Grow What You Eat

Notices

Below, in chronological order, you'll find all of the notices and reminders I've posted throughout the semester regarding updated content, due dates, fascinating factoids, etc.

Therefore, I encourage you to make a habit out of visiting this page on a regular basis.

It's been awhile since I've updated this page so I want to spend some time adding a lot of resources/references I've mentioned in class over the past several weeks.

• First and as always, a quick reminder that you can find all of the recorded class sessions at this (link).
• Also a quick reminder that you can find all of the pictures we've discussed in the class - including mine - at this (link).
• This just past Tuesday I sent you a link to the New York Times article "Vital Places of Refuge in the Bronx, Community Gardens Gain Recognition." Just in case you lose track of the link in your email here it is again (link). In this piece is a link to the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets "Community Gardens and Urban Agriculture" webpage that contains a lot of very interesting information and resources for people interested in developing urban food farms.
• Also in the New York Times this week was the piece "Replacing Your Lawn? Instead of a Meadow, Consider a Food Forest" that features a lot of information on pawpaw and persimmon trees as well as many other native "minor" tree and small fruits (link).
• Staying on the topic of food forests there are ongoing community efforts in many cities including Albany, Syracuse and yes, even Cincinnati.
• Shifting gears a little, I also spent some time on Thursday discussing techniques for growing tree and small fruits. While we're going to run out of time to go into growing fruit in detail, you can find a variety of resources on the Small Fruit (link) and Tree Fruit (link) pages of this website.
• Pruning is typically one of the most intimidating aspects of growing trees and shrubs for most people and pruning fruit-bearing trees and shrubs can be downright frightening! One of the first steps in becoming a confident pruner is to remember that in the wild there are no little elves running around pruning anything - i.e., nature is perfectly capable of taking care of itself. The problem in letting fruit trees take care of themselves in a garden setting is that they'll commit most of their energy toward vegetative growth versus fruit production. Therefore, the goal of fruit tree pruning is to create a balance between vegetative growth and fruit production as well as enhancing the quality of the fruit produced by increasing the amount of light and air flowing throughout the tree as explained in the Stark Brother's Nurseries and Orchard video at this (link).
• Taking fruit tree pruning to the extreme many/most commercial orchards have moved toward "High Density" plantings beginning about fifteen years ago. In high density orchards there can be anywhere from 1,000 to upwards of 2,000 trees per acre planted as close as three to five feet apart. To fit trees this close together they're grafted onto completely dwarfing rootstocks (link) such as Malling 9 (M.9) and pruned to a "tall spindle" (link) form that's supported by a trellis system. While I've yet to see anyone extoll the virtues of this type of fruit tree system for home plantings, there's no question in my mind that it can work extremely well and allow anyone to easily grow anywhere from one to ten or more different fruit trees in a small residential property because the trees are small and very easy to prune (link).
• Several of you have expressed interest in learning more about grafting and budding of fruit trees, grapes and other fruits. While we won't have time to go into this topic this summer, I do spend several weeks each spring semester doing a deep dive into this topic. For A LOT more information check out the following sections of my Plant Propagation class website; "Principles of Grafting and Budding" (link), "Techniques of Grafting" (link), and "Techniques of Budding" (link). You can even go on a field trip to Cummins Nursery by clicking here.
• Speaking of Cummins Nursery (link) I'll spend a bit of time in class discussing the importance of growing fruit trees featuring compatible rootstocks and scions. Cummins Nursery is one of the very few nurseries in North America that will custom graft/bud fruit trees to your specification!
• I mentioned Gene's Backyard Orchard website (link) briefly last week because it explains how Gene Yale managed to grow 97 apple trees (representing 93 varieties) in his very typical suburban backyard! It's a perfect example of how you can creatively grow A LOT of food in relatively small spaces!

Below are my end-of-the-week updates.

