Julia's Blog

First Blog

These first two weeks at the Stanford Community Farm have been such a blast! To start off our daily routine we harvest any crops that are ready, which so far have been delicious zucchinis and beautiful sunflowers. Throughout the rest of the day we do various tasks around the garden, which have taught me so much about the environment around us. My favorite activities so far were learning how to repair the irrigation system present, along with building our very own compost pile with our mentor, Erin. I also enjoy our daily journal time because I am able to observe the plant life around us from a different perspective and often times sketch what I see. By just looking closely at the world around you it is amazing how much you can discover! It is really fun to cook various dishes using the things we grow and get to know the other interns as well. So far, we have created ratatouille and lots of pizza, which all turned out great! The project I am looking forward to the most however is the Searsville Sediment Experiment we are working on with another one of our mentors, Corey, in which we are testing whether or not the sediment present at Jasper Ridge can be used to make an ideal type of soil for growing basil plants. I can’t wait to see what the results will be! I think it is really interesting to be able to take what I have learned in school and apply it to our research in a whole new way. By the end of the summer, I hope to share my experience and newfound knowledge with others!

Second Blog

As the weeks have progressed throughout this internship I have learned so much and continue to have a great experience! Along with the typical harvest of crops to start off the day, we have begun clearing beds of cover crops such as buckwheat in order to prepare the soil for the desired plants we hope to grow. In order to figure out what type of soil we are using at the farm and its exact texture, we have been using a soil triangle diagram to test the clay, sand, and silt content of our materials. This has also proved helpful as we continue to collect data for the experiment Corey guides us through because we are able to analyze why each basil plant is growing in a particular way for the various pots of sediment, farm soil, horse manure, and compost we have. To give us background information on the research project, we took a field trip up to Jasper Ridge and observed the wildlife as well as discuss the controversy surrounding the biological preserve. I felt like a scientist when we went back to lab to further our research on the topic by learning the foil balling technique to eventually test for amounts of carbon and other elements in each type of soil. It will be interesting to see the trends of our data as we continue to compile and collect it every week! Aside from the Searsville Sediment Experiment, we have been discovering different ideas to incorporate into the new Stanford Community Farm as well as work on projects like tomato tying this summer. My favorite has been the flower bed we began planting along with painting golf balls we find around the farm to make a fun, colorful border! I can’t wait to connect all of the things I have been learning and spreading the information to others by the end of this internship!

Third Blog

These final weeks of the internship have been both fun with learning even more about agriculture, but also sad with the thought of having to draw this experience to a close. By taking a trip to the farm at UC Santa Cruz, we were able to see inspiration for the new farm and even more methods to also be incorporated in Patrick’s teachings. We also learned how to make proper plant cuttings to use for plant propagation the following day in order to grow beautiful flowers. Our group even got a special tour of the new farm site where construction is underway and took a look at the grand plans too; I am excited to come back and visit when it is finally complete! Along with the usual daily harvest around the garden of even more items like tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes and continuous bed prep and planting of flower seeds, we were taught how to preserve seeds for better germination. The Searsville Sediment Experiment continued to present trends and interesting findings that we recorded and used to create our presentation for the final day. In addition, we completed and submitted our abstract for AGU and are so excited to provide our research there! Although I am disappointed to be leaving Stanford with the completion of this program, I am excited to go forth and use my newfound knowledge to help decide my future interests and impact others in my community as well!