3.23.22

Around The Farm

by Dannette Lombert, Food Security Lead, AmeriCorps Member
The UW Farm is Springing into the Season!
Happy Spring Equinox! Over here at the farm, we are well into the spring season. Our days are filled with starting seeds, transplanting, prepping beds, mulching, and harvesting. Now that the season is picking up with our seeds showing their true leaves and hardening off, we have added more volunteer shifts! 

3.16.22

Around The Farm

by Elizabeth Theirl, fourth-year undergraduate majoring in Neuroscience and Geography, UW Farm Environmental Justice Intern
 
What is Environmental Justice?  
It is established that one’s geographical position can result in disproportionate levels of exposure to harmful environmental toxins and contaminants, as well as differences in accessibility to resources and outdoor spaces. 
The field of Environmental Justice aims at addressing this inequality by redistributing both the environmental burdens and benefits among all members of society, regardless of age, immigration status, gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity. 

3.9.22

Around The Farm
by Gulsima Young, Double Major in Informatics and Environmental Studies, UW Farm Informatics Intern 

Direct Seeding at the UW Farm
There are many different methods utilized to start crops at the beginning of each growing season. Some crops at the UW Farm are started in a greenhouse and then transplanted, while others grow best when their seeds are planted right into the soil. 

3.2.22

Around The Farm

by Kove Janeski, Graduate Student in Landscape Architecture, UW Farm Student Staff, Operations Lead

Eliminating weeds without chemicals
Despite the cold snap we have been experiencing in Seattle, the UW Farm is hard at work preparing and planting our first crops across the Farm’s three campus locations.
As the first step in the bed preparation process, we try to remove weeds before planting seeds or transplants. 

2.9.21

Around The Farm

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. 

12.16.21

Around The Farm

by Dannette Lombert, UW Farm AmeriCorps Member
Wrapping Up the Season

Like most farms around this time, the UW Farm is officially wrapping up the growing season! We are entering a time of Rest, Reflect, and Refresh, meaning that:

Most of our beds are cover cropped – inputting nutrients back into the soil, improving water percolation, feeding micro-organisms, and reducing soil erosion
We are looking back to see what has worked for the farm and what we can improve on, programmatically and production-wise
We will be completing the crop plan and ordering all our seeds for next year
We have no volunteer shifts until January 17th (MLK Day), and then continue regular volunteer shifts in February
The Weekly Dirt becomes the Monthly Dirt

We want to use this portion of the newsletter to thank all of our supporters, CSA members, volunteers, interns, staff members, and anyone who has come in contact with the farm in their own way! 

12.8.21

Around The Farm

by Kove Janeski, UW Farm Student Staff
Seed Saving Season
As the growing season wraps up in the PNW, the UW Farm team is hard at work threshing, collecting, counting, and storing seeds for the future. Seed saving is an important task for many farms and gardens that aim to be more sustainable and cost-effective.
At the farm, we collect seeds from the most productive open-pollinated and self-pollinated plants throughout the growing season to pass on genes that are more likely to be regionally adapted to the microclimate at UW. 

12.1.21

Around The Farm

by Liran Zimand, UW Farm Student Staff, HFS & Athletics Produce Sales Lead 
 
I have been working on the farm since March of this year, but I have been a member of the UW Farm Club Dirty Dozen since my first week on campus as a freshman in 2019.
The name "Dirty Dozen" originates back to the founders of the UW Farm. 

11.23.21

Around The Farm

by Perry Acworth, UW Farm Manager

photo: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

All over the nation many individuals and families will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week. What that looks like depends on several factors, including where you live, access to food, and history of your culture.  There are regional differences and different views on this holiday.    
November is also Native American Heritage Month and as a result, many resources elaborating on this US tradition, which formerly began with a presidential proclamation in 1991, are readily available. 

11.17.21

Around The Farm

by Sophia Falls, UW Farm Student Staff/CSA Lead, majoring in Landscape Architecture, College of Built Environments
 
I have been working at the UW Farm since March of this year. 
I first found this wonderful place freshman year through visiting a pizza bake and was drawn by the community surrounding the farm. I had never gardened much as a kid.