by Dannette Lombert, UW Farm AmeriCorps Member, Food Security Lead
The Benefits of Crop Rotation
Often times people ask organic farmers “How do you deal with pests?”, “How do you take care of the soil?”, or “How do you manage plant disease?” and there is a simple answer for that: Crop Rotation.
Crop Rotation is an age-old agricultural practice that involves changing the crop on a piece of land consistently, over time, as seen in the image below. These rotations take into account the nutrient uptake and fixation properties of each plant crop, as well as the diseases and pests associated with them.
At UW Farm we rotate our crops by crop family at both our Mercer Court site and our Center for Urban Horticulture site. This helps us immensely with improving our soil health and mitigating pests that we inevitably see throughout or growing space. For example, we often have issues with aphids who love to feed on Brassicas (kale, collards, etc.) and when we move Brassicas over to a new plot, we see less aphids overall causing injury to our plants.
This practice is extremely important to maintaining a living and vibrant ecosystem under and above ground. This is why it is required by the USDA Organic Regulations for any Certified Organic Farm to incorporate a crop rotation into their growing practice.
However, crop rotation is not limited to farms and larger agricultural land, but can be done in anyone’s garden as well. With as little as four beds or sections you can devise a crop plan that works for your garden. This is a practice we highly recommend, especially for anyone growing organically!
Kale and Peanuts Pesto
Photos and Recipe by UW Farm Food Security Intern, Hsin-Yu Huang
#kale #garlic
Tired of just salad or sautéing your kale? What about some bright, nutty kale and peanuts pesto? Made with just a few simple ingredients you probably already have in your pantry. Super quick, super easy. All you need to do is to whizz everything together. It goes well with pasta, bread, pizza, sandwiches, and more!
Ingredients:
(about 3-4 servings)
Kale 100g
Lemon juice 1 ½ tbsp
Peanut butter 3 tbsp
Olive Oil 3 tbsp
Garlic 2-3 cloves
Parmesan cheese (optional)
Basil (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Peanuts, for garnish (optional)
Instructions:
Add chopped kale (remove from stems), garlic, lemon juice, (and basil, if desired) into the food processor and grind them up.
Add in peanut butter, oil, salt, pepper, (add parmesan cheese, if desired), continue processing until all the ingredients are well-combined and creamy.
Adjust the seasoning levels to your liking, and enjoy! Bon Appetit!
News and Noteworthy:
Participants needed for Farm Survey
Deadline: TODAY, February 9
The UW Farm team is interested in hearing your opinions on the direction of the UW Farm's future. We have created a survey – https://tinyurl.com/uwfarm – to collect opinions from the campus and larger community.
We welcome all community members to take this survey and share with their social networks, and any others who may be interested in urban farming, gardening, food systems and related topics.
This survey is a part of an ongoing project to develop a Strategic Plan for the UW Farm. Your anonymous input will be used to shape recommendations on UW Farm educational, production, and research activities.
If you have any questions about this survey or project, please reach out to UW graduate student, Madison Rose Bristol, at mbrist96@uw.edu.
Thank you for taking the time to complete our survey! We appreciate your thoughts and perspectives.
Workshop on seed sovereignty and cultural preservation
Hosted by: Bellevue Arts Museum
When: February 19th 1pm – 2pm
Open Arts x Bellevue Arts Museum presents, Nikkei Seeds: Our Seeds, Our Ancestors with Kellee Matsushita-TsengMeta, a special online workshop commemorating Day of Remembrance and the legacy of WWII incarcerated Japanese-American farmers. Join California-based farmer and activist Kellee Matsushita-Tseng for a creative workshop exploring seed sovereignty and cultural preservation. Seeds are living beings that contain the wisdom of our ancestors, stories of our communities, and the creative potential for our futures. Through story sharing, writing and planting, you’ll explore the role of seeds as a tool for community health and resilience.
The UW Farm donates regularly to the UW Food Pantry. During peak season we also donate to food banks close by. The links below are resources to help you or someone you know with food access.
Every year, we have the capacity to grow more food and increase our educational and research program at the UW, but not without your support. Every contribution goes to work immediately, helping us better serve students. Your support can sustain our momentum and help seed new opportunities for student internships, academic work, and future growth. Please consider making a gift to the Farm online
The Monthly Dirt is produced once a month by the University of Washington Farm, a program of the UW Botanic Gardens, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, College of the Environment. It is published nearly year-round for educational purposes and the majority of the content is written or contributed by students and farm staff.
This issue's contributors:
Around the Farm, Dannette Lombert, UW Farm AmeriCorps Member Editor: Diana Knight, Advancement and Communications Manager, Department of Chemistry; Jessica Farmer, Adult Education Supervisor and Community Education Lead, UWBG
This Week's Recipe: Hsin-Yu Huang, UW Farm Food Security Intern Photo Credits and Other Content: Perry Acworth
Other photos retrieved from the internet and noted in sections
Open Arts x Bellevue Arts Museum presents, Nikkei Seeds: Our Seeds, Our Ancestors with Kellee Matsushita-TsengMeta, a special online workshop commemorating Day of Remembrance and the legacy of WWII incarcerated Japanese-American farmers. Join California-based farmer and activist Kellee Matsushita-Tseng for a creative workshop exploring seed sovereignty and cultural preservation. Seeds are living beings that contain the wisdom of our ancestors, stories of our communities, and the creative potential for our futures. Through story sharing, writing and planting, you’ll explore the role of seeds as a tool for community health and resilience.