• As always, a quick reminder that you can find all of the recorded class sessions at this (link).
• Next, as I mentioned in class yesterday I want to meet with each of your individually to catch up a bit. I want to chat about your experience in the class including what you've found to be helpful, what you've found to be frustrating, what you'd still like to discuss/learn before the last day of class on Thursday, August 10th, etc. To schedule that conversation, select a day and time in the EXCEL spreadsheet at this (link).
• Make sure to spend some time before Tuesday's class reviewing the cover crop and soil testing resources as I want to spend just a bit more time discussing their benefits. They can be found at the bottom of the page at this (link).
• You've no doubt noticed that I've been sharing a lot of the pictures that you've been sending me with rest of the class. You can no find all of the pictures we've discussed in the class - including mine - at this (link).
• Finally, Julia has been making great progress on the scrap wood veggie table and there's a chance it'll be finished by next Tuesday. Also, my order of lettuce and greens seed from Johnny's Seed should arrive this coming Monday so I'll share my planting plans with you in class. To prepare you for the conversation, please watch all of the leafy greens videos at the bottom of the Asteraceae page at this (link).

I want to take a moment to follow up on a couple of items from this morning's class.

• First, a quick reminder that you can find all of the recorded class sessions at this (link).
• Also, with a strong Syracuse connection, GardenSoxx is a clever option for growing food-bearing plants under a wide range of conditions (link).
• The Brady Farm website is back up and running (link).

Finally, looking to next week there is no class next Tuesday (July 4th) so I'll see you all next Thursday (July 6th) morning at 10:00.

Defintely an interesting day on campus yesterday as everyone's productivity (and online shopping - NOT) was greatly hampered by sporadic Internet access. At this point it does seem that access is back to normal and we can look forward to tomorrow morning's class at 10:00 via Zoom.

So, what's the plan for tomorrow's class?

• First, before class I would like for you to read "Here's a Look at the Water Crises That Might Be Coming to You Soon" an article that appeared in this past Sunday's New York Times (link). Specifically, I would like for you to compare and contrast the food production practices being use by farmers in Bangladesh with those we've discussed in class so far this summer.
• I would also like for you to read the Tops grocery store flyer that appeared in this past Sunday's Syracuse Post-Standard (link). Do any of the practices described by the growers sound familiar?
• Backtracking a bit, I want to introduce you to the Natural Resources Conservation Service online "Web Soil Survey" tool (here). The United States Department of Agriculture has conducted county by county soil surveys continously for more than seventy years. Until the advent of the World Wide Web, these surveys were published in book form and for many years Moon Library maintained a collection of all the New York State Soil Surveys. Now this valuable resource is completely online and can provide detailed soil information down to a specific street address. I encourage you to explore this tool before class tomorrow to see if you can determine the soil type and conditions in your neighborhood.
• Several of your classmates have sent me pictures of the progress they're making on their capstone projects. I'll share them with you and they can explain what they're doing and can solicit your feedback.
• Last, but far from least, I'll introduce you to the benefits of cover crops and soil testing resources (link)

As per the email I sent to the class at 8:24 this morning, there is/was no class this morning because of a campus-wide Internet outage likely related to an upgrade currently in progress to our Evergreen wireless network. Access was restored at about 10:30, but it comes and goes which would make attempting to hold class via Zoom difficult/impossible.

Good morning - I hope everyone had a great weekend – and had a chance to enjoy some great food? As I mentioned to Lila in an email over the weekend, strawberries and rhubarb are in season across the northeast while asparagus harvest is just about over.

Anyway, today is going to be one of those days where there are not enough hours to get everything done that needs to get done. Therefore, NO CLASS today!!!

Looking ahead to Thursday, we’ll discuss “succession planting” strategies and the use of “cover crops” for soil improvement and pest (insects, diseases and weeds) management.

Therefore, in preparation for Thursday’s class, please review the following:

• Johnny’s Seed Succession Planting Interval Charts for Vegetables (link)
• ATTRA Scheduling Vegetable Plantings for Continuous Harvest (link)
• Cover Crops and Soil Testing (link)

Stay well and I’ll see you all this Thursday morning!

I want to take a moment to update everyone as to where we're at and where we're heading four weeks into the class.

First, by the end of today I will have met with each of you in person or via Zoom so we can get to know each other a bit better, discuss your expectations for the class and brainstorm a bit about your capstone project. Everyone's project ideas are solid and I'm excited to see how they turn out. The one reminder I'll add here is I want to encourage you to focus each component - manuscript, presentation and video - on the same topic. Each component should reinforce the others and help to tell a single, unified story.

