Fruit Farm Project

For my fruit production class this past semester, our semester-long project was to plan out the design for a fruit farm. We had to find a site in Minnesota or any other adjacent state where we would set up the farm. The farm had to include a "mainstream" crop like apples or grapes and at least one crop that wasn't quite as common. I ended up making a fruit farm where I would grow grapes, raspberries and blackberries for commercial jams, preserves and other value added products. We also had to go through the process of looking at USDA soil maps, choosing the cultivars of fruit, and thinking through all the other small details like cover crops, marketing, organic practices and five year plans.
Below are snippets of my program so you can get an idea of what I came up with. I figured it would be easier to show you instead of describing it. The following isn't the whole thing, because the whole thing is 17 pages long and I don't want to bore you all to tears. And, of course, I'm not an expert farmer so if my theories about cover crops and five year planting plans are a bit weird, cut me a little slack, this is my first one.

So there you have it. Lots of tables and lists of information, and putting it together took a really really long time, but I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome. I didn't include some of the stuff about my marketing plan and a lot of the hefty list of cultivars I chose, among other things. But I figured this was a lot of reading as it is. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask. Next up on my list of blog post is some of my field trip experiences which will be up sometime next week!

It's Been Too Long

Hello all! I've returned from the busy-ness that was my fall semester and I know that, first of all, I must apologize for being gone for so long. I've accomplished a lot in the last couple of months and in my next few posts I hope I can share that with you.
Classes were, overall, very successful. I really enjoyed my Horticultural Marketing class and my Fruit Production class. We went on a lot of field trips for these so I'll be doing posts with the pictures and information from those. Also, in the Fruit Production class, we had a semester long project where we created a system plan for a fruit farm of our own creation. There were some parameters for where the farm was to be located and what we could choose to grow, but otherwise there was a lot of creative leeway with it that I really enjoyed. I'll be doing another post on that project and hopefully I can get it uploaded to the blog so you all can take a look at it.  I also had a Agricultural Biochemistry class and, while not really my cup of tea, was an interesting class in that it applied chemistry to plants more than my general chemistry class of my sophomore year. My last class was an online, general management course and there's not much that's noteworthy about that, so I won't even bother. But I ended the semester with a 3.8 GPA so that's pretty exciting.
Besides classes, I was pretty busy with my third year with the Minnesota Marching Band and pep band. That and work took up almost all of my spare time that I didn't devote to homework so, sadly, blogging fell to the bottom of the list. My marching band also traveled to Houston for the Texas Bowl on the 27th, so even my winter break up until now has been busy. If anyone wants to see our halftime show from the bowl game, here is a link to our video page. Enjoy!
My next few posts will cover some of my field trips for classes, the fruit farm project I completed and a few other things that aren't as garden specific. I'll also do a post about what I've got planned for the coming semester (hopefully more blog posts than this past semester).
Hope you're all still reading and having a wonderful holiday season!

My marching band on the field at Reliant Stadium for the 2013 Texas Bowl.

The Treehouse (and Fall Semester Class)

Hello all! You haven't heard much from me lately, and I do apologize, but between moving in to a new apartment, preseason marching band camp and the start of fall semester classes, I've been just a tiny bit busy. Thankfully my roommates and I have successfully completed our move into our new place and have survived the first week and a half of class.
I'm really really happy with our new living arrangements. Two other girls and I have moved to the upper level of a duplex just a short distance off campus and our space is super cozy. We all have our own rooms and the living spaces are pretty much full to the brim with plants. It probably doesn't help that two of us are horticulture majors. It's rather common among people in the marching band to name their houses, so we've decided to call our new place "The Treehouse", mostly because there's a lot of greenery inside the house and out (as you can see in my second picture). Also, it's entirely on the top level of a house, so the elevation makes sense with the name as well.

Our main living room. The window is southwest facing so it's nice and bright here during the day. 

A view out my window. Another reason why we call it The Treehouse.

Our garden's been bountiful, so we made a few things into a lovely centerpiece.

