Learning Food Preservation Skills
In many ways it seems as though we have just arrived, but already we are in the last two weeks of the Agroecology Summer Intensive! The past week was a whirlwind of trips, lectures and the scramble to complete our remaining classwork and projects. How much we have experienced and learned in a short time!
Our week began with agroecology lectures brought to us by our astute professor Dr. Hess. It also began with rainfall, something that we have experienced seldom this summer. Rain gives life to our agroecosystem and rainfall makes the raising of crops seem a little more possible for us!
Tuesday morning we woke up to a cool and stormy morning. Roberta Miller, a former Merry Lea staff member, was our guest instructor on the topic of food preservation. She taught us how to can and freeze fresh vegetables, an important element of sustainable living. By the end of our class we had about 12 quarts of bread and butter pickles as well as two pints of spicy dill pickles. One thing our group has in common is that we all love to eat, and eat a lot!
Following an afternoon of working in the gardens we piled in the van and headed to the Goshen Farmers’ Market to check out “the real deal”. There we toured the market, interacted with several producers whose farms we had visited, and bought some snacks before meeting with the market manager who talked to us about her job and addressed our questions.
We had an early start on Wednesday morning with a drive to the state capital, Indianapolis. We were welcomed by Maggie Goeglein, project manager of Fall Creek Gardens, who would be our tour guide for the day. This was my first visit to Indianapolis and my first exposure to urban agriculture. The visits were most interesting, ranging from a one-person operation to an organization receiving the help of hundreds of volunteers weekly. It was a hot day, but an invaluable part of our summer program.
Thursday Dr. Ryan Sensenig, Chair of Biological Sciences, joined us to help us understand how ecological models can contribute to the field of agroecology. On Friday we wrapped up our marketing class with Melissa Kinsey. Each of us had created our dream farm operation and developed appropriate marketing strategies.
It was a long, busy week filled with seeing and learning new things. Thanks to all of our instructors!
– Posted by Ben Adams, 2012 agroecology student