I hope you all had a great weekend. We spent ours over in Niagara Falls where my wife's family had their fifteenth annual "Rougeux Family Amazing Race" in and around Olcott, New York to Wilson, New York along NYS Route 18. Inspired by the "Amazing Race" TV show, this year's event featured fifteen, three person teams. There's always a "food" challenge and this year it required one team member to eat a pickled chicken foot!!!! Fortunately, I was a judge at one of the challenges and was, therefore several miles from that experience.

Meanwhile, I mentioned last Thursday that we'll be interviewing one of the candidates for the greenhouse manager position all day tomorrow (Tuesday). However, my scheduled time to meet with the candidate isn't until after lunch. Therefore, class will be meeting as usual from 10:00 to noon tomorrow morning. In preparation for class tomorrow morning, I strongly encourage you to:

• Make sure you're completely caught up on viewing all of the video "lecture" content. Also, if you've missed class meetings, please make sure you've watched all of the recorded Zoom class sessions.
• Also become familar with the "Recommended Seed Companies," "Vegetable Varieties," and "Vegetable Seed Starting Guides," accessible via the Internet Resources page.
• Finally, I would like for you to send me a brief - not more than three short paragraphs - outlining your current thoughts regarding your capstone project. We may very likely spend a few minutes discussing each project with then intent being to provide helpful feedback tomorrow. To support your thoughts regarding the short video component of the project, check out the videos students taking PLSCS 1900, "Sustainable Agriculture," at Cornell have been making every year since 2015 by clicking here.

Just a quick reminder that the recordings from yesterday's class - and all previous classes - are available here.

I've also uploaded the updated Internet Resources page.

Have a great weekend!

As always, a quick reminder that you can find all of the class recordings - including yesterday (Tuesday) morning's Class 5 session - at this link. Note that I forgot to hit "record" at the beginning of yesterday's class so the first twenty minutes or so - spent mainly on small talk and me discussing what my wife made for us to eat this past weekend - is not available.

What I did do during the missing first twenty minutes is make an in-class assignment to watch the videos mentioned in this morning's notice (read the June 6th entry below). We all disconntected from Zoom, watched the videos, then reconnected at 10:50 to discuss. Therefore, do watch the videos referenced in yesterday's post - ideally before watching the recording of the second half of yesterday's class meeting.

At about the 37:40 mark of yesterday's class recording I outlined where we're going from here over the coming week or so:

• First, please watch the Charles Dowding "How to Build a No-Dig Garden Bed and the Benefits of Composting" YouTube video at this link. It's a bit long at twenty-two minutes but provides an easy-to-implement process for creating a garden bed without disturbing the underlying soil. The benefits of limiting soil disturbance are further supported in the three minute "The Science of Soil Health: What Happens When You Till" video at this link. Even more information on reduced tillage in vegetables can be found on the Cornell Small Farms Program "Reduced Tillage in Vegetables" website. We'll spend the first part of tomorrow's class discussing the content of these videos as a wrap to our introduction to soil health.
• I'll then introduce you to the websites of several excellent seed companies. Purchasing seed from a catalog provides you with a much broader selection of vegetable varieties than what you'll typically find at a local garden center or big box store. You'll find links to these websites at this here.
• We'll finish tomorrow's class with an introduction to strategies for starting vegetable transplants indoors.

As a quick reminder, you can find all of the class recordings at this link.

Today we'll continue our "soil health" conversation with a focus on several relatively easy tests you can conduct without expensive lab equipment. The tests include:

• The lowest tech tests you can perform with nothing more than a sample of soil and some water are those that can help you get a rough idea of soil "texture." A soil's texture is determined by the relative percentages of sand, silt and clay in a given volume of soil. An excellent video (without sound) from the University of California - Davis provides demonstrations of these tests.
• The next two tests require only minimal equipment. The first is a "slake" test. A slake test provides a rough measurement of the stability of the aggregates in a soil. Typically, highly stable soil aggregates resist disturbance as they're tightly bound together by complex organic molecules associated with the activity of soil macro and micro organisms. The second is a soil "infiltration" test. Again, soils that are high in organic matter content and soil macro and micro organism activity are likely to have high infiltration rates that contribute significantly to low rates of water runoff/erosion and higher levels of soil moisture. Watch USDA NRCS Conservation Agronomist Ray Archuletaa perform these tests by clicking on this link.
• The final test requires nothing more than a shovel and a couple of buckets of water to perform a "soil percolation" test as demonstrated by Zac Rood and Dr. Nina Bassuk at Cornell. You can watch their demonstration by clicking on this link.

