Jane Pickey
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 us doing a number of things inside the building and under the high tunnels, though some of us still end up getting pretty drenched either way. During the brief moments of clear weather, we have been weeding our field blocks as fast as possible, and trying to keep on top of the Canada Thistle before it starts to flower.
A fun fact about me: I am the consistently the muddiest intern at the Student Farm
I’m an incoming senior studying Sustainable Food and Farming Systems with a Hort and Urban Arboriculture minor. I was not raised around agriculture, so a lot of what I’ve learned over the past three years has been very new and exciting to me. Growing up in Indianapolis, I’ve felt the effects of living around food deserts. I would say that’s what brought me to explore sustainable farming.
I’ve become very fond of my work here at the student farm. I love the manual labor and physical challenge as well as the problem solving we have to do on a daily basis. I’ve come around to really enjoy giving tours and teaching the curious, younger folks about what we do here. And of course, the delicious produce is also a plus. In the scheme of things, I’m very new to small farming but I feel very at home doing it.
After I graduate, I hope to continue learning about how small farming works. Although, it seems like that might be an endless endeavor. I’ve also considered exploring education so I can share all the interesting and important things I’ve learned about agriculture.