Mike Ribblett

Big Events and Final Blog

Monday July 21st was another repeat of last Monday! It started off with printing signs and learning how to use a laminating machine. When Dave arrived we went outside to the vegetable plot and picked another 185lbs of cucumbers and Zucchini. When we finished, we washed them and we went over to the Anne Arundel Food Bank to drop off our produce. So far as of writing this we have donated a total of 429lbs of fresh produce. In the afternoon we had our weekly connection and guest lecture series with Joseph Cho who is a 4-H Youth development specialist.

Left to Right. Here I am with Dave and I's harvest for the day! We picked 185lbs of cucumbers from our 2 rows. Next we have the laminator! It was my first time using it and here is everything that I had out. I was cutting out the flyers I printed and I was laminating those for our Ice Cream Social.

Today was the first of our Big Events! We hosted the Tau Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Phi at the extension office for a meeting. ESP is a professional organization meant for extension personnel throughout the US. They work to strengthen the bonds of collective extension programs and help better bring our programs to our communities. After their meeting Dave, Brian and I took the chapter on a tour of the AAUFRC and explained what we do on the farm.

From Left to Right. These are the remnents of our peach crop. We have about 12 peach trees and only 3 of them bore fruit. We had a very bad frost in April which killed of 90% of our peaches. Here is Dave giving a short presentation on the Urban Farm to the ESP group. Finally we have all the ESP members who came out to the Urban Farm for our farm tour!

We had another event today on Wednesday July 23rd! In the morning before Dave came into the office (he had a meeting with USDA) I worked on putting out more content on our Urban Farm blog and across our social media. The afternoon was spent preparing the farm for any last minute preparations. After hours in the evening was our Ice Cream Social Farm Tour from 5pm to 7:30pm!

From Left to Right. This was our Ice Cream Social Night! Here is Dave talking about the differences from Male and Female Asparugus. Next we have Dave talking about Apple trees and how to properly prune and spread them for maximum yeild and for sucess. Lastly we had our Local Delegate Stuart Schmidt and Anne Arundel County Board of Education member Dawn Pulliam come out for our Ice Cream Social event.

Thursday July 24th was another big event day. This time it was the 27th Annual Maryland Commodity Classic in Queen Anne’s County! It was a super awesome and fun event that lasted all day! In the morning we heard from 3 different guest speakers, Jarrod Miller talking on “Grid Sampling for Variable Rate Application”, James Adkins talking on “Yield Response to In-Furrow Biologicals” and lastly, Nicole Fiorellino talking on “Interpreting Results of Crop Yield Trials”. After that Dave, Brian, Heather, and I went outside to visit all of the vendors who came out to support the event. In the afternoon we got to sit in on the business meeting where we heard from the different presidents of the Maryland Soybean Board, the Maryland Grain Producers, and the US Wheat Associates. Afterwards there was a crab feast and BBQ that ended the day!

From Left to Right. Dave, Brian, Heather, and I attended the Commodity Classic. Here we have a John Deere tractor that you could walk around and go inside of! Lastly we have the crabs that were apart of the BBQ at the end of the day.

Friday July 25th was a catchup day for me. I’ve been so busy with events and getting ready I haven’t had much time for anything else. I spent what time I had in the office but I still managed to get over to the Urban Farm to pick Green Beans! Today did give me time to reflect on my time with extension. I stepped out of my comfort zone with an internship in a field I did not have an introduction too. I met people and networked with industry professionals. I learned valuable agricultural experiences with my Mentor. I visited parts of the state I've never been before. It was truly an amazing experience that I don't think I can get anywhere else. I learned things I never knew about myself such as that I can (somehow) tolerate the heat and I am a hard worker. These are essential factors in the field of agriculture since (most) of our work is outdoors. This was a summer that I will never forget.

These are our Snap Beans! It took me an hour to pull off the biggest beans from only 1 row. It was super hot outside so I had to come inside after only 1 row.