Allie's Student Blog

The farm stand is back up and running for the new season! Check it out on Red Square Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 3-6pm. Staffed by students from the Practices of Organic Farming Program, as well as farm aids (students from previous POF programs that now are paid members of the staff down on the farm), the farm stand is a great place to stock up on local, sustainably-grown, and organic produce and flowers. There are tulip and anemone bunches available this week; an excellent  gift for Mother’s Day this upcoming Sunday. There are also leafy greens, rhubarb, asparagus, and plant starts for gardens of your own. Supporting the organic farm by buying from the farm stand ensures that POF will have money to buy seeds, fertilizer, maintain the tractors, etc. for the next grow season. POF is the only self-funded program on campus, so its up to us to keep it going!

Students buying from the farm stand on Red Square right outside the library

Another reason to check out the farm stand is that all produce is 50% for students. Students working on the food system for campus received a grant from the Clean Energy Committee to allow this new program to happen this season. It’s amazing that students were able to see need for change (i.e. better student accessibility to the food grown on campus) and make it happen. I’m so proud of all of my friends that worked to make this happen! If students don’t use this, they may not be able to secure the grant for the subsequent years so make sure to take advantage of it.

Students get 50% off produce

This is my last quarter before graduating from Evergreen and that’s a bit bitter sweet. On one hand I will miss Evergreen and all that it has done for me over these past two years. But, on the other hand I’m really excited for what the future has in store. I’ve actually accepted a full time position at a flower farm here in western Washington and have even started working for them this quarter part-time. It will be great to put all of my education to use and get some great hands-on experience before I move back to Minnesota with the ultimate goal being to start a farm of my own.

In terms of what I’m doing academically this quarter, I have continued with the Student Originated Studies: Food & Agriculture program. I modified my contract so I’m actually only taking 4 credits, focusing primarily on botany. My contract os titled “Botany of the Flower Garden” and my learning objective for this quarter is to gain more hands on and theoretical botany experience with the flowers I working with and harvesting at the farm I’m working at. To complete these objectives, I am observing and interacting with various plants grown as well as do more in-depth research from various botany textbooks. My visits to both Meerkerk Rhododendron Garden and the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival were both components of these weekly profiles on various plants. Basically, I’m doing a profile of one plant per week based on plants that are popular and lucrative as cut-flowers. These profiles will help me get a better gauge of how these plants function, what conditions they like best, and how to properly harvest and handle them post-harvest.

I love that Evergreen has the option on SOSs and ILCs as they really allow students to tailor their learning to fit the needs of their degree and lives post-grad. They allow for students to work on projects they are passionate about and are relevant to the work they will be doing going forward. This compilation of plant profiles will be invaluable for me when I inevitably start growing and harvesting these very same plants.

Here’s some of what I’ve learned ask far:

WEEK ONE: HELLEBORE

Family: Ranunculaceae (also in this family: buttercup, ranunculus, anemone, nigella, delphinium, clematis, columbine)

Subfamily: Helleboroideae

Genus: Helleborus, approximately 20 species of herbaceous or evergreen perennial flowering plants.

• Zone: 4-9, evergreen 6-9
• Bloom Time: February-May
• Bloom Size: 2 to 3 1/2 inches
• Height/Spread: 18 to 24 inches/24 inches
• Site: Partial shade, well draining soil
• Seed Type: Dicotyledon

When harvesting, for longest vase life wait to harvest until after the hellebore have dropped their stamens and actual petals and begins to form its seed pod. This is when hellebores hold up the best as cut flowers. Vase life is up to one week.If you want to harvest prior to this stage, before the flower is pollinated, methods like putting the stems in boiling water, slicing up the side of the stem, and/or putting the stems in a hydrating solution can all work to extend the vase life.

Hellebores

WEEK TWO: ICELAND POPPY

Iceland Poppy

Family: Papaveraceae (also in this family: opium poppy, California poppy, tree poppy, bleeding heart)

Genus: Papaver (the 80 species in this genus are considered the “true poppies”)

Scientific Name: Papaver nudicaule

• Zone: 3-9
• Bloom Time: early spring to fall, weather/temperature dependent
• Bloom Size: 2-4 in
• Height: Up to 24 in
• Soil: Needs loose soil and prefers neutral or alkaline soils to acidic.
• Site: Full sun, well-draining soil of average moisture
• Seed Type: Dicotyledon

For best vase life, harvest when the buds first crack and the color is just barely present into clean 1/2 gallon buckets and never reuse buckets as Iceland Poppies (and all poppies really) ooze a milky white latex substance that leaves the water murky. These delicate blooms don’t have too terribly long of a vase life, but can keep up to one week by daily changing the water. If transporting these blooms without water, burn the stems. This will ensure they do not ooze the latex.

