Oct. 19: Final Day at the Orchard and Pumpkin Harvest

We have been having some very soggy, grey weather here on the "Wet Coast" for the past couple weeks, but once again we were lucky to have nice, rain-free morning for our last Agroecosystems class at the Orchard. 

I got to the Orchard a bit early before all the activity of the day started, and I was rewarded for my punctuality by being witness to a beautiful Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias fannini) in what had previously been our corn and bean field. The Great Blue Heron is classified as "Special Concern" here in BC by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), meaning that they "may become a threatened or an endangered species because of a combination of biological characteristics and identified threats".

Great Blue Herons feast mainly on small fish and other aquatic life such crabs, crayfish, frogs, and salamanders. However, they have been known to opportunistically feed on small field rodents. Here's hoping that our heron helped himself to a breakfast of some of our pesky voles while he was visiting the orchard this morning!

Our Great Blue Heron visitor

The Great Blue also checked out the garlic plots we planted last week (can you see him to the right?).

Garlic plots planted last week

Our class also got to welcome the newest member of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems team at KPU, Torin Boyle! Torin has moved from his home in Ontario to be the new Research & Education Laboratory Farm Coordinator. Welcome Torin!

Torin Boyle, new farm coordinator

The main task we needed to get done today before we could officially put the orchard to bed for the year was to get the Styrian pumpkins out of the pumpkin patch.

 A few weeks ago we harvested all of the other pumpkins from the field, but we left the Styrians because we are running a trial on them. The Styrian pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo subsp. pepo var. Styriaca) is a hull-less variety of pumpkin, which means that it works great for crushing to extract pumpkin seed oil, as well as eating the raw seeds (see "Random Facts about Styrian Pumpkins" at the end of this post). Nature's Path here in Richmond is interested in using pumpkin seed oil in their organic prepared products, as it is difficult to find non-GMO canola oil. The company asked us earlier in the year to grow the pumpkins and record the data regarding seed size, number, weight, etc. We found Styrian pumpkin seeds from two suppliers: An Austrian company (which were quite expensive) and from a North American company, Strictly Medicinal Seeds (much cheaper).

We grew the pumpkins from the two different sources side by side in order to compare the size and quality of the two different seeds. However, after a season's worth of growth, we realized today that it was challenging to separate the vines and sort out which pumpkin came from which source! We did the best we could to distinguish the two, and then harvested the rest.

After we got all the pumpkins out, we removed the plastic mulch that we had laid down to suppress weeds and stored it for use next year.

After the plastic mulch was removed, we raked the area by hand and prepared the area to plant a cover crop on.

We choose a cover crop of winter wheat and white clover to plant on the area.

And with that, the Orchard Farm gardens were officially put to bed until next year's new crop of Agroecosystem students return for another season of planting!


********************************************************************

Random Facts on Styrian Pumpkin Seed Oil*

• The hull-less Styrian pumpkin variety first appeared in the early 19th century in the province of Styria in the southeastern region of Austria.
• The hull-less trait resulted from a naturally-occurring single recessive gene mutation in the variety that led to a very thin outer hull.
• Many cultivars have been bred from this original hull-less pumpkin to produce hull-less pumpkins with better yield, seed production, and disease resistance.
• The oil from the hull-less Styrian pumpkin is not considered a "virgin" oil because it must be roasted prior to pressing.
• Roasting allows the proteins in the seeds to coagulate and the convenient separation of the lipid fraction. 
• Roasting also gives the Styrian pumpkin seed oil its distinct flavor and aroma.
• Pressing Styrian pumpkin seeds for oil is mainly a handcraft and done on a relatively small scale by local mills.
• Styrian pumpkin seed oil is light-sensitive and best kept in dark bottles.
• High quality Styrian pumpkin seed oil is a dark green color with orange-to-red fluorescence. 
• Styrian pumpkin seed oil has a high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (45.6% of total fatty acid content), followed by monounsaturated fatty acids (35.9%) and saturated fatty acids (18.5%). 

*Adapted from: G.O. Fruhwirth and A. Hermetter. 2008. Production technology and characteristics of Styrian pumpkin seed oil. Eur. J. Lipid. Sci. Technol. 110: 637-644.

Hello, everyone!
It's been beautiful colorful days of fall, I hope you all are enjoying it.
This post is the update for what we have done last week's agroecosystem management class at the Orchard.

We had an intense trio of storms this weekend from Oct 15th to 17th, meanwhile had to plant all garlic in before.
The plots divided into 20 subplots, were at the western area beside a bed of strawberry, and consist of 2 factorial treatments; monoculture of only garlic/polyculture with wheat, and big/small cobs of each garlic bulb. Each treatment has 5 replicates.

Meanwhile, We have done a list of things;
First, Spreading compost and tilling with the tractor.
S

Then, splitting into experimental plots, breaking garlic bulbs, and planting them 6-rows (6-inch row and between plants spacing) per one subplot. For polyculture plots, there are 4-rows of wheat that seeded by using the Earhway seeder, so as the 2 rows of garlic are between the wheat. 

We made it before the dusk to set all garlic cloves into the ground. Dr. Mike's intention of this experiment is to see the potential correlation between planted clove size, as well as poly-culturing with wheat, could be proportional to the yields next year.

There is also an intention to harvest the wheat grains but we did not have a comparing "wheat-monoculture plot". Still, intercropping effects on garlic can be analyzed when we harvest them, such as resistance and resilience against environmental/biological stresses and shocks, not only the bulb size (Eric Block, 2010. "Garlic and Other Alliums: The Lore and the Science").

It is getting close to what people describe as the "Raincouver" here in wintertime, but I wish everyone is going to have a healthy, exciting, and meaningful end of the year 2016.

Cheers!
Masa
 

Time To Start Cleaning Up And Getting Ready For Winter

It's October 5th and a beautiful day to be outside. The crops are finished at the Orchard except for the winter squash that we are harvesting today.

We have to weigh the squash so we know how much we harvested in this plot, and also so comparisons can be made with other harvests, be it past or future or other areas. This lets us know if we need to do something different, for example use more compost or maybe it's just not the right soil type for growing the crop. This is done for all the crops to see what does best where and with what amendments  to the soil, such as compost.

We ended up with two pickup trucks full!

 

While we were harvesting the squash and pumpkins Mike and Masa were checking the wire worm traps that were in the corn plot. Wire worms are tough little larvae of the click beetle that like to eat the roots of grasses which corn belongs to, and they also like to burrow into potatoes. They are a real agricultural problem as there are no real good solutions to getting rid of them especially in certified organic farming.

 

 

 

Here Masa is digging up one of the traps,

 

 



 

and Masa with the trap. The trap is just a plant pot with soil and wheat seeds in it to attract the wire worms.

 

 

Breaking apart the soil looking for wire worms,

 

 

and finding them. Meanwhile,

 

 

 

Leanne and Mike are pulling the last of the pole beans and netting out of the field to let the plants dry out so it will be easier to get the plants and netting separated.

 

 

Masa is not the only one who found pests in the vegetable beds. Leanne found a young vole. They dig holes down into the soil and make their homes in among the crops and also at the base of fruit trees. Voles are a big pest problem here at the Orchard as they like to eat the vegetables and roots including the fruit trees' roots.

 

 

Back at the campus, we unloaded the pumpkins in the underground lockup.

 

 

These are Galeux d'Eysines pumpkins, they are a French heirloom variety that are salmon in colour with growths that look like warts. They are supposed to be good for making pies, and not sure if this is true, but the more warts the sweeter the pumpkin.