This week the interns were joined by Jeff Semler, Anna Glenn, and Taryn Devereux to discuss the theme of cross-cultural competency. While much of our discussion was focused on working in international agriculture, we also discussed how cross-cultural competency is a vital skill even in day-to-day interactions we have in Maryland. Especially as Extension employees, we work with people everyday from different walks of life. Thus, developing our cross-cultural competency when communicating and collaborating with those who have different backgrounds and identities is critical when trying to maintain a respectful and productive working environment.
I think one of the best ways we can go about developing cross-cultural competency is by asking each other questions to learn about our different identities. While we tend to hesitate asking questions out of fear of appearing invasive or offensive, taking the time to ask respectful and thoughtful questions actually shows others you are willing to take the time and learn something new about them. As long as the question is asked in a respectful way, we shouldn't hesitate to reach out and learn more!
In addition to learning more about cross-cultural competency, I have also had a lot of hands-on experience working on agricultural projects this week. I transplanted Swiss chard into a research field at CMREC, inoculated bags of mushroom growth substrate with spawn, and weeded the research field.
To kick off the week, I worked with Dr. Lu and my fellow intern Veda Sanhai with transplanting over 60 Swiss chard plants into a research field for our biochar experiment. Up until this point, the Swiss chard have been growing in plastic trays. The most challenging part of this task was completing the field work in the hot weather. We definitely needed to take plenty of water breaks!
In one of the research fields at CMREC- Clarksville, I worked with Dr. Lu and Veda to transplant the Swiss chard. In addition to the Swiss chard that was planted for the experiment, extra Swiss chard was also planted as backups in case the others needed to be replaced.
Later in the week, I worked with Veda and Dr. Lu on the specialty mushroom farming project that UME faculty at CMREC have started in the last few weeks. To help the Extension staff get more experience producing specialty mushrooms, I assisted with the inoculation step. During mushroom production, inoculation is the step you complete after preparing the growth substrate and pasteurizing it in a machine. Using mushroom spawn, which comes from a bag of mycelium that has already colonized growth substrate, you scoop out the spawn and spread it into another bag of freshly pasteurized growth substrate. Completing this step requires a sterile environment to avoid any contamination.
I assisted with the inoculation step of mushroom production by opening the bags of pasteurized growth substrate before adding mushroom spawn to them. To avoid contamination during this process, the inoculation steps were completed in a sterile fume hood. Each time we removed our hands from the fume hood, we needed to reapply ethanol to our gloves before touching any of the inoculation materials.
To close out the week, I revisited the research field where the Swiss chard was transplanted and weeded the alleys in between the three rows of plants. While the actual beds of Swiss chard have plastic mulch laid down to control weeds, the space in between is bare meaning weeds can easily pop up. Therefore, part of my responsibilities this week included hand-weeding the area.
One of the alleys before I weeded it. Weeds such as plantain and pigweed are examples of plants I removed from the area.
Lastly, my week consisted of calculating the nutrient content in each biochar treatment for my experiment with Dr. Lu and working alongside Master Gardener volunteers as we planted native sedges in different soil amendments for another research project at CMREC.
This week was one of the most physically demanding weeks yet but also one of the most diverse in terms of the types of tasks and projects I got to work on. I can not believe the end of my UME internship is almost here with only a few more weeks to go! I am looking forward to my remaining time in this program!
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