Hi my name is Ejay. This field trip took place in different parts of Minneapolis.  It's about the youth farm and their influence in the society. It also tends to be called a food forest. One of the associates of the youth farm talked about how he started the youth farm 13 years ago. The farm took the place of a house. Another garden he started is across the street from his house. The shape of the garden is like a basketball court. They talked about how they have a progressive model Youth farm program that is 27years old. The people running the farm talked about how they can be more efficient, create healthier soil and increase yield.  The youth farm breeds raspberry, tomatoes, cabbage , peppers , okra, egg plants, sunflower plant, maize etc. The Peace Haven youth farm has a lot of medicinal plants like the Angelica, Catnip plant which is good for an upset stomach. The youth farm is also full of pollinating plants like the cub plants, sage and molen which can be used to treat ear infection. The goal is to keep growing. Their capacity is not in organization but in people. One of the challenges the youth farm has encountered over the years is providing water to the plants. I liked how this was resolved as the youth farm has a relationship with the community and firefighters as they assist by watering the plants.

My project this summer has completely revolved around Broccolini. This phenomenal new-to-me plant that I actually didn’t know existed up until a few months ago, when I applied for this program. The key idea behind this research study was to develop a variety trial comparing yield, growth, and pest prevalence. I’ve been looking at bolting, longevity, earliness, yield, as well as the economic prospect of this crop for growers. Looking at 4 distinct varieties: Sweet Stem, Melody, Happy Rich, and BC1611, I kept track of yield and other unique traits of the varieties. So far the most interesting part of my project has been developing the enterprise budget for my crop. I’ve never created anything like this before, and the learning process was different than what I am used to. My project keeps me in the field daily, but luckily opportunities for me to branch out have consistently been available. Visiting sites such as Chicanos Latinos Unidos En Servicio, community gardens to change out swede midge traps, and doing community outreach with the Somali American Farmers Association. Overall I feel this has been a successful summer and I could not have gotten a better introduction to broccolini than working directly with the crop.

Hello everyone!!  My name is Adiel J. Andino Acevedo, I am 20 years old and I am from Puerto Rico.  I am currently studying a bachelor's degree in Sustainable Agriculture.  Since I was little I have always liked agriculture, I remember when I was little, when I was 12 years old I started selling mangoes, and all the people who bought from me told me that I should be a farmer in the future since it is something that is needed in Puerto Rico. So here I am doing what I love. 

During this internship I will be working on a very important and interesting project.  I am working with a group of professional people who have helped me to have a better experience, these are Alex Crum (PhD student), Natalie Hoidal (Extension) and Dr. Ya yang.  This project was initiated by a Hmong farmer named May and two of her daughters.  They are organic vegetable farmers, and for the last few decades they have stewarded their family's medicinal herbs.  They are primarily herbs for the postpartum chicken soup diet, plus some other medicinal plants.  They sell these herbs to hospitals around the Twin Cities so that hospitals can provide more culturally relevant care for Hmong women after labor.  While the farmers have a deep understanding of these plants - how they are used, propagated, etc., they wanted to know the scientific names of the plants and conduct a literature review, with the ultimate goal of creating a book to share their knowledge with the next generation.  For me, being able to work on this project is very special, being able to meet and learn new things about a culture makes it more delicate.

Other things that I am doing is having experiences on the work of an agricultural extension.  On Tuesday June 14, I visited Naima with Natalie to plant the Somali American Farmers Association garden in Minneapolis in the morning, it was great fun working with her and seeing how other cultures work with agriculture.  Then on June 17, I also visited another farm with Natalie where different varieties of pumpkins are being investigated and which one will have the best results on those lands, this is being done since the farmer is from Africa and they grow it to eat the leaves and is looking for the best variety that adapts to this climate, it is very interesting. Last Tuesday, June 21, I visited three farms with the group of extensionists from the university.  We were looking for different insects on plants, flowers and leaves to identify whether they are pests or beneficial.  For me it was a new experience, I really liked being able to visit those farms and be an insect hunter.

On Friday, June 24, together with Alex, we visited Big River Farm.  I was finally able to meet the Hmong farmer May.  This visit was to collect her medicinal plants in order to start the pcr process in the lab.  Today's visit was very fun, we collected 8 medicinal plants, of which 3 of them are not for the chicken soup recipe. 

I think that the Hmong community is a well organized culture, very faithful, they maintain their beliefs regardless of what others may think.  I am very impressed to learn about other cultures, and even more so to see how they maintain the culture of medicinal plants and their remedies without having scientific proof and then, after doing the research, to see if their plants and their remedies really give results.

I am very convinced that I will have many more new, interesting and unforgettable experiences in this program. I am very grateful for what I have been doing.

