IDEA: Pineapples?

Again, another one of my Pinterest finds. Growing pineapples! I have never been a fan of pineapples. I don't really like the taste or the texture. The texture just freaks me out. It reminds me of insects. Don't ask.

But I stumbled across this photo and I was so intrigued! I know it's not all that related to farming. But it IS related to growing! I've been really inspired by my IPRO to become more of a green thumb. Why? Because it's really cool to see your food grow right in front of you. I live in a small apartment and so it's been a challenge starting up my own garden but I have made it work with the small space I have.

That's why I loved finding this article about growing a pineapple at home (link).

For some reason, I always assumed pineapples grew on trees. Imagine my face when I found this image and realized pineapples were grown from these stumpy things! It looks really cool when it's growing. I might try this just to watch it grow then give the pineapple to someone else.

Anybody watch Psych?

Shawn Spencer and Burton "Gus" Guster II want you to grow pineapples!

Week Four: Monday Garden Duty

Garden duty today was cut pretty short due the threatening storm. It had rained this morning for a short period of time and then the sun came out to shine for a good portion of the day. It was still sunny when I got off work and headed to the garden for duty. Hannah started watering and I did some serious weeding on the bed of corn. I also weeded a good amount of the onion's bed. I didn't get to finish because within 5 minutes, this terrorizing cloud was over head and had brought along some serious winds with it.

So we cut it pretty short. I think it was around 6:00pm when we started to roll up the hose again. Once Hannah hopped into her car and I was safely inside my sorority's house, a torrential downpour began. Literally, someone just turned on a shower head and let loose. It was pretty unfortunate because I had to be somewhere else on campus at 6:30pm but the rain and wind made that impossible.

IDEA: Recycling Two-Liter Bottles into Seed Starters!

You cannot tell me that this is not a great idea:

This father and his children created these seed starters out of two-liter bottles. Read about the process here. The reason why I make a point of bringing to light such a simple project like this one is because it has a great impact. It recycles plastic bottles. It grows food. You can get children involved with it. It's a small enough project to be done in any sized home or garden. There's just a lot of positives about this project that I like.

Week Three! Garden Duty, Plants, and Me! Oh, My!

I tried my hardest to play off a Wizard of Oz Reference in this post' title. Not sure if anyone caught that. It's okay if you didn't. My last few posts have been a little dry, that's because I've been studying hard for another class which I had an exam for this week. I think it's awfully surprising how quickly this semester has been trudging along. There's so much our IPRO wants to do but we have to be realistic with the goals we set for ourselves.

For Monday's garden duty Hannah and I split up the watering again. While one of us was watering, the other was weeding. As I was going around the farm I was amazed to see how much everything had grown in the short time we've been working on this IPRO. Lots of plants were fruiting already such as the peas, kale, leafy greens, bok choy, and numerous small tomatoes have been popping around everywhere! They're all little green ones but I take a lot of pride of being a part of the maintance for these fruiting plants.

Yesterday in class our IPRO became more organized. At the end of class we discussed goals for the IPRO and individual committees, as well as adjusted team members based on who was still left in the class. After class was over, a few of us stayed longer to plant the remaining plants. We put more peppers in hoop house and some tomatoes on the south side fences--I had to transplant some flowers to north fence on opposite side where the strawberries are being planted in order to do this. More herbs were planted on the west fence and the beds were filled as well. So the farm right now, has a high amount of producing plants in it right now.

Next week is already midterm review presentation. Since I've moved to the Farm Planning team I've been organizing the presentation for that. Hopefully I can have it done before the weekend is over.

What I like about this class is that I really am learning alot. Learning how to grow my own food and being able to do that myself has been really helpful. I recently moved out of on campus housing. Ok, maybe that recently but I don't have meals ready for me at a consistent time which means I've had to learn how to plan and cook my own meals (and make sure it's enough!). The learning curve was pretty steep but seven months out and I think I'm doing fairly well. The problem is that food can be pretty expensive. Coupled with living expsenses, sometimes food gets placed on the backburner. And that shouldn't be the case. Being able to grow own food allows me to save more (granted it takes awhile for them to be producing). If only you could grow meat.

