I've officially been accepted in to the soil science master's program in my home town. I will be starting in January. Today was the first day of the semester-- which my plan is to register for 2 classes -- stats and organic chemistry.
However, because I'm a lab tech at the university currently.. and all of the other students have already registered for classes, I was basically the 'last' hope to help in the great harvest.
That is of peaches-- from one of the student farms. I've had my own harvesting adventures in my own backyard, which I will be happy to elaborate on-- later in the blog :).
I love harvesting, I think it's one of the most beautiful things about farming. Of course, it's a lot of work, and my back hurts, my day ends with a migraine.. not drinking enough? hot and muggy days?? But I have 4 overloaded boxes of peaches in the fridge and a brain full of imagination of how to use them??? The most I've been able to do as of now is.. to give it away :)
Harvesting at a university orchard, is a little different from a conventional one.. because it's all about recording the figures. So every tree we had to record the number of peaches with particular kinds of imperfections.
The most common being:
-- Earwig bits
-- pecks-- which could be from birds or other bugs
-- bruises
--cat-facing -- a particular kind of insect which sucks the fruit from a needle like 'nose' and causes funny misshaping of the surface of the fruit. Often like a puckering effect.
-- birds -- looks kind of like an earwig bite, but the surface is a much bigger area and very jagged.
To begin with, this kind of sorting was easy, and a nice change from the hard labor that typically goes on in an orchard. but after almost 7 hours of sorting, my head was pounding.. and I could hardly tell what kinda of scars were okay to sell at the supermarket and which weren't. Suddenly everything started looking the same.
But perhaps, I was a bit too focused and a little under-hydrated.
I'm planning on registering for classes tomorrow, but my main professor is asking for my help in the field for wednesday, thursday and friday this week...
First week of classes.. no big right?? Lol, I hope they aren't. I know that I'm basically the only one who is slightly more available then everyone else-- in terms of working in the university's farming operations.. it seems that university professors as well as grad students are completely overbooked with -- atleast in the ag department with lab work, field work, writing and etc.
I work with a lot of grad students and occasionally with professors. I'm just hoping that I'll be able to keep an even mind in grad school.. without feeling swamped?? is it possible? I'm gonna try. I am gonna think happy thoughts and see if I can manage to have a relatively ... stress free time?
The secret? Maybe it's possible to enjoy the process, enjoy learning, enjoy the experiments just enjoy the craziness.
I work with awesome people. I think as long as I can believe in myself, and not be too hard on myself or stress too much about my to do list.. maybe I will be able to manage this adventure without too many grievances.
Anyway, I'm veering off topic.
It's harvest season!!
to add to my 4 boxes of peaches, I also have 3 huge bags of turnips.. which I am thinking of drying... freezing? Might be interesting. I could have a lot of fun with this! I just have to get over my bit of a freeze up, as I've never preserved turnips before.
The other big harvest that I've managed this year, is actually lentils.
They grew so easily in my garden, but I am realizing that next time I will need to put a trellis up for them. They did better next to hardy weeds which were strong and grew tall ( whoohooo for no-weeding gardens!) But when next to grasses and such would fall over.. which wasn't that big of a deal, because they still produced many lentils! And apparently they keep producing lentils until the season ends! So far I have one big bowl of lentils and I will need need to figure out the best way to dry them.
Granted, lentils are extremely labor and time consuming for not that much of a bounty. But I did only pick the dry lentils off of the plant because I wanted to allow the plant to produce more lentils. And if I had had help in the garden, it probably would have been a piece of cake.. and if I hadn't of chose to do it mid-day in the heat, probably would have been less intense. lol, oh well.
But with many things happening-- all of the farms I have been visiting and classes which need to be registered for.. i'm just trying to figure out the best time to process all of my bountiful foods! I'm hoping that they don't get bad meanwhile :( . I am so lucky that I have excess turnips.. they've stayed awesomely good for months in my fridge. Lol I love farming, but I am probably the laziest farmer ever. Minimal work is best for me.. that's why -- really the most I do is water the garden.. and prep the beds in the spring.. other than that.. I'm totally handsoff.. But I do love harvest time. And I'm trying to break into my love for processing/preserving!! It'll happen, surely!
Some things in the garden that didn't quite produce like some of my other farmer friends, were my squash and tomatoes. Everyone seems to be having like.. huge harvests of these, but in my garden not so much. I think the main issue, with this, was that I didn't really fertilize at all, I think these plants seem to be a little bit more nutrient intensive, so a bit of compost tea every week or just start out the plants with nice compost in the soil, will probably be enough to enjoy a big bounty. But it's not really much of a loss, because all of my friends are producing more than enough, so I am still enjoying these wonderful foods.
