Improving Soil Health Can Reduce Erosion and Water Pollution
By Robert Bonglamphone, Junior, Informatics, UW Farm Cover Crop Intern
Rain, rain, and more rain! This fall has been an absolute downpour, so I hope you are keeping dry, perhaps while sipping on some hot apple cider. Throughout our beds of harvested lettuce and mustard greens, you can see the walkways overflowing with puddles lately. Heavy rainfall not only makes it difficult for our wonderful volunteers to help in the field, but also difficult for the crops to thrive too! Rainfall can easily wash away precious, nutrient-rich soil.
According to the Sustainable Agriculture Network’s (SARE) document, Managing Cover Crops Profitably (p. 16), “A raindrop falling at high speed can dislodge soil particles and cause them to move as far as 6 feet”. This USDA-funded publication is a great read into cover crops’ ability to mitigate soil erosion. Much of the growing season has been spent on enriching the soil with compost, but what’s the point if that soil is just swept away? Furthermore, excess nutrients that remain in the soil can pollute groundwater. Of those potential excess nutrients, nitrogen is considered the most water-soluble and likely to leach into local streams. As a water pollutant, nitrogen causes algal blooms and low oxygen conditions for fish and other aquatic organisms.
With the UW Farm's 11-variety blend of cover crop seeds (for seed varieties and cover crop information, see the Weekly Dirt published November 1), we’re able to both recapture those leaching nutrients and secure the soil from washing away. We include cereal ryegrass and annual ryegrass which have fibrous root systems that perform well in scavenging excess nutrients—especially nitrogen—left in the soil after harvest (p. 10 of the SARE document). Before reaching maturity, they can be cut down as a green manure to have that nitrogen available for future crops. Also mentioned in the SARE document is a Pacific Northwest study that found, "A mix of Austrian winter peas, hairy vetch and alfalfa can provide 80 to 100 percent of a potato crop’s nitrogen requirement."
As much as we want to fix nitrogen back into the soil, the amount of time it takes for the cover crop to grow also matters. So, the UW Farm team limits bare soil exposure after a harvest by selecting fast growing cover crops such as hairy vetch and crimson clover. Not only do they hold the soil in place, they act as a mechanism of uncultivated plant (commonly known as weeds) suppression.
Cover crops offer many benefits such as reducing soil erosion, uncultivated crop suppression, and preventing water pollution as a result of nutrient leaching. If you would like to learn more about the different cover crops that we use and their benefits, check out our recent Weekly Dirt November 1st article by our production manager, Aisling Doyle Wade.
Thank you CSA Shareholders!
A huge thank you to all of our CSA Shareholders this season. To both our shareholders who have been with us for all 24 weeks and those who participated for the shorter Summer or Peak shares – the UW Farm team thanks you for your support!
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs offer a unique way for small farms to connect with their community and for participants to take an active role in supporting their local food system. Additionally, our particular CSA program creates countless opportunities for student engagement and learning. Each week our CSA boxes are enriched with student experiences. Whether learning about the lifecycle of various crops during planting, or discovering efficient and physically comfortable ways to weed during cultivation, or learning about just how much labor goes into washing salad greens, or developing leadership skills by passing on knowledge to their peers in the field, students make this CSA happen through their learning!
We were particularly proud this season to have offered opportunities to learn about growing grains, which resulted in quinoa, wheat berries and finally in-house ground wheat flour going out to our CSA shareholders.
Next season we are looking forward to continuing these experiences by growing rye for baking, continuing to develop our apiary, expanding our winter squash planting and trying to learn from the mistakes we made this season with alliums and other crops that survived but didn't thrive.
Stay tuned to our newsletters if you don't want to miss our sign up for next season, opening in February 2024!
Endless gratitude and warm regards,
-2022-23 UW Farm Team
This Week's CSA Veggie Key: Our Last of 2023!
Recipe of the Week:
Yachae Jeon (Korean vegetable pancake) By Maangchi, Jeeca Uy
Yachae, 야채, is vegetable; while jeon, 전, is a general term for pancake in Korean. So put it together and you have vegetable pancakes or Yachaejeon 야채전.
These Korean Yachae Jeon 야채전 or Vegetable Pancakes can easily be customized to your liking. For this version of Yachae Jeon, I used a mix of zucchini, sweet potato, carrots, onions, and scallions but you can also use vegetables such as bell pepper, cabbage, mushrooms, etc.
Dry Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour (alternatives include whole wheat or gluten free)
2 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp corn or potato starch
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder (optional, for color)
Wet Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup room temperature water , plus additional 2-4 tbsp water to adjust consistency
vegetable oil, for cooking
Vegetables:
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/3 cup leek (optional), sliced thinly 1 inch long
1 medium zucchini, sliced into matchsticks
1 green pepper (chili or jalapeño), optional for heat
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 small sweet potato, sliced into matchsticks or shredded
1 medium carrot, sliced into matchsticks or shredded
Dipping Sauce to Serve (Optional)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp sugar, adjust to taste
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sesame seeds
Gochugaru or chili flakes/powder (optional)
Instructions:
In a large mixing bowl, add in all the dry ingredients. Mix well.
Slowly pour in the water while mixing. Mix until you’ve reached a thick batter consistency. If the batter is still too thick, you can add 2-4 tbsp more water. Note that the batter is thick and should coat the vegetables well.
Mix in the veggies of choice into the batter and mix evenly to coat.
Dipping Sauce:
Mix all sauce ingredients together in a small bowl and feel free to adjust to your taste. I recommend making this before cooking the pancakes.
Cooking the Pancakes:
Heat a medium/large non-stick pan over medium high heat. Note that the size of your pancake will depend on the size of your pan.
Add enough oil to coat the surface of the pan. Once hot, scoop a generous amount of the veggie batter mix. Spread over your pan using the back of a spoon, getting as thin as possible without exposing the surface of the pan. If there are holes, feel free to scoop some of the batter to cover them.
Cook for 4-5 minutes over medium heat or until the batter starts to set. You can also cover your pan to cook down the veggies, if needed.
If you covered your pancake, remove the cover and allow the excess steam to evaporate. Press down on the center of your pancake. Once the top and sides of the pancake start to dry up, carefully scrape the sides and check if it's lightly brown or golden underneath.
If golden, carefully flip the pancake with a spatula. Cook the other side until golden brown and crisp.
If you want extra crispness, allow the pancake to cook over low heat for another 3-4 minutes on each side or until it's a deep golden brown (a slight char is great too!) to get really nice and crisp on the outside. This way any excess moisture from the batter and veggies will evaporate and you'll get crispier and less doughy pancakes.
Repeat this for the rest of the batter.
Slice your pancakes into small squares or bite-sized pieces. This is best enjoyed with a good dipping sauce. I also find it a lot easier to cut the pancakes using a pair of kitchen scissors.
The UW Farm donates regularly to the UW Food Pantry. During peak season we also donate to nearby food banks. 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 Weekly Dirt is produced once a week 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:
Managing Editor: Althea Ericksen, UW Farm Intern, Communications Coordinator
Around the Farm: Robert Bonglamphone, Junior, Informatics, Cover Crop Intern Contributing Editors: Perry Acworth, Farm Manager; Siffre Tooth, UW Farm Food Security Lead '23-24 Photo Credits: Siffre Tooth. Other photos retrieved from the internet and noted in sections
Throughout our beds of harvested lettuce and mustard greens, you can see the walkways overflowing with puddles lately. Heavy rainfall not only makes it difficult for our wonderful volunteers to help in the field, but also difficult for the crops to thrive too! Rainfall can easily wash away precious, nutrient-rich soil.