Sorry guys, no pictures in this one. I didn't take much. So here's a picture of a cute bunny:

IDEA: Website that plans garden

Trust me when I say I do other things beside scroll around on Pinterest all day.

I found this website that creates a plot map of your garden. I thought this would be particularly useful for our IPRO since we're always wondering where what is planted. This way someone can update the online plot and everyone who has access to it will know it's there. This would help avoid planting over other plants.

Take a look: Smart Gardner

IDEA: Companion Planting

As I was wandering the endless pages of Pintrest, I found this lovely graphic. It's in chart form and my A-type personality asserts that this is informational and helpful. Take a look at the graphic:

Like any knowledgeable individual, I know to question the sources of information. So, as intrigued as I was by this graphic I questioned its validity; how do I really know that these companion matches are accurate? Well, I scrolled to the bottom of the infographic and Googled Afristar. This was taken directly off of their website:

Afristar Foundation nurtures partnerships to develop Eco Settlement projects or aspects thereof to meet South Africa’s Reconstruction and Development Agenda. This is achieved through innovative earth-based and people-based solutions that introduce sustainable livelihoodsoach to address the key issues of urban and rural land use management, design and restitution. Our commitment is to initiate and assist the process of establishing a vibrant, socially conscious, economically and environmentally sustainable culture. (Source: http://afristarfoundation.org/what-we-do/)

 I hope that the words 'urban' and 'rural land use management' stuck out to you, because they sure did to me. Now knowing, that the source of the poster is legitimate, let's go back to the photo and let me explain why I like it a lot.

For those who are not natural green thumbs, this graphic is easy to understand. The types of vegetables are also varied which gives a lot of freedom on the gardener's end on what vegetable can be planted with which. This is an important ability to have if you are limited on space or even seed.

I can't wait to start my own garden!

IPRO 314 Free Sample Give Away

Today was a very tiring day for me. I woke up at 5 am so that I could be at campus at 6 am to help with the harvesting of produce for today's Free Sample Give Away. We harvested the entire bed of radishes and one of the bed of lettuces. Also, the onions inside the hoop house were harvested. Originally we had planned on harvesting two beds of lettuce; however, we decided that we had way too much produce. We couldn't fit everything into the coolers. We did not anticipate that we would not be able to fit everything into the coolers. Anyways, I had to leave around 9 am to make my shift at a hospital where I volunteer so I was unable to be at the actual event. But from what I can tell, the event seemed to go well!

Day Four & Garden Duty

What a beautiful weather Day 4 had!

For day four we were pretty independent because our instructors showed up much later in the period. We split up into our main four groups at the beginning of class and talked about some important thins such as our budget and "Free Sample Give Away" on Friday the 14th.

The first thing we decided needed to be one was to create an inventory of everything in our garden. Kevin worked on the fences while Wudasse and I did the inventory of the our door beds. Later on, the new plant varieties were delivered. We decided to plant the peppers inside the hoop house and put the strawberries on the northern fence. We still need to plant a few herbs that were delivered.

The bee hive was also installed today, which was totally awesome. I wasn't able to actually see the installation because I was in the process of planting peppers. Then I struggled with the water hose again.

The temporary bee hive.

Week Two Article Reflections: Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good

For Week Two, our reflection article assignment was to visit the Chicago Cultural Center and visit the Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good (website) exhibit. We had to then research one of the many urban projects that were presented at the exhibit and reflect upon that. I chose to research Pennsylvania Horticulture Society's: Pop Up Garden (links-galore)!

I'm obsessed with panoramic photos!