Also, in late summer of 2016 I had a chance to observe an interesting demonstration at the Cornell Vegetable Growers Twilight Meeting in Freeville, New York (just a bit east of Ithaca) that highlighted the impact of different soil management practices on water infiltration and runoff. Please watch this demonstration by clicking here.

I just uploaded this morning's class discussion recordings for those of you that couldn't join us (and, of course, for those of you in class do feel free to go back and watch them again:-) As a reminder, you can find all of the class recordings at this link.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the topics/resources discussed:

• On Thursday we'll start our discussion of Soil Health. Therefore, please finish watching all of the associated video lectures before class starts.
• I reminded everyone to explore the Climate Smart Farming Growing Degree Day Calculator, plug in your address and be prepared to discuss the current accumulation of GDD at your location. Because Ian is in Cinncinati, he'll be using the The Ohio State University Growing Degree Day Calculator.
• As an example of how Growing degree Days (GDD) can be used to track the development of various fruit and vegetable pests, I mentioned the University of Wisconsin webpage, Degree Days for Common Fruit & Vegetable Insect Pests.
• I also mentioned the National Phenology Network "Pheno Forecast" for apple maggot, an extremely common and problematic apple insect pest.
• One of the keys to successful pest (insects, diseases, weeds, animals, etc.) management is proper identification. When it comes to weeds, the absolutely best reference for those of us in the northeast (and midwest, too) is "Weeds of the Northeast". First published in 1997, the second edition of this excellent reference is now available from the Cornell University Press at a very reasonable price!
• As an additional identification resource, Abigail mentioned the "Seek" app by iNaturalist.
• Last, but not least, I introduced "New York State Mesonet", a network of 126 weather stations across the state (at least one station in every county and New York City borough). The system collects, archives, and processes data in real-time every five minutes.
• Oops, I almost forgot that I also briefly shared an article from "Saveur" entitled "8 Expert Techniques to Make the Most of Peak-Season Asparagus." Asparagus is in season right now (just ask Anna), relatively inexpensive at local grocery stores, nutrient-dense, extremely easy to grow (a planting can continue to produce for a decade or longer in the right location), and delicious!

That's a wrap - I'll see you all this coming Thursday morning!

Success . . . . , I have finally gotten an editable version of the course website back online!

Therefore, for the rest of the summer I will be posting all class updates, due dates, interesting tidbits, etc. to this page. So, I highly recommend bookmarking this page in your browser and checking it every day.

Meanwhile, I'll be working on updating the course schedule and syllabus pages as quickly as possible so that you have a reference as to the direction and expectations for the course by the end of next week.

Speaking of next week . . . .

• On Tuesday we'll continue discussing the components of Integrated Crop Management. Therefore, please finish watching all of the associated video lectures before class starts next Tuesday morning.
• As we've already discussed, one of the components of Integrated Crop Management is "Forecasting." A forecasting concept/tool used in crop production is "Growing Degree Days" (GDD). Before next Tuesday morning's class I want you to explore the Climate Smart Farming Growing Degree Day Calculator, plug in your address and be prepared to discuss the current accumulation of GDD at your location.
• As I mentioned in class yesterday, I look forward to meeting with each of you individually - either in person here on campus or via Zoom - so we can get to know each other a little better. This will help me to better understand how I can be as supportive as possible to you getting as much out of this class as possible. To schedule a time to meet, select a day and time in this Excel spreadsheet. If there isn't a day/time that can work for you, let me know and we'll figure out an alternative.

Finally, if you miss a class and/or simply want to review a class session, you can find them all at this link.

Have a great holiday weekend and I'll see you all next Tuesday morning at 10:00!