WEEK THREE:  PACIFIC RHODODENDRON

Rhododendron

Family: Ericaceae (also in this family: heather, heath, blueberry, cranberry, huckleberry, salal, azalea)

Subfamily: Ericoideae

Tribe: Rhodoreae

Genus: Rhododendron

Scientific Name: Rhododendron macrophyllum

• Zone: 8-9
• Bloom Time: May, June, July
• Bloom Size: 1.1–1.6 in
• Height: Up to 7–30 ft
• Soil: moist to dry and acidic soil
• Site: partial shade to full sun, well-draining soil of average moisture, prefers disturbed sites
• Seed Type: Dicotyledon

According to Diane Szukovathy of Jello Mold Farm, rhododendrons can be a bit tricky as a cut flower. She hasn’t grown them as a field crop and says they can be a bit finicky and may work a lot better in a more permaculture/polyculture setting. If you did want to grow them in the field, they would definitely require shade cloth and a long while to establish. That being said, there is a certain type of florist that would pay top dollar for these woodies, especially an earlier flowering variety as people are dying for color in the early spring. Harvest when the flower just starts to break bud into clean buckets with hydrating solution. Cut an X on the end of the branch to ensure water is circulating.

WEEK FOUR: TULIP

Family: Liliaceae (also in this family: lilies, trillium, star-of-Bethlehem)

Subfamily: Ericoideae

Tribe: Lilieae

Genus: Tulipa

Scientific Name: Tulipa gesneriana (common garden tulip)

Tulip

• Zone: 3-8, can be forced in areas above 8 by “wintering” bulbs in fridge or freezer before planting
• Bloom Time: Spring (April-May)
• Bloom Size: 3-5 in
• Height/Spread: 12-30 in/12 in
• Soil: sandy
• Site: partial to full sun
• Seed Type: Monocotyledon

For longest vase life, harvest when the tip of the tulip bud turns color but the rest of the bud is green. Can harvest tulip bulb and all for even longer storage life (they will keep in a cooler, bulb and all, with no water for up to one month). Digging up the bulb can also add to the stem length significantly, which is always valued by florists. Otherwise, can cut a base and strip foliage, putting stems in clean water with hydration solution or flower food. An old wives’ tale is to put a penny in the vase with tulips to avoid stem droopage. Can keep a week or longer.

WEEK FIVE: LILAC

Family: Oleaceae (also in this family: olive, ash, jasmine, forsythia)

Subfamily: No subfamilies for to Oleaceae family; instead divided into five tribes.

Tribe: Oleeae

Subtribe: Ligustrinae

Genus: Syringa

Scientific Name: Syringa vulgaris (common lilac)

• Zone: 3-9 (8/9 is pushing it and some varieties will not thrive in these warmer zone)
• Bloom Time: Spring (April-early June)
• Bloom Size: 4-8 in
• Height/Spread: 5-15 ft/5-15 ft (will not get this big if using it for cutting purposes)
• Soil: any soil type, neutral to slightly alkaline pH
• Site: partial to full sun
• Seed Type: Dicotyledon

For longest vase life, harvest when 30-40% of the flower buds have started to open, but the upper ones still remain closed. Put stems into clean buckets with water only (no hydrating solution). Can cut an X on the end of the branch to ensure water is circulating if cut is on older, woodier stem. This X is not necessary if cut is on newer, greener stem.

Lilac

SOURCES:

Jello Mold Farm (Mount Vernon, WA)

3 Porch Farm (Comer, GA)

Floret Flower (Mount Vernon, WA)

Meerkerk Rhododendron Gardens and Nursery (Whidbey Island, WA)

Roozengaarde Farms (Mount Vernon, WA)

Tulip Town (Mount Vernon, WA)

Guide to Flowering Plant Families, Wendy B. Zomlefer

Plant Families: A Guide for Gardeners and Botanists, Ross Bayton and Simon Maughan

Specialty Cut Flowers; The Production of Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, and Woody Plants for Fresh and Dried Cut Flowers, Allan M. Armitage and Judy M. Laushman

Botany of Desire (film adaptation based on Michael Pollan’s book of the same name), directed by Michael Schwarz (PBS)

Plant and Caring for Hellebores, Janet Loughrey

Botany: Helleborus Gold Collection 

Information on the Genus Helleborus

Iceland Poppy – Papaver nudicaule, Calyx Flowers, Inc.