Here's my reflection:

The PHS Pop Up Garden is a temporary project that is done annually. It is currently in its 3rd year of being. The Pop Up Garden is very similar concept to UFarmIIT--or at least what I imagine it to be. The PHS takes vacant lots around the city and transforms them into urban farms. From there PHS collaborates with its numerous sponsors and sets up a small restaurant business with entertainment. Produce is also donated to various pantries. Around late fall to winter time, the garden is dismantled and the left over tools and resources are donated to gardeners around the neighborhood. The following year a new garden "pops" up in a different vacant lot. One of the main purposes for PHS' Pop Up Garden is to bring attention to the vacant lots around Philadelphia and update its urban landscape. The revitalization of their urban environment is one of the many benefits urban agriculture brings to a community as I read in last weeks articles. It also builds solidarity in the local community because the project is one that people from different walks of life can enjoy together. These are all things that I feel UFarmIIT should aspire to be like once a solid foundation has been laid out. I see a lot of potential in UFarmIIT to be like PHS' Pop Up Garden. There are many different communities around IIT that can be reached out to and become involved with the farm--the local high school, various senior homes, the Greek community that surrounds the farm, and even a few restaurants. Not to mention, IIT has a thriving and active student body which I'm sure would love to be involved as well.

Growing Power: Iron St. Farm

So for yesterday's (Tuesday 6/11/13) class session, our IPRO visited Growing Power's Iron Street Farm. Here's the link to Iron St. Farm's website: CLICK ME. The farm wasn't too far away from campus and it wasn't all that complicated to get there at all. We simply followed 35th St westward until we arrived Iron St. I'm writing this a day after we went visited, so most of the things I experienced there I remember pretty well. But the feeling of intrigue and excitement has dissipated a bit. Don't get me wrong, Iron St. Farm was impressive but I wish I could have written this last night so this post would be a better reflection of my feelings. I'm sure if I were to go back again I would be just as amazed as I was yesterday.

This is the mural on the side of the building! Painted by youth!

Great things comes in little packages and Iron St. Farm is just that. Granted, the lot they are located on is a pretty sizable one, they are doing GREAT and AWESOME things and not even using up the entire space yet. I even capitalized the words to emphasize my point. Comparable to the size of the lot, there is a lot of powerful things going on at Iron St. which amazed me. We were given a tour of the place by two of the staff there.

We learned about compost and the process used to make compost. They had these two structures where the compost would sit and as well as a large hoop house with a large stack of compost inside. It was amazing to see the number of plants growing on site as well. I also just want to mention now that a few days ago when I was reading the required articles for week 1, there were some mention of chickens being raised on urban farms. After reading that, I started to do some research on chickens because... I want one. Anyways, I thought that was really funny when our tour guides showed us the chicken coop they were in the process of building. I want a chicken really bad now.

How could you say no to this?

Other livestock on the site were goats! They were miniature goats and they were so cute! I wanted to take one home with me. They baa'd and everything. I gathered myself quickly before I started my goat-napping career.

The goats on the farm!

We then moved inside to learn about how mushrooms were being grown on site. I was very intrigued at how this was being done. I wish I could explain it here so you could understand why I was so intriguied; but I'm not entirely sure I'd be 100% correct in explaining it. All you need to know is that it was really cool and that mushrooms take a really long time to grow.

These mushrooms were really cool looking.

They also had some fish! It was dark, I didn't really see them but still, animals = cool. I should find a new word to describe things other than the word cool. My favorite part of the whole place was the worms and worm farm so to speak. They're used for vermicomposting! I just Googled that to make sure it was correct--and yes Google is now a verb. Also, new fun and crazy word learned today: VERMICULTURE. This is the use of worms to create what I like to call super-fertilizer. That's probably not the technical name for it, but this fertilizer was pretty awesome. I immediately wanted to have one running on UFarmIIT. Erika explained the process of vermicomposting and afterwards we got to sieve some dirt. It was a lot more fun than it sounds.

Afterwards, our IPRO team sat down and discuss some business regarding the organization and goals for the team. I was glad we did even though we did run a few minutes over class time and it was super hot inside the building. Good things to come!

