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