passion for preserving agriculture here in the Fraser Valley. Today, I was over in Maple Ridge, where the conversion of farm land into housing developments is happening faster than anywhere else in the province. However, there are still 1,300 farms in Maple Ridge alone, every single one worth protecting. And that was the focus of the “Exploring Ways to Foster Local Sustainable Agriculture in Maple Ridge” event, held on June 9th, and organized by one of my oldest shearing customers, Al Kozak. Al is passionate about protecting agriculture in Maple Ridge, and is a committee member of the City of Maple Ridge Agriculture Advisory committee. For as long as I can remember he has had a small flock of Dorset cross ewes and a big ram, but has also growing garlic for the farmers markets he attends. His commitment and passion for protecting agriculture reminded me that one of my neighbours down the road is involved in the Langley Township Agriculture Advisory committee. And, with a quick google search, I discovered that the City of Richmond has an advisory committee as well. I am curious to know if these committees ever get together and discuss the umbrella issues that affect all those involved in Agriculture here in the Fraser Valley. I would also like to know if there is any way that the students of our department can get involved in these committees or at least attend these meetings. I have attended one Langley Townships AAC meeting and wish I had time to attend more, but I want to get a group of students to go together to any of the AAC meetings that occur here in the Valley and let the committee know that KPU supports agriculture. I will try to remember to bring this up on Thursday when we are out at the orchard to see what others think.
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