Rain, Terps, Holiday and More
This week is an exciting but rainy week. The weather is projected to have rain all the way up to the Juneteenth holiday with temperatures in the low 70’s all the way to high 80’s. For farmers and growers this can be a dangerous time for plants especially us here at the Urban Farm because of the extreme dangers of disease. On Monday June 16th it was particularly rainy all morning, but myself and Volunteer Brian Hufker were able to go outside for an hour during a period of light rain. Before starting work Brian and I did our customary walk around and in the vineyard we noticed that several of the grapevines were starting to have downy mildew because of the humid, wet weather we have been experiencing. Once we picked off some of the mold, Brian worked on clearing some of the hops of smaller growth and I worked on harvesting black berries. I ended up harvesting 4 pounds of Ponca, sweet arks and 3 pounds of Natchez for our first harvest.
The Image on the Left is of the Natchez Balckberries still on the vines. They are slowly turning black as the weather turns warmer. The image in the right are the blackberries picked and weighed and ready for the freezer.
On Tuesday and Wednesday myself and the other interns attended the Campus Residency and Tour spanning 2 days at the University of Maryland. It was an amazing experience meeting all of the different researchers and professors and learning about each of their specialties. On the first day we were on campus, we attended a leadership training course. In the afternoon we traveled to the research greenhouse. Here we met with Sydney Wallace who is the manager of the research greenhouse complex. While we were at the greenhouse we stopped by Dr. Izursa's Aquaponics greenhouse. We left the aquaponics greenhouse and traveled to Dr. Izursa’s other lab in the Animal Science building where we got to see his other aquaponics projects. Our last stop for the day was at the fermentation lab with Thomas Flores for a tour. Thomas Flores is a lecturer in the brand new fermentation sciences major at UMD.
From left to right. This was one of the rooms where a department is storing plants for teaching students and for propagation. This is Dr. Izursa's Aquaponics Lab where one of his Graduate Students is completing her masters on aquaponics research. This is the brand new Fermentation Lab where each part of the distilling and fermentation can be completed. Thomas Flores showed us all each part and all the tools that they use.
On the Second Day of our tours, in the morning we were able to go to the Bioenergy & Bioprocessing Lab with Dr. Stephanie Lansing during which we learned a little bit about bioenergy and how it is made. After that lab visit we had our Luncheon Mixer where all the interns and guests were invited to come and enjoy some food while socializing. We had another busy afternoon visiting the Water Quality Outreach & Wellness lab with Emily Woerner and we took samples from the water fountains from inside the Public Health Building. While it was raining we went around to the side of the Public Health Building and visited and toured the Community Learned Garden with Lindsay Barranco. Last but not least we ended our tour of campus with the Campus Farm!
Thursday was Juneteenth which means a day off for me! It was super relaxing to be able to be at home!
On Friday Brian Hufker stopped by the Urban Farm for a few hours. Dave left a few tasks for me since he was on vacation and those tasks included watering, picking blackberries and picking hops. In the morning I picked and weighed another 7.5 pounds of blackberries from 2 varieties, Ponca, Sweet Ark and Natchez. After that was finished, Brian and I worked on harvesting the hops. We ended up picking a total of about 2 pounds of hops out of 3 varieties, Cascade, Comet, and Galena. After we weighed and recorded our harvest Brian went home to get the weekend started early, and fortunately for me the internet was back on so I was able to complete some of the logistical things that I missed from being on the Campus Tour.
Over the course of this week I learned and got to experience a lot about leadership. During our leadership training we got to listen to each other's ideas and point of views and it really opened my mind up and inspired me to become a better leader and to be a figure that people can rely on when needed. What really caught my attention was all the different views that people had about leadership. We all seem to think that anyone is capable of that skill but we all seem to vary on how that skill is obtained. My view on leadership is that anyone can become a leader but it takes natural skill and learned experiences to be a great leader for those around you.
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