Student or Group Info

Name: Katrina Hargis
Term: Summer 2023
Credits: 12
Title of ILC or Group Project: Learning to Start a Farm – Summer

Program of Project Description

This second quarter of a 3-quarter project sequence titled Learning to Start a Farm has been designed to explore how to begin a CSA (Community Sustained Agriculture) market garden. Specific learning objectives for summer quarter include raising meat chickens, creating a compost heater system for the greenhouse, and growing, caring for, selling, and preserving vegetables grown on the farm. Written work includes a wordpress ePortfolio tracking the work done each week and reports on harvest and sales records, food processing, and meat chicken progress. Possible texts to be studied include: The Farm as Ecosystem by Jerry Brunetti,The Art of Balancing Soil Nutrients: A Practical Guide to Interpreting Soil Tests by William McKibbin, The Ultimate Guide to Regenerative Farming for Beginners: Simple and Effective Indigenous Techniques to Design Sustainable Food Gardens, Save & Improve Soil, and Grow Organic Food Indoors & Outdoors by Ryan Goldman, Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres by Pam Dawling, Market Farming Success: The Business of Growing and Selling Local Food, 2nd Edition by Pam Dawling, and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Learning objective
ActivityDeliverable
 Learning Objectives
Activities that will help me to attain this objective
What my sponsor will evaluate
To continue to understand how to build and implement the use of a compost heater, while understanding the usefulness in terms of the students farm.		Create diagram of system based on previous research
Cost analysis
Obtain materials
Build boxes for composting
Place tubing for heating
Take notes on efficacy
Analyze cost
Analyze effectiveness
Report on how it was done, how well it works, etc. 		WordPress updates, hour records, and end of term analysis on the unit so far. 
 Student will learn what is required for starting and maintaining their own market garden farm and CSA farm share, as well as learning how to preserve and process vegetables grown for personal use and storage.Summer Gardening Actions:
Planting
Weeding
Cultivation of plants
Sales
Record keeping
Pest Management
Weed Management
Marketing
Beginnings of processing and preserving crops for personal use and storage
Other Learning Activities:
Reading Options: Some or All of these may be written and reported on, plus online readings on the topics needing research.
The Farm as Ecosystem by Jerry Brunetti,
The Art of Balancing Soil Nutrients: A Practical Guide to Interpreting Soil Tests by William McKibbin, 
The Ultimate Guide to Regenerative Farming for Beginners: Simple and Effective Indigenous Techniques to Design Sustainable Food Gardens, Save & Improve Soil, and Grow Organic Food Indoors & Outdoors by Ryan Goldman, 
Sustainable Market Farming: Intensive Vegetable Production on a Few Acres by Pam Dawling, 
Market Farming Success: The Business of Growing and Selling Local Food, 2nd Edition by Pam Dawling
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 		WordPress updates, hour records, sales and marketing records.
Written reports on types of pest management and weed management attempted and what is working or what is not. 
Records of crops harvested and preserved for personal use.
“Book Reports” on each book read and finished. These will be listed in a separate section of wordpress for viewing of files. This will be a summary of what I read, what I took from it, and how I think that it will apply to my farming in the future. 
Student will learn and understand intricacies in raising and processing animals for meat and eggs  Order Chicks
Order Feed
Raise Chicks
Documentation
Report on progress made with meat chicken project
Research into laying hen nutrition
Research into egg preservation
Sales of eggs
Care of chickens, ducks, and goose		Consistent updates through wordpress site, written and photographic, and detailed hour records.
Reports will include cost analysis, growth analysis, and written explanation of things that have been completed, what I have learned, and what I hope and expect to do next. 
Records showing eggs collected, sold, preserved, and used personally.  
   

Evaluation of Work

  • WordPress ePortfolio
  • Final week ten presentation
  • Narrative evaluations from field supervisor and/or subcontractor
  • Narrative mid-quarter and final self-evaluations