However, because I'm a lab tech at the university currently.. and all of the other students have already registered for classes, I was basically the 'last' hope to help in the great harvest.
That is of peaches-- from one of the student farms. I've had my own harvesting adventures in my own backyard, which I will be happy to elaborate on-- later in the blog :).
I love harvesting, I think it's one of the most beautiful things about farming. Of course, it's a lot of work, and my back hurts, my day ends with a migraine.. not drinking enough? hot and muggy days?? But I have 4 overloaded boxes of peaches in the fridge and a brain full of imagination of how to use them??? The most I've been able to do as of now is.. to give it away :)
Harvesting at a university orchard, is a little different from a conventional one.. because it's all about recording the figures. So every tree we had to record the number of peaches with particular kinds of imperfections.
The most common being:
-- Earwig bits
-- pecks-- which could be from birds or other bugs
-- bruises
--cat-facing -- a particular kind of insect which sucks the fruit from a needle like 'nose' and causes funny misshaping of the surface of the fruit. Often like a puckering effect.
-- birds -- looks kind of like an earwig bite, but the surface is a much bigger area and very jagged.
To begin with, this kind of sorting was easy, and a nice change from the hard labor that typically goes on in an orchard. but after almost 7 hours of sorting, my head was pounding.. and I could hardly tell what kinda of scars were okay to sell at the supermarket and which weren't. Suddenly everything started looking the same.
But perhaps, I was a bit too focused and a little under-hydrated.
I'm planning on registering for classes tomorrow, but my main professor is asking for my help in the field for wednesday, thursday and friday this week...
First week of classes.. no big right?? Lol, I hope they aren't. I know that I'm basically the only one who is slightly more available then everyone else-- in terms of working in the university's farming operations.. it seems that university professors as well as grad students are completely overbooked with -- atleast in the ag department with lab work, field work, writing and etc.
I work with a lot of grad students and occasionally with professors. I'm just hoping that I'll be able to keep an even mind in grad school.. without feeling swamped?? is it possible? I'm gonna try. I am gonna think happy thoughts and see if I can manage to have a relatively ... stress free time?
The secret? Maybe it's possible to enjoy the process, enjoy learning, enjoy the experiments just enjoy the craziness.
I work with awesome people. I think as long as I can believe in myself, and not be too hard on myself or stress too much about my to do list.. maybe I will be able to manage this adventure without too many grievances.
Anyway, I'm veering off topic.
It's harvest season!!
to add to my 4 boxes of peaches, I also have 3 huge bags of turnips.. which I am thinking of drying... freezing? Might be interesting. I could have a lot of fun with this! I just have to get over my bit of a freeze up, as I've never preserved turnips before.
The other big harvest that I've managed this year, is actually lentils.
They grew so easily in my garden, but I am realizing that next time I will need to put a trellis up for them. They did better next to hardy weeds which were strong and grew tall ( whoohooo for no-weeding gardens!) But when next to grasses and such would fall over.. which wasn't that big of a deal, because they still produced many lentils! And apparently they keep producing lentils until the season ends! So far I have one big bowl of lentils and I will need need to figure out the best way to dry them.
Granted, lentils are extremely labor and time consuming for not that much of a bounty. But I did only pick the dry lentils off of the plant because I wanted to allow the plant to produce more lentils. And if I had had help in the garden, it probably would have been a piece of cake.. and if I hadn't of chose to do it mid-day in the heat, probably would have been less intense. lol, oh well.
But with many things happening-- all of the farms I have been visiting and classes which need to be registered for.. i'm just trying to figure out the best time to process all of my bountiful foods! I'm hoping that they don't get bad meanwhile :( . I am so lucky that I have excess turnips.. they've stayed awesomely good for months in my fridge. Lol I love farming, but I am probably the laziest farmer ever. Minimal work is best for me.. that's why -- really the most I do is water the garden.. and prep the beds in the spring.. other than that.. I'm totally handsoff.. But I do love harvest time. And I'm trying to break into my love for processing/preserving!! It'll happen, surely!
Some things in the garden that didn't quite produce like some of my other farmer friends, were my squash and tomatoes. Everyone seems to be having like.. huge harvests of these, but in my garden not so much. I think the main issue, with this, was that I didn't really fertilize at all, I think these plants seem to be a little bit more nutrient intensive, so a bit of compost tea every week or just start out the plants with nice compost in the soil, will probably be enough to enjoy a big bounty. But it's not really much of a loss, because all of my friends are producing more than enough, so I am still enjoying these wonderful foods.
No comments:
Post a Comment