Our dining area has some nice big windows too.

One of the most exciting things about the start of this semester is the start of actual Horticulture courses. I've had a lot of the prerequisites to do up until now, but this year I actually get to go in depth with horticulture material. My first class bright and early in the morning is Agricultural Biochemistry. And while chemistry is really not my thing, this class is taught through the Horticulture department and is aimed toward those of us studying plants. This way we can learn the facets of biochemistry that is directly relevant to our studies. My second class is Viticulture and Fruit Production for Local and Organic Markets (which is the longest class title ever!) This one is really exciting because we'll be learning about how to run an organic fruit or viticulture operation. We'll be visiting a fruit farm, developing a plan for one of our own and learning all the necessary steps to starting up an operation of that kind. And, fun fact, but one of my professors is the person who helped invent the Honeycrisp Apple! I also have Horticultural Marketing, which is quickly turning into a very interesting and thought provoking course. We analyze not only different marketing strategies and their uses, but how those things apply to the horticultural market. Lastly, I have an online General Management course to fulfill a requirement for my business track within the horticulture major. So look for some posts regarding those horticulture classes because I'm sure I'll have a good amount to talk about. 

What better way to start the fruit production class than by the professors handing out apples!
Zestar Apples are delicious! 

And finally, I'll leave you with a little entertainment for the day, I've included a link to our first marching band performance of the year! Have fun singing along with all our karaoke tunes!

UMMB Halftime Show #1

First Harvest!

So I visited the vegetable garden for the first time today since I got back to the Twin Cities and it's HUGE!! The tomatoes have turned into an absolute jungle and had to be strung to their cages because they were trailing everywhere. Still no ripe tomatoes but there's tons of green ones. The zucchini and pumpkin plants have shot up, as has the lone sunflower.

Our jungle of a tomato patch. The huge zucchini and pumpkin plants are behind those.

Victoria with our super tall sunflower.

The most exciting thing however, was our first harvest! We got a bowl of snow peas, a bowl of beans and an absolutely MASSIVE zucchini. We've got two more zucchini's that will be ready soon as well, but the one we picked is a monster. I took it home and made two loaves of chocolate chip zucchini bread with it and I still have most of the zucchini left over. Thankfully my aunt and grandma can put it to use and make some of their own zucchini recipes. 

Our harvest of beans and peas.

Me with the MONSTER zucchini!

About a third of the zucchini made this much bread.

And with that update, only one shift at work stands between me and a few days up in northern Minnesota with my boyfriend and his family. Lakes and cabins are one of my favorite things about summer here. :)

Rant Time

Alright guys. I don't rant much, but you'll have to bare with me for just a short little post because I really need this out of my system.
So I'm a Horticulture major, Food Systems focus, with a minor in Sustainable Agriculture. Kind of a mouthful, I know, but I'm excited to wrap my last two years of school up with that mouthful. I tell this to a good number of people on a regular basis because, when you tell people you're in college, that's the first thing they'll ask you.
The second question is always "What do you want to do when you're done with school?", to which I answer with something along the lines of "Well, I really want to work with urban agriculture, community supported agriculture groups, co-op groups, things like that." And the most obvious statement in my answer is usually the word "urban".
Now here begins my rant. Once the conversation gets started with those first two questions, it'll run along quite fine and then I'll get a statement that goes something like this: "Oh, well you should get yourself a big piece of land and get yourself a farm going on that." And I'm sitting there wondering if that person really heard anything I just said in my first two statements. I'm not saying anything against larger, more traditional farms in this. I really admire that lifestyle, honestly. I just recognize the fact that it's not for me.
But this statement that I hear from people when I describe my goals to them is, in fact, the reason I want to pursue this career so much. I want to prove to them that I don't need a big plot of land way out in the country to be able to feed myself, feed whatever family I might have in the future, and teach others to do the same. I want to change the way people think about food production and agriculture so that, when they hear those terms, their brains don't automatically jump to rolling fields of corn, wheat, or some other bulk crop. (Again, not that those aren't a very important part of agriculture, because they most definitely are!) But I want to get people start thinking outside the box more and realizing that they don't have to depend solely on their local grocery store or corner store for every single thing they put on their tables.
So when people say I would love having a big piece of land with a farm like it's the easiest assumption in the world, I like to look at them and say "No, that's exactly the opposite of what I want to do." Because studying horticulture and sustainable agriculture isn't just about taking care of me when I'm finished with school. It's about taking that 82% of the US population that lives in cities or suburbs and showing them what they can do with some dirt and seeds, and showing them what they can put on their tables from their own backyards. And it's showing people that they can take care of themselves and their families if they just step outside their box for a while.
End rant.