Hi my name is Ejay. I get to do research on potatoes and a disease that affects the potato called common scab. This disease decreases the quality of potato. The study of common scab is important because the fourth largest food crop is potatoes. Common scab is a disease found among potato tubers. Preventing the outbreak of this disease will lead to healthier potato crops. My research is trying to discover ways of using machines in order to analyze potatoes infected with common scab. The goal of my summer is to get more fluent in using these machines and through the use of applications like Fiji and Weka data analysis. So far in my research I have analyzed data by machine learning through application called Weka and Fiji. It has been really fun as I see how data mining can be applied through machines. Other things that I have gotten to do that are not related to my lab is visiting other farms, including the bee hives, on the Saint Paul campus with my mentor.

Almost anytime you are outside and look around, what do you see? No, it’s not the hustle and bustle of cars or people that I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is grass, turfgrass; and what you don’t realize about turfgrass is that it needs a lot of water, fertilizer, and care which goes into its upkeep towards the standards of what we would consider “good quality grass”. The reason why the work I have been doing with my mentor, Florence Sessoms, and the Watkins Turfgrass Lab is important, is because it targets that specific issue of fertilizer input, in particular nitrogen. Florence’s work with perennial ryegrasses– a type of turfgrass species–from around the world seeks to address the issue of all of the excess nitrogen fertilizers we use to try to maintain the perfect and beautiful lawns we see on a daily basis. 

The work I have been doing with Florence looks at the capacity of grass to produce and secrete exudates called Biological Nitrification Inhibitors (BNIs) because of their ability to naturally  inhibit nitrification and retain nitrogen in the soil under the form of ammonium. Again, this is with the goal of screening  perennial ryegrass accessions from various places around the world to test their potential ability for Biological nitrification inhibition. In order to further research this topic, Florence has looked at past research and came up with an experiment which involves using a soil slurry method which looks at the amount of NO2 and NO3 left in samples after a certain amount of time. This gives a good measure of the overall capacity of certain accessions to inhibit nitrification. 

Other work I have been doing with Florence has been looking at the winter hardiness of grass. For the past couple of days, I have been helping clone multiple accessions of fescue grass, which is going to be used in her trials for cold hardiness in the next couple of weeks. Aside from being in the lab and the greenhouse, I have had the opportunity to be in the field taking pictures of plots of turf, as well as checking out Allianz Field and the incredible grass field the Loons have. This far, I have really been enjoying my exposure to different aspects of the turfgrass lab, whether that be in the field or lab, and am looking forward to seeing the work we have been putting in towards Florence’s projects come to fruition.

Almost anytime you are outside and look around, what do you see? No, it’s not the hustle and bustle of cars or people that I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is grass, turfgrass; and what you don’t realize about turfgrass is that it needs a lot of water, fertilizer, and care which goes into its upkeep towards the standards of what we would consider “good quality grass”. The reason why the work I have been doing with my mentor, Florence Sessoms, and the Watkins Turfgrass Lab is important, is because it targets that specific issue of fertilizer input, in particular nitrogen. Florence’s work with perennial ryegrasses– a type of turfgrass species–from around the world seeks to address the issue of all of the excess nitrogen fertilizers we use to try to maintain the perfect and beautiful lawns we see on a daily basis. 

The work I have been doing with Florence looks at the capacity of grass to produce and secrete exudates called Biological Nitrification Inhibitors (BNIs) because of their ability to naturally  inhibit nitrification and retain nitrogen in the soil under the form of ammonium. Again, this is with the goal of screening  perennial ryegrass accessions from various places around the world to test their potential ability for Biological nitrification inhibition. In order to further research this topic, Florence has looked at past research and came up with an experiment which involves using a soil slurry method which looks at the amount of NO2 and NO3 left in samples after a certain amount of time. This gives a good measure of the overall capacity of certain accessions to inhibit nitrification. 

Other work I have been doing with Florence has been looking at the winter hardiness of grass. For the past couple of days, I have been helping clone multiple accessions of fescue grass, which is going to be used in her trials for cold hardiness in the next couple of weeks. Aside from being in the lab and the greenhouse, I have had the opportunity to be in the field taking pictures of plots of turf, as well as checking out Allianz Field and the incredible grass field the Loons have. This far, I have really been enjoying my exposure to different aspects of the turfgrass lab, whether that be in the field or lab, and am looking forward to seeing the work we have been putting in towards Florence’s projects come to fruition.

Aaniin niiji-giikino'amaaganidog. Karen Joy nindizhinikaaz, mikinoc niin (n)indoodem, Gakaabikaang niin (n)indoonjiibaa, Niminwendam ji-nitaa-ojibwemoyaan. 

That was a Minnesota Native Ojibwe greeting. “I say hello to you my fellow students. My name is Karen Joy, my family clan is Turtle. I am from Minneapolis. 

