Week 1

For my project I am working at two farms with Tulip, Pumpkin Ridge and La Finquita del Buho. I chose to do this particular project for a couple of reasons. First off, I really did not want to do a project that was on zoom or in the form of classes in any way. I wanted to do something that was a complete change in scenery and something that I have never really done before. I also thought that working on a farm would allow me to learn more about how farms work. I feel like I don't really know anything about this area of the food industry and I already have learned more about it. 

After working for a week, we have done a lot of weeding, transplanting plants at different stages of life, harvesting, and organizing. The farms that we work with provide customers with a CSA and they also sell plant starts at the Saturday famers market in Beaverton. There is a lot of organization and preparation that goes into the farmers market and so that is one of the things we have been helping most with. We have to fill a lot of trays of plant pots with soil and then transplant plant starts into them. We also have to label the plants as well as gather certain plants for people who have ordered some ahead of time. 

One of my goals for this project is to learn more about how farms operate and I feel like I have already gotten to see this. I never really knew that there were so many steps in growing one seed. They are first planted in a tray and then the tiny sprouts are moved to a small plastic pot, and then that plant start is transplanted into a field or a greenhouse. I also have thought that it was really interesting to see how they use the space that they have to grow plants. At La Finquita del Buho, they sometimes are growing different types of plants in the same row. For example, I saw that there purposely were beets in the row of chard. 

Another goal of mine to was to learn more about farming in general. I think that getting the experience of working every week will really help me to achieve this goal. Also talking with our onsite mentors and asking them questions has helped me learn more. When we were talking to Lyn (our onsite mentor at La Finquita del Buho), she was talking about how she really likes to grow asian native vegetables because they grow so quickly here. For my last goal, I want to build take what I learned into my own garden at home. I have a pretty small garden that I have been planting in for the past couple of years, and working at these farms has motivated me even more to work in my own garden and help my plants grow even better. 

tractor full of weeds that we pulled at La Finquita del Buho

greenhouse full of plant starts at Pumpkin Ridge