BLACK WEEK Hello! Our resident rabbit catcher/freelance writer, Jane, has left us defenseless, so it’s Nellie here, back in action after a brief sojourn to stress my way through summer finals – I apparently picked an eventful couple weeks to be away. I missed the beginning of sweet corn season, a deer corpse, and DNR[Read More…]
After the Small Farm Field Day last week the IMPACT^2 Team met with a group of small farmers and Extension educators to pilot two serious games. These games help farmers and educators think through the impacts of climate change on agriculture and what management strategies they can use to help mitigate those impacts. HLA folks[Read More…]
We got our first harvest of lettuce from the container farms last week! Yields came in slightly higher than expected but not as high as Brittany hopes to push them in the future. At full capacity, one container farm is capable of producing almost 1000 heads of lettuce per week! All product grown will go[Read More…]
Faith Hartman Good afternoon everyone. My name is Faith Hartman and I’m a senior in the Sustainable Food and Farming Systems program with minors in Fermentation Science as well as International Studies in Agriculture. This is my third season working on the farm and spending hot summer days packing your produce. I’m also one of[Read More…]
This week’s biggest event has been the lauded, long-awaited debut of the Bin Washer! It has been named Squeaky Steve :). We’ve been watching vegetables go through it like it’s popcorn in a microwave, and I can confirm that carrots can reach entertaining heights. It’s even got a power washer!!! It almost covers up the[Read More…]
Howdy y’all! Jane here. It’s been quite a rainy week here at yonder Purdue Student Farm. We’ve gotten 3.2 inches of rain so far. And sonically, between the frog calls and rain on the barn roof, the atmosphere tends to make up for all the mud. When it rains this much, you can usually find[Read More…]
This week’s update is from Purdue Student Farm Intern Nellie Waltherly. Well, the weather has been certainly on the upswing out here! Not only an actual breeze every once in a while, but also some fantastically moody skies. Lots of goldfinches and swallow activity, and we’ve had the first sighting of our resident red-shouldered hawks[Read More…]
The Diverse Corn Belt project is pleased to announce the open-access publication of “‘Safer to Plant Corn and Beans?’ Navigating the Challenges and Opportunities of Agricultural Diversification in the U.S. Corn Belt” in Agriculture and Human Values. Led by former HLA postdoc, Rebecca Traldi, the paper includes several HLA co-authors: Lauren Asprooth, Emily Usher, Elizabeth Maynard, Aaron[Read More…]
This week’s update is from Purdue Student Farm Intern Nellie Waltherly. The washpack is officially up and running this season, with our first harvests of turnips, kohlrabi, bok choy and Napa cabbage underway. All eyes are on the tomatoes as the first fruit of the year are starting to turn, and our next set of[Read More…]