I like learning my Ojibwe Language” I am a student of Red Lake Nation College, taking courses online since last August. I'm re-learning the history of my people, taking Native American studies with a focus on communications and traditional plant medicines. I have been assigned the first blog of our SOAR-REEU Summer fellowship. 

Allow me to start us off by saying what an exciting experience it is. I am extremely grateful to be a part of it all. I was delighted to have been invited to study and reside here on the U of M campus. I am in awe of the brilliant and humble people I have met so far. Salut to my cohorts, primary researchers, and my mentor. The staff, coordinators and other hosts are all very gracious and encouraging. They have thought of everything to put forth an enriching experience, along with great comfort in accommodations. We are surrounded by resources and many different disciplines of science and nature that I am eager to have access to and receive wisdom from. I appreciate all the effort that has gone into the planning and making of this incredible opportunity. I am invigorated by hands-on learning, spending time outdoors, playing in the dirt, and soaking up knowledge. I can sum up my first two weeks here in two words...inspiring and exhausting! 

Last week our Tuesday seminar exposed us to Research Poster Presentations. We will all be given the chance to create a poster ourselves and present our individual research projects. I have to admit, the thought of all this is a teeny bit daunting. I myself have never done this type of data collecting and research, let alone have to explain to another person but I am up for the challenge. I felt a skosh awkward as I entered, I could sense that a few of my cohorts may have had similar feels. We were all just gazing around wondering where to start. Some of the researchers were readying their stations and talking amongst themselves. Why is it when you see another person in the room sweating, fumbling, or fidgeting that you are instantly reassured? I was reminded that we are all human, we are here to learn and share, and like the plants we observe, we will all grow together through this journey of discovery. 

Lunch arrived, ahh FOOD, the international language and gatherer. Before you know it the room was all a buzz with the energy and chatter of intellectuals and the smell of good pizza. I feel that inclusion and community are foundational elements woven into the spirit of this internship. Despite any insecurities I was carrying, everyone was very open and engaging. That allowed me to let go and dive in to absorb all the new info they had to share. I began to observe and then form questions, asking led to more questions. To quote my mentor Matt, “no matter how much we discover, there is always another question.” 

What I learned about poster making. There were a good number of research studies that we were able to get into. Potatoes, tomatoes, sunflowers, berries, soil, and fruit flies. (Ojibwe word: Manidoonz. Translates to tiny or little spirit) The biggest poster in the room involved a study that only took a couple of days. Other examples took three years or more to accumulate enough data to present results. There was an abundance of facts, figures, and findings all too much to mention here but I would like to highlight the meat & potatoes per se for my blog. I was dutiful to pay particular attention to the similarities of each study. Keeping in mind our own upcoming task to take our discoveries from lab & field and apply those to a visual guide of our works. Below I have summarized the parts & particles I observed at our seminar to provide readers a blueprint of sorts. So what goes into a good poster? Here is a list of items to consider and include. 

• Pictures are great attention getters, make them as visually appealing as you can to entice your audience. Try to present a perspective of the subject that people maybe haven't seen before. Microscopic or bird-eye views are something to explore and experiment with through pictures. 

• Choose an aesthetic or design to demonstrate your information. Play with color schemes, font, borders, etc. Keep a neat consistent visual that's not too busy and helps to lead the eye, including arrows and shapes, and highlights. 

• Know your project from beginning to end and practice speaking on it. Track or journal the discoveries you encounter through out your works, call out points of interest. Record as many details as you can about the plot design, lab, and experiment setup. 

• Be willing to share what was most interesting to you. Sharing your personal story or intent are good ways to engage. 

• Try to think of what comes next, what questions might an observer have and be ready to answer. 

• Aside from the artsy fluff, there are foundational parts that go into your poster such as  

  • Title, banner, brief description or name of your project, lab name, school, and/or dept. 

  • Abstract, Intro, or Background on the subject. 

  • Thesis, objectives, variables and obstructions, use of data sets, tables, and graphs, 

  • Mention materials and methods used in the study. 

  • Results, Conclusions, and findings. 

  • Cite your sources and include links. 

  • Other optional inclusions can be footers, logos, sponsors, collaborators, your headshot, and contact information for further questions and/or outreach purposes. etc. 

I’d like to leave you with one last resource that was shared with me, Google- Better Science Posters for pleather of modern and informative approaches to poster making and presentation. I hope that readers and research assistant can find this useful in some way. I wish us all great success and tons of fun and intrigue in the coming weeks! Mii eta go minik waa-ikidoyaan. Miigwech bizindawiyeg. Gigawaabamin miniwaaa. (That’s all I want to say, Thank you all for listening to me. We will see each other again) Life Long Learner, Karen Joy