About Rhododendrons, Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden

Pacific Rhododendron: Rhododendron macrophyllum, Washington Native Plant Society

Pacific Rhododendron: Rhododendron macrophyllum, Native Plants PNW

Tulips: How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Tulip Flowers, The Old Farmer’s Almanac

Lilacs: How to Plant, Grow and Care for Lilac Shrubs, Old Farmer’s Almanac

Scatter Creek is an amazing prairie/wetlands recreation area just south of Olympia/Tumwater via I-5. It’s a 20-30 minute drive from the Evergreen campus and offers really easy hiking opportunities as well as pheasant hunting (if that’s something you’re interested in). It offers excellent bird watching (I saw a bald eagle, pileated woodpecker, and red-tailed hawk this past weekend) as well as great prairie wildflowers and medicinal herbs.

This time of the year is a great time to see all of the camas blooming. Seriously, Scatter Creek is just blue right now with all of the camas. Camas is native to the moist prairies of the PNW and is an incredibly important plant and source of food for the indigenous peoples of this region. Also blooming right now is nightshade, Fritillaria affinis (mission bells), yarrow, wild violet, and wild strawberry. I even found a six-petaled strawberry flower there once, which is the equivalent of finding a four-leaved clover! Dogs are allowed off leash and I always run into other people with their dogs out there, so in many ways it can act as an off-leash dog park.

Strawberry flowers at Scatter Creek Wildlife Recreation Area

HOW TO GET TO SCATTER CREEK WILDLIFE RECREATION AREA FROM CAMPUS:

From McCann Plaza Dr NW (off of which, B and C lots are located) take the first exit (left) on the roundabout onto Evergreen Parkway NW. Continue onto US-101 (2.6 mi). Take slight right for I-5 S (toward Tumwater/Portland). Take exit 95 from I-5 for Littlerock/Maytown (12.5 mi). Take first left after exiting I-5 for Case Rd SW. Follow Case for 4-5 miles, parking will be on your right.

*A Discovery Pass is required to park at Scatter Creek Wildlife Recreation Area

Downtown Olympia has a biannual event called Arts Walk, once in the spring and once in the fall, where all of the shops open up and have different pop-up events and gallery showings for local artists and artisans. It’s always a really fun time to walk around Downtown Olympia and check out all of the different stores and what they have to offer. Theres always really good food and people watching. As a part of the spring iteration of Arts Walk, there is the Procession of the Species parade. The Friday parade happens at 9pm and is all lit up with glow sticks and lights. There is also an afternoon Saturday parade. People wear all sorts of different costumes and papermache masks, designed to look like all sorts of different animals from jellyfish to insects to whales to peacocks. The costumes are beautiful and intricate, each one handmade (and generally by the person wearing it). If you’re interested in being a part of the parade, that’s definitely an option too. The Procession of the Species has a studio space downtown where they host open hours to come in and work on your costume for the parade. Check out their website!

Tulips growing at Tulip Town

Who doesn’t love flowers? Especially spring flowers. I may be a bit biased but I live for tulips and there is absolutely nothing in the world like walking through a field a color when everything else is only just starting to wake up. The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is the place to be if you are into anything I just mentioned. The entire month of April there are a bunch of different events going on but they had a parade last weekend (April 14/15) and the actual festival that takes place in downtown Mount Vernon, WA with a street fair and loads of events going on is this weekend (April 20/21/22). For more info about what’s going on, check out their website.

But obviously the best part of all of this is going out to the farms and actually seeing the tulips. And tulips you will see! Rows and rows and rows of all different colors and varieties. The Skagit River Valley is actually the largest producer of tulips in the world (they recently surmounted the Dutch!) If you want to be able to walk around in the field and get up close to these beauties, there are a couple different farms that offer that as a tourist attraction for a fee. They are listed below:

• RoozenGaarde Farm: 15867 Beaver Marsh Rd, Mt Vernon, WA 98273
• Tulip Town: 15002 Bradshaw Rd, Mt Vernon, WA 98273

Pacific Rhododendron (the Washington state flower) growing at Meerkerk Rhododendron Gardens

I will say, if you go on the weekend (especially if its a nice, sunny day) expect traffic. This is a very popular event and people come from all over the world just to visit these fields. On that note, Mount Vernon is about 2 and a half hours north of Olympia (and you do have to drive through Seattle so that is a generous estimate) so it is a bit of a trek to get up to see flowers. But if you love flowers half as much as I do it is