Sunol Agpark Experience Week 4 and 5

Hey guys!

 I want to say that my Sunol Internship has ended (aww) but I did have a lot of fun over the past few months. And I decided to bring a special over on my last day. Let us embrace the memories and the stories told in these pictures.

July 28, 2015 Tuesday
8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

             Today I worked at Fred's farm, located near the back of the Agpark. I got to meet some of then interns who worked like Nellie, Jason, and Antony, Fred, and his stepson Jake. My first task was to pick some of the Nasturtiums (aka squash blossoms) off the plants and place them into containers. Some of the squash blossoms have mixed range of colors like orange, maroon red ( Maroon 5 ,jk), yellow-orange splashy pattern like the one below, and more. After Nellie and I plucked many of them off, we packaged them into plastic boxes that will be send to a fancy S.F. restaurant, dipped in chocolate. Yummy and edible and pretty. What more can you ask for?

Nasturtiums 

Later I took a glimpse at the hens clucking behind in the chicken coop. Pretty.

Hens!
(They like Nutella sandwiches apparently)

 Then I got assigned to water some plants with a hose. Nellie later came back to tell me that I got to work in the peppers fields, picking small yellow green peppers. They're small and a bit difficult to find, especially when there's not a of them out there. But I did to work along with Antony who showed me a praying mantis. Cool.

Praying Mantis

After we spent a couple of minutes gathering peppers, we finished a row and then took a lunch break. Later I then got to work with Jake out in the squash fields. Our job was to pick some squash with dark green, distinguishable stripes. To pick them, one can clip off the squash's stem or simply pluck the squash off. Well I think having the stems on helps keep the squash's water content more level than having the water leaking out of the squash itself. Oh well. :P

As we picked the squash and put them in baskets, we talked about random stuff like Netflix, schools, our love for languages, Doctor Who ( I'm currently addicted to the show especially the season with David Tennant. Man why can't he stay longer? He's a terrific actor. Oh I'm getting off track.), Detective Conan ( great anime show. You should watch it), ideal careers like game design for Jake, and pets. He mentioned DuoLingo, a free language-learning website which he is using to learn German. He spoke some German and French to me while I spoke some Spanish, Chinese and Japanese to him. 語文很好玩可是我的法文不太好，糟糕。。。

Can you read it Jake?
Thanks for a great time!

Jake Shepard and Me

August 5, 2015 Wednesday
8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

         My last (well for now) day at Sunol Agpark.

         To celebrate this fine day, I invited my friend Stanley Gu who was an intern last year and told me about this internship in the first place. Thank you Stanley!

          I was surprised to see him driving in a car with his father when he came over to pick me up. We both started laughing out aloud for some reason and tried to suppress our giggling during the car ride. The detour he drove ( Niles Canyon, I believe) is beautiful but scary with all the tight space and the incoming cars. But we're alive and happy! :D

When we arrived at the farms, we walked over to Namu farm where Will, Kristyn and B.B. are. B.B. started barking out loud and was running to towards as Will stand up from a row to greet us. We all started talking and laughing out loud and then Kristyn walked towards us saying, " I remember that giggle." ( referring to Stanley). After we all greeted each other, Stanley and I helped out Kristyn and Will weeding out the peanut and squash rows with the trowel hoes they have given us. And we weed for a long time,  which is a great time to exchange stories and jokes. What happens at the Namu farm stays at the Namu farm, unless I blab on this blog and I will. :P

