| Student Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Hargis, Katrina | A00434405 | SR |
| Name | Student ID | Class Standing |
| Contract Information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2023 | Learning to Start a Farm – Fall | 4 | Undergraduate In Program Individual Learning Contract |
| Term | Title | Credits | Contract Mode |
| Williams, Sarah | 360-867-6561 | williasa@evergreen.edu |
| Sponsor Name | Phone Number |
|---|
Description
This third and final 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 fall quarter include processing meat chickens, taking steps towards planning the 2024 garden and CSA, and growing, caring for, selling, and preserving vegetables grown on the farm. Some books that may be chosen from in this quarter of work include: Soil by Camille Dungy, The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, and Iwigara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science by Enrique Salmon. 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.
| Learning Objectives | Activities that will help me to attain this objective | What my sponsor will evaluate |
|---|---|---|
| Student will complete project in learning and understanding intricacies in raising and processing animals for meat. | Processing day for 9 cornish cross birdsEvaluative write up on activities, cost analysis, and butcher day.Blog post detailing the experienceResource for instructions on how to process chickens is Stoney Ridge Farmer on Youtube, as well as previous experience. | Final report continued on meat bird analysis from spring and summer quartersWordpress posts on the subject matter |
| 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. | Fall Gardening ActionsFertilizing.Fall Planting.Planning for Spring 2024 gardens.CSA planning for 2024.Processing of crops into usable materials for winter.Resources include: Mother Earth News Garden Planner and Old Farmers Almanac. | WordPress updates, hour records, sales and marketing records.Records of crops harvested and preserved for personal use. |
| Student will include reading material and book reports to enhance understanding of gardening, farming, and soil practices | Books that may be read and reported on include:Soil by Camille DungyThe Seed Keeper by Diane WilsonAnimal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara KingsolverIwigara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science by Enrique Salmon. | Documented thoughts throughout the books on wordpress.Notes and book reports as book is finished. |
Evaluation of Work
- Narrative evaluation from sponsor
- Narrative self-evaluation from student
Faculty Support
Email communications weekly, and I will initiate contact more often as needed. Mid-quarter evaluation and end of quarter evaluation and meetings. I plan to continue to use my wordpress site to document my progress each week, as well as including my reports on reading materials, and posting my other gathered information and plans for projects.
Related Experience
3 quarter Practice of Organic Farming program in which I received full credit. During this time I completed a focus project involving broiler chickens from chick to processing and sales. Some of the focuses in this class were integrated pest management, business planning, and soil science.
3 years of previous gardening and farming work, including gardening, poultry raising, and milking sheep and cows.