Post Monday Garden Chore

Turns out that wearing my white ballet flats for garden duty was indeed a bad idea. Check out that tan line though. The first day of garden duty brought up a lot of questions to mind. The first and most prominent one was "What the heck am I doing?". This question was then followed by a multitude of questions. I came to realize that our IPRO, though a lot could be done, our IPRO needs a direction--a long term goal if you will. A list perhaps could be made for the things that need to be done to and for the garden.

Watering and weeding is mostly what Hannah and I did for garden duty. We split the watering up between the two of us and weeded some of the beds. There's a lot of potential to be had for the garden but we weren't exactly sure what that potential was. It wouldn't make sense to make executive decisions about the garden without the opinion of the group and instructors. It would have been nice to harvest some more produce to make room for the plants we haven't gotten to plant yet as well as the new plants we're bringing from the Iron St. Garden.

We have a lot of produce. A lot of radishes. They are just bursting from the ground begging to be picked. This picture does no justice to show exactly how much radish has grown. I have a ton more photos from the first day of garden duty which I will upload to my make shift photo gallery when I get the chance. 

It was pretty rainy and gloomy that day. But the sun managed to come out while Hannah and I worked. Around 7 pm when I left campus a thick fog rolled in. It was eerie. I felt like I was in one of those zombie movies. Luckily, no zombies showed up.

Pinterest, Week One Article Comments, & Week Two Plans.

So I have a Pinterest account. I know what you're thinking--no, wait a minute, no I don't. Someone shouts: Get on with it Michelle! Okay, okay. Pinterest has actually been a really useful website for me to get new ideas. No, I am not just saying that because I'm using it to plan a wedding that's no where near my future. Pinterest has helped me gather ideas on a multitude of subjects like home & school organization, sorority recruitment (I'm in a sorority, this was a natural instinct of mine), craft projects, and kitchen recipes. So naturally when we were instructed to create an idea book to fill with ideas for the garden, my mind automatically went:

PINTEREST!!!

No, literally, that's what happened. I thought, "Pinterest would be so helpful and bring up ideas that I probably would never had thought up on my own!" I created a board on my Pinterest account devoted to the garden. I've already posted some preliminary things onto the board. I won't talk about each and everyone of them on here, but the ones I think are particularly applicable and helpful to UFarmIIT I'll comment on. Anyway's here's a link to that: CLICK ME & ENTER THE WORLD OF PINTEREST!

For Week 1, we had to read these three online articles: Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in the United States: Farming from the City Center to the Urban Fringe (link), Concentrated poverty and homicide in Chicago (link),and Deadly Poverty (link) . This is the order I will be commenting them on.

Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in the United States: Farming from the City Center to the Urban Fringe

First off, when I opened this article I said, holy smokes, that is a lot of .pdf pages. So I closed all my other internet browser windows, turned on some relaxing guitar music, pulled out a notebook and pen, and began to read. And no, I did not just read the summary and call it quits. Though... I did toy with the idea. Shame on me.

Here are my comments on this article :

This article is very thorough in presenting the picture of urban agriculture. It covers all aspects on urban agriculture including the advantages of urban agriculture as well as the challenges it faces today. Though a lengthy, the article is a good read and very informational. Urban agriculture addresses many of the issues today's society not just limited to the economy. Urban agriculture is the definition of reduce, reuse, and recycling in urban communities. Many of the tools needed to start and even maintain an urban garden are already present and available in an urban community. The article also presents many challenges that urban agriculture faces but then provides a list of appropriate ways to deal with them. There is an obvious need for urban agriculture which the author of article insists that communities to address. The benefits of urban agriculture would be felt throughout the local community.

The article was academic which made for the lengthy read. I'm not one to rehash and reiterate facts which is why I didn't. I guess you could say that this article gives UFarmIIT a bigger reason for being. It really puts into perspective what we're doing with the farm and why it's important that we continue to develop it.

