Sunol AgPark Experience Week 1

Hello I'm back guys with a some great news!

                    So I'm an intern at the Sunol AgPark farm over this summer break. I shall begin with a day by day description. But as a bonus (and because I want to) I included some retouched pictures and information about the farmer and their farmers.

And I shall throw in a little humor of mine.

Warning you are now entering a highly classified page.

June 24,2015 Wednesday

Deborah's log.
It's 900 to 1230.

      It's the day I met the interns: Desiree and Eden at the quaint, rustic Agpark located in Sunol. It is also the day I again met up with Aspen Kvicala, a really nice, enthusiastic woman who gave us a tour around Agpark farm.  After we visited the farm and the water temple, which is built to commemorate that the area from Yosemite to San Francisco has water. It's not built for religious affiliations and it's pretty cool. So after we visited the water temple, we each begin working on a farm and I got to work on Joanna Letz's flower farm called Bluma Farm. Her website is http://blumaflowerfarm.com/.

Agrostema

       So Joanna showed me her one acre farm and the tasks she planned me to do. And one of the famous tasks a farmer must do is weed. I remember when Joanna lend me the weeding knife and showed me the bed of flowers I thought the weed was the flower. The weed is called Amaranthus retroflexus and it produces a LOT of seeds, which means I have a lot to remove. But to make it easier for me, Joanna said to remove them up to a certain line she drawn on the bed.

                        I learned that instead of feeling overwhelmed, you can conquer the problem by breaking it up into small tasks, conquering them one at a time. And also when you're working with or for someone else, you feel more motivated to finished the task. So I realized it's better to tell others your goal so they can support you and remind you of your goals. 

Joanna Letz's farm

       After I was done removing the Amaranthus up to a certain line drawn on the bed, I then helped Joanna transplanted some more flower plants she grew in trays in the greenhouse. She taught me to push the plant down into the soil instead of digging holes in the ground since the tractor already had broken up the soil into a fine, powdery kind. Yet I found it difficult to plant them in the new bed , because the soil and the roots would break up underneath my fingers when I pushed them down into the soil. But even though I have to replace some plants that didn't survive the transplanting, that's okay because there's more to compensate for the loss. And that some the plants grown in the trays may not have grown well, which is okay too.

                        It doesn't mean you did something wrong; it's natural that some didn't grow well while other do. You can't blame yourself for all the problems you faced because some of them are beyond your control, so it's best to move on and not bear yourself down. 

There's a lot of philosophy one can learn from gardening and everyday. Maybe I should be one when I grow up. Hmm, I shall ended with some word of inspiration I gave to my friends.

        After we were done, we took a snack break and introduce ourselves more. We mentioned our ethnicity, stories, schools, and why we chose to farm here. I enjoyed my first a lot. Too bad I didn't bring my camera. Meh.

Questions: How come some plants can be pushed into the ground while others have to be digged into the ground? How does the tractor make the soil so fine and smooth?




June 25, 2015 Thursday

Deborah's log.
It's 800 to 1200.

         I  arrived at the farm with my backpack and hat on. I walked over to Joanna's farm but I didn't see anyone there. Still I remember my weeding task and found the weeding knife I left behind in one of the rows. After I picked up the knife, I then looked for the flower bed that has been half-weeded and continued my job until Joanna showed up. She smiled at me and said that I could continue weeding up to the line she drew yesterday and that later she would show me how to harvest some flowers. So after I weeded the bed, I then came over to her and she taught me how to harvest snapdragons.

Snapdragons

        And my job was to cut about ten of them, placed them in a cool water-bucket, then later wrapped them in a newspaper that has been folded in a triangle, and finally place a rubber band around them. Joanna said she going to sell them to a florist who will used them for a wedding bouquet. The thing was I love flowers but I don't wanna cut them. And there are beautiful snapdragons with different colors and shades like yellow, pink, orange, and peach. Later when I talked with Aspen, she told me that even though cutting the flowers hurts the plants, it does allow more room for more flower stalks to grow. So what I was doing is like pruning, which then help the snapdragons grow. わかりました ( I got it).