In other news, the UP of Michigan has been REALLY COLD (for summer anyway) for the days I've been at home. We had a couple sunny days where the temperature was bareable, but today it's been low 50s and raining. Pretty gloomy. But, on one of the nicer days earlier this week, we did a bit of blueberry picking and, despite the cooler temperatures, it seems to be a great season for it!

I also got an update from my gardening partner back in the Twin Cities that we've had the first (tiny!) harvest from our garden. Two jalapenos that we're probably going to make our guy friends eat for a challenge. Mostly to find out if they're good and how spicy they are!

Garden Update

Hello everyone!
My apologies for not posting too much this summer. I wanted to wait to give you a garden update until some tangible progress had been made. I went over to help put up a fence the other day and it seemed as if most of the growth had happened in the week since I'd been there last. We've got tons of flowers on the tomato plants and even a few small fruits. The pepper plants have shot up like rockets and the pumpkin has really taken off.

Quite a bit of growth since the last time I took a picture! 

Baby Roma tomatoes are just starting to show up.

About a third of the height of these peppers was probably achieved in the last week or so,

The pumpkin looks a bit upside down, but we were in the process of re-positioning it so we could get the fence up.

The nasturtiums are looking healthy too.

The snow peas are just starting to climb their trellis.

Our row of beans and the beets in front of them are growing a bit more slowly, but they're getting there.

After these pictures were taken, up went a fence to protect things from the rabbits. We had a young sunflower get it's head chopped off the night before, so we decided we'd better protect the rest of our crop.

In other news, my seasonal greenhouse job ended a few weeks ago. I'm a bit bummed to not be around plants all day anymore, but I gained a lot of really good experience and I learned quite a bit about caring for flowering annuals as well as how a successful greenhouse business is run. Getting internship credit for my major was a real plus too.
I go back to Michigan for a visit later on next week into the following week, so hopefully I can help my mom out in the garden back home, or just have time to take some wildflower photos to put up in a post.

Finally Gardening!!

This week I FINALLY started gardening again. My partner in crime returned from studying abroad and we're using her backyard for our vegetable garden shenanigans. Earlier in the week we planted our young plants and today we got all the seeds in. We're starting a little late in the season, but hopefully with a bit of luck and some nice weather we can be harvesting toward the end of the summer.

What we have planted:
-Five Roma tomatoes
-One heirloom "Striped German" tomato
-Two mini-belle peppers
-One banana pepper
-One jalapeno pepper
-Nasturtium
-Beets
-Bush beans
-Snow Peas
-Sunflowers
-Marigolds around the tomato plants

We decided to save space and do our herbs in containers. We have:
-One pot of chives
-Two pots of basil
-One pot of mint

We have super sunny location, so I'm excited to see how things turn out!

The Roma tomatoes are the plants I started from seed, as are the two mini-belle peppers. Three of the Romas are still pretty small and I'm hoping they make it and start growing more soon. I don't think they enjoyed their extended time in too-small pots on my windowsill.

In other news, two of my African violets are blooming gorgeously, and two others are starting to as well. I'm in the process of rooting a lot more cuttings from other African violets (not my original ones with the white/pink center flowers) in hopes of getting some more plants with different flower colors.

More updates to come from the garden once things start progressing. We should see some seed germination in (hopefully) about a week and a half. But right now is the waiting game, so cross your fingers for some strong seedlings and good weather!