Concentrated Poverty and Homicide in Chicago

I'm going to try and refrain from tangential outbursts for the rest of this post--no promises though. This article was an interesting read--very different from the last one I read. Here are my comments:

The subject of this article is made very apparent by its title. The author comments on the relationship of race, poverty, and homicide rate arguing that they are indeed related. The alarmingly high rates of poverty and crime are due to the racial segregation and discrimination that have occurred over the decades, the author argues. Though not directly commenting on the topic of urban agriculture, which is the one of the focal points of IPRO 314, the socioeconomic issues that these communities face could benefit from the introduction of urban agriculture projects. This was one of the points made in the first article, that the community that surrounds an urban farm stands to benefit from it. Again, this gives IPRO 314 a greater sense of purpose. It's not a farm for the sake of growing plants but a solution for social justice issues that many communities face.

On a less serious note, I liked that the page was very colorful.

 Deadly Poverty

And we're diving right into it:

This article was very similar to the previous one--a continuation if you will. The focus was placed more on the consequences of poverty and high crime in these areas on the population living there. The need for urban agriculture projects in these communities is very high since people suffer from inadequate diets. Much like I mentioned in my previous comments, urban agriculture would address the suffering these communities go through. I would be interested in reading an article that describes the effect urban agriculture when introduce to Chicago neighborhoods deemed poor.

As a junior in high school, I took a course in social justice. Now, that doesn't make me an expert in social justice by any means, but I can recognize when a social justice issue is being brought to my attention. Chicago has some pretty obvious social justice issues. Take a walk down Michigan Avenue and, while it oozes of consumerism, it is still very much populated with homeless people (is that the politically correct term?). Even still, you can walk the streets of Logan Square and find some pretty nice neighborhoods, walk a few more streets over and instantly be in a poor neighborhood (assuming we are relating poor, poverty stricken neighborhoods with high crime as suggested by the last two articles). The problem, in my opinion, is that there's a lack of movement for change. I'm not dismissing any sort of action that is currently being taken to fix the situation, I'm just saying it's not enough and we need more.

This is super far fetched, but it would be kind of cool if our IPRO 314 could spawn an organization that actually goes into these poverty stricken communities and begin urban agriculture projects. That's a very large task on it's own as UFarmIIT itself is still in development; however, even the small plot of land that it is on now, the lot next to my sorority's house (how many times can I plug my sorority into this blog? The limit does not exist... #nerdjoke), produces so much! Introducing the same sized lot to a neighborhood, maybe even a neighborhood as small as IIT's main campus, would still affect a great amount of people. A girl can dream.

Anyways, social justice issues aside, this week for IPRO we will be visiting the Iron St. Community Garden. I'm particularly interested  in seeing how large it is and what other products are being grown. Our chore duties start this week for the garden. Hopefully the rain doesn't interfere too much--I wore my white flats today. Good choice? Bad choice? Probably Bad.

Here's a dog is a superman costume:

Until the next post!

Hello & Welcome!

START TIME: 2:15PM
Hello and welcome to my UFarmIIT Idea Book-Blog! If you think you're in the wrong place, which you probably aren't, you should still sit back, relax, and read the musings of my thoughts and ideas on and about UFarmIIT.

Rather than having to explain with another paragraph (or another few minutes of your time) what in the world UFarmIIT is, I'm going to link you to their blog, which has a lot of exciting posts about the future of UFarm IIT. Here's the link: CLICK ME TO GO SOMEWHERE COOL AND EXCITING!

Since you've stumbled upon my Idea Book-Blog, you're either:

1. My instructor--and are now coming to read and inspect my Idea Book-Blog
2. Someone from my IPRO--and were somewhat curious about my Idea Book-Blog
3. A Facebook Friend--and curiosity got the best of you so you clicked on my post

If you're none of the aforementioned groups, I'm not sure how you found my blog but I am excited that you found it. Hopefully, my ranting doesn't scare you away (any of you!) and you become a regular reader.