Will and Kristyn

Stanley Gu 

B.B. lying in the field

       And I of course brought my camera to share my tale. As we weed, we talked about school since Stanley's off to college and I'll be entering my senior year in a few weeks. We told about the MSJ garden to Will and Kristyn; they told us they'll be hosting a harvest party on September 20, 2015 Sunday at the farm from 2-3pm. We got to try some flower that gives us a tingling, numb feeling ( called Paresthesia ) similar to 花椒 (huā jiāo) or the English name Sichuan pepper. The flower and Sichuan peppers have a bioactive chemical named hydroxy alpha sanshool that gives the numb, prickly feeling. Interesting. And I tried to convince Stanley to eat some nightshade berries, while the notion that nightshade is a poisonous plant. Kristyn brought up that a Korean woman visit their farm and feed some nightshade berries to a baby. " Uhh, I can't beat a baby."- Stanley. Kristyn also mentioned that a group of Burmese tourists said their favorite plant is morning glory, a weed to us but a snack to them. I admit that morning glory tastes a bit bitter, but it all depends on where we grow up since the place and culture influence our tastes. We also talk about our last meal on earth and all of us ( Stanley's was his mother's fried rice I think) were related to Asian food. But I shall add poha berries to my last meal since they are delicious especially during "sneaky" snack breaks when I eat some and give some to B.B. Hehehehe. Fun fact, if you pet a dog, your oxytocin levels will increase. And another thing also increase the oxytocin levels is dirt.


        After we were done weeding the area, we took a break and walked towards a picnic area with nice benches and grapes vines growing  around the benches. But Kristyn wants to show us an experiment she and Will are doing. The goal of the experiment is to cultivate the plants to survive realistic conditions like not enough water, hot temperatures, and bugs attacks, similar to California's current drought situation. The plants would then pass down the traits to their offspring and later the offspring would survive a bit better than its parents since it's getting used to the environment. Because the demands of the plants are high, some of them don't survive but that's okay since having one plant alive that makes a lot of seeds is already a success. And Will and Kristyn had done this to some broccoli and some poha berries.

Broccoli

      However when Kristyn was talking about the experiment, everyone saw a strange phenomenon: a swirling cyclone of dust almost lifting up some mulch into the air. It reached from the the sky and above the plants, so it was a big tornado. But it lasted for a minute or two. Ephemeral indeed. And I did not take a video of it because it is one of the those moments when you embrace the experience and remember it. Hopefully I would remember it.  The cyclone did dissipate here.

After we overcome the surprise, Kristyn then showed us a herb garden they and let us try some Korean mint leaves and hibiscus. The air around the herb garden smell so good and fresh. Then Will came over and said, "It's time to [ nod his head sideways to Kristyn]" and she said they are going come back after they get something. Stanley and I relaxed at the picnic while Kristyn, Will and B.B. drove away in their truck to pick up something. Hmm what could it be? As we waited, we ate some green grapes growing nearby and I took some pictures and a video. Stanley also showed me a piggy he made for Aspen, who is moving in the first week of August to a new state. Aww, everyone is gonna miss her. Thank you Aspen and I think we can agree that this piggy is so CUTE!

Look at it! It is so CUTE!!!!

Piggy!

Anyway, as we were reading a worm anatomy chart that was left on the bench ( the chart was for teaching some students about worms earlier), Kristyn, Will and B.B came back. As they walked toward us ( and B.B. ran around the place), I flashed them the worm chart saying, " As you can see this is a chart of the worm. Over here is the.." as Will was holding out two red popsicles. POPSICLES!!! (Thank you so much you guys! It's so sweet and really thoughtful). As Stanley and I ate the strawberry flavored kind, Kristyn ate some mango version and Will ate a fruit blend kind. Relaxing time indeed.

Will and my popsicle

Kristyn and her mango Popsicle

After our popsicle break was over, we then help Kristyn collect some burdock seed balls from their burdock tree. It turns out the burdock seeds and roots are full of phosphorus, which can be made as tea and used as a fertilizer for plants making their seeds. Collecting the burdock balls were fun, especially when you stick them to your shirt like so. Where else can you find an amazing porcupine at the farm?

A Porcupine

But collecting the seeds can be frustrating. It's not that the seeds are hard to collect. It's just that the fibers that surround the seeds are quite skin-irritating like a fresh hair-cut kind of feeling. Oh well. As noon approached, Stanley and I waved goodbye to Will, Kristyn and B.B. On the way to Stanley's car, we snatched some poha berries and enjoyed the view we have. Breathtaking isn't?

Paradise

After Stanley drove me home, I then think about how the summer passed by. Today was really fun. Memories are made here and  I hope to come visit the place next year. We'll see.

Thank you guys for helping make my internship so fun and wonderful. I hope you enjoy the blog posts and I can't thank you guys enough.
Keeping working hard, Do what you love and you guys are wonderful.

:D