05.22.24

Around The Farm

Grounding During Cold Months
By Abigail Ipjian, Undergraduate Student, English & Creative Writing Major, UW Farm Education Intern Spring ’24

Step into your work boots, reader, it’s time 
to get moving. Running on 
a slice of buttered toast and 
the rest of yesterday’s burnt cup of coffee, I want you to coax your body awake, and take in
the stagnant, but somehow fresh morning air. 

05.15.24

Around The Farm

How the UW Farm Has Influenced My Journey With Food
By Alex Ball, Undergraduate Student, Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health, CSA Assistant Manager & Dani Elenga Intern
 
Food has always played an important role in my life. My mom is a registered dietician, and having her to help encourage healthful habits and eating behaviors made good food a priority from an early age. 

A Day in the Life of a Red Wiggler
Hey there! I’m just your average worm living in the UW Farm’s bustling vermicompost bin. Let’s wriggle through a day in my underground life.
Rise and shine, it’s morning routine time. I move through our cozy bedding in search of breakfast. I can always find my buddies lined up at the buffet. 

05.08.24

Around The Farm

Under the Surface: Adventures of a UW Farm Resident
By Taylor Bernard Clark, Undergraduate Student, Environmental Studies, College of the Environment, Vermicompost Intern
 
Today, we have a special guest joining us. This remarkable creature resides in the heart of our urban farm, working tirelessly to transform kitchen scraps into nutrient-rich compost. Prepare yourself to be amazed as we take a peek into a lifetime spent in (literal) shadow. As the UW Farm’s vermiculture intern, this guest is very near and dear to my heart. 

05.01.24

Around The Farm

A Buzz at the Farm
By Brooke Baker, Undergraduate Student, Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health, School for Public Health, UW Farm Beekeeping Intern
 
The University of Washington has supported beekeeping activities for many years, using bees to incorporate hands-on experiences in classes and enrich student learning experiences. But it hasn’t necessarily been the smoothest ride for the bees, due to a staffing turnover and lack of enduring student leadership to advocate for their importance. 

04.24.24

Around The Farm

The UW Farm provides a multitude of experiential learning experiences for 24 academic and program units across campus. Often students volunteer and earn credit or discover topics to write about, research, and document. In the Fall quarter of 2023, Lluvia Chavez, a UW Journalism student, sought out the farm for a class assignment and volunteered a number of times. She then shared her summative piece with us. 

Here at the Washington Park Arboretum we are lucky to care for many extraordinary trees. One of these amazing trees is our single specimen of Montezuma pine, Pinus montezumae var. lindleyi (Accession number 506-65-A) planted at the northeast corner of Crabapple Meadow in 1969. I first became acquainted with this tree in the spring of 2017 when I was the Teaching Assistant for a Landscape Plant Recognition class at the University of Washington. 

04.17.24

Around The Farm

Mark Your Calendars for the UW Farm Plant Sale!
By Sean Flory, UW Farm Intern, Undergraduate Student, Environmental Studies and Resource Management
 
 
The UW Farm’s annual plant sale is just around the corner! 
Come join us at the UW Farm’s site at the Center for Urban Horticulture on Saturday, June 1st. Funds raised at the Plant Sale help support the UW Farm as well as the Dirty Dozen, the university’s farm club, all year long! 
This season we will be sharing many delicious heirloom varieties of tomatoes, peppers, squash, culinary herbs, and flowers. 

An endemic plant found only in Benton County of Washington State, Umtanum desert buckwheat (Eriogonum codium) is a long-lived perennial adapted to grow in an arid landscape. This compact, tufted plant forms a low-branching woody stem from a stout taproot and spreads 2-9 dm laterally but rarely reaching a height much higher than 8 inches. Leaves are basal, oblanceolate to elliptic in shape, and only 6-12 mm long x 3-6 mm wide. 

Each Year Rare Care recognizes volunteers for their outstanding contributions
Jane Engle is a relatively new Rare Care volunteer, having completed the training in 2022; however, she has come out of the gate running. Jane contributed over 147 total hours in 2023. As a first year seed collector, Jane collected seeds for Veronica schizantha in Gifford-Pinchot National Forest with the help of her assistant and mapper Duane Engle.