Before I actually get down to the juicy stuff (ugh, I know here I go on another tangent), I just wanted to say that this book-blog is and will fulfill the requirement of my IPRO course but I'm going to have a little fun with it as well. This post is also a little late, in getting out, so it will comprise of both Day 1 and Day 2 (that means it's going to be long, sorry!). I intend to update it daily, if not every other day. 

Anyways, onto THE BREAK DOWN:

Week 1 was a busy one for IPRO 314. It was exciting to say the least. On Day 1, we were introduced to our three instructors who would be helping us in the maintenance and development of UFarmIIT.  For the first half of the class, we were thrown right into it by weeding the garden and re-mulching around the garden. Anyone who knows me will know that I'm pretty high strung about my school work, so having to weed as part of a class was unexpectedly therapeutic for me. I enjoyed getting my hands dirty, so to speak. We even got to harvest some radishes! I was really excited for this. I was blown away by exactly how many radishes there were! There were three types of radishes. I harvested the regular round radishes and the French breakfast radishes. I plan to have a salad soon, as soon as I get myself to get up and buy some lettuce from the grocery market around the corner. Erika, one of the IPRO's instructors, told us a way to eat the French breakfast radishes. Some simple melted butter and salt and they were good to go. I tried it the next morning. It tasted fine, but I was still hungry. Anyways, I digress. 

Half way through the class period, we moved to the Idea Shop to do some team building exercises. First, Rima, one of the IPRO program coordinators, gave us a basic run down for this summer's IPRO timeline then she set us on our way to do our team activity. Our IPRO group was asked to pair up and interview our partner (5 minutes each; 10 minutes total), and find some traits and characteristics (those are the same thing, aren't they?) that our partner had which would aid in the success of our IPRO. Here are the notes I took on my partner!

My handwriting is like a two-year-old's.

Afterwards, our IPRO group rejoined together again to talk about our partners. Rima told us to have one person facilitate this part of the activity. I volunteered to facilitate despite suffering from the worst cold I have ever had the displeasure of having. Seriously, my voice was disappearing earlier in the day at work (I'm a phone operator). What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? Anyways, we went around talking about our partner's traits and I wrote them down on the white board. Then as a group we  discussed which of the traits would make our top 10. Here's the list we came up with:

A group member was nice enough to write down our list on paper so I could bring it up with me to present.

When all the IPRO groups were finished, one representative went up to the microphone and presented their traits. At least I had a microphone this time so I didn't have to talk that loud. My poor voice. At the end of the session, we took a group photo. I have yet to get a copy of it but I will soon! And so, that concludes day 1.

So by now, I'm sure you're tired of hearing me rant, but I'm not done. I have one more day to discuss. But here, I'll start off with a picture:

This is in the middle of the day as our group is discussing plants. Yeah guys, I watermarked it. Stealing is bad.

Day 2 started a lot like Day 1. We were thrown into some serious weed-age. I just made up that word. But it means we weeded a lot. Some of the group worked on mulching again. A lot was done to the interior of the green house structure. Erika had brought some plants today for us to plant. She showed us how to properly plant some peppers inside the hot house. Care of plants inside the hot house was discussed thoroughly since we began to plant.  Some of the previous UFarm members came to talk to us today as well about the hot house. Also, some of the guys started to fixed up some fencing towards the back of the farm as well. I learned how to proper plant collard greens (Also, all my life I've thought collard greens was spelled and pronounced colored greens. Thank goodness for Google). At one point, I was asked to start the watering of the fences. I just want to say now, and you are all free to judge me on this--I don't care, a tiny Asian girl vs. a very long and hard to maneuver hose does not bode well. I was covered in wet grass and had wet spots all over myself. But if you don't expect to get dirty in this sort of project, then you are terribly misguided. It didn't bother me at all to be dirty that day. However, I probably should have cut my nails the night before. Day 2 was a very hands on day. At the end of it, we discussed setting up a chore system as well as sharing our contact information. We also discussed more of the requirements for the course as well as the grading Overall, it was productive day.

Here are some more pictures I took on Day 2:

END TIME: 4:20PM