Some things aren't meant to last forever, but for now we should enjoy them before we miss the opportunity again. But again, maybe the opportunity will come around again. :D

        After I was done, Joanna allowed me to then harvest some flowers for myself and peruse around her farm. So I made a tiny bouquet of Snapdragons, a few Coreopsis, a few Agrostema, a blue one Bachelor button, one orange Daisy, and a red Poppy flower.

Here are some of her flowers.

Bachelor Button

Sunflower with a bee

A flower ripe with seeds

A pink flower ( I don't know the name)

Questions: How do the florists use and pick the flowers for their bouquet? What are some ways to make sure the flowers are still fresh?

June 26, 2015, Friday

Deborah's log.

It's 800 to  1200. 

        Today I got to work on the Happy Acre Farm with Matt and Helena since Joanna said he wanted to take a day off on Friday after she worked on the farm for a long time yesterday. So I walked over to the first farm I saw from the entrance and met the two farmers. Matt gave a short introduction of their two-acre farm, and Matt and I started on stripping down the curly kale and Lacinato kale ( I think that's the name). These kale were infested by flea bugs which happen  to come out when the weather is warm. Still it was pretty cool to see the bugs and the new leaves growing near the inside of the kale. However the flea bugs might still infested the rest of the kale since they seem to coming back to them. There's this saying that Matt told me : "One third of your crops go to mother nature, One third goes to the bugs, and the rest goes to you." Cool.

Honeysuckle 

Happy Acre Farm

         Afterwards, we then removed some peppers that were sunburn, Yes peppers do get sunburn when it's too hot for them, but it's pretty interesting to see the spots on these growing yellow pepper. Matt said, "We're banking on these peppers." It's because the peppers they are growing turn different colors over time from yellow to purple to red and it's beautiful. I can't wait to see them  (and eat them). During our break, I then asked him the problem about G.M.O. foods and he told me that many of the G.M.O. foods have chemicals like pesticide genetically encode into them. Then the company uses the pesticide on these plants so that they would survive the pesticide. As a result, people are getting twice the chemicals from G.M.O. and it's so common in America. Wheat, for example, used in America is normally G.M.O. unless the label says the product is made from organic wheat. So read your food labels. 0.o And for the sugar intake, it is recommend to have 24 grams of sugar per day, which is about 6 tablespoons. But with the processed food in America, it's easy to overload the sugar intake especially with the drinks. Cough cough Coke and Pepsi with 39 grams of sugar cough cough.

Hammock (break time)

        But on the bright side, you guys (if you read this far) know and that I had one of the healthiest snacks ever made by Helena. Tortilla bread with vegetable mayo, cucumber, onions, rhubarb, and a little salt. All the vegetables were grown from their farm which is pretty cool. As I shall refer from a TED talk my friend told me, let's be Gangsta Gardeners. Oh dear. But growing your own food and know what happened to your food is satisfying and amazing. Warning: there is a lot of hard work so don't take farmers for granted .To think that I  am working with the less than 2% farmers of America. :D

Honeysuckle

       Later Matt and I removed some nitrogen fixing plants to enrich the soil of a bed. They use these cover crops instead of pesticide since using pesticide cause a lot of harmful long-term problems and they are certified organic farm. Afterwards we picked up the kale leave with rakes we took a break. Then I helped him load his truck with garlic and wash some vegetables that he wanted to give me. My mother did enjoy the squash, beets, garlic, sunspot pepper, cabbage and more veggies. After I was done, he then allowed me to take some pictures around the Sunol Agpark since I told him that photography is my one of my favorite hobbies. I think this blog proves it. And I really enjoy working with them and hanging out them. I think Samuel Sze was glady talking about them when he found out I got accepted as an intern at this farm. It's definitely a small world here.

Questions: When can I work there again? And where is their website? FUN♫

My Philosophy: The problems you’re facing now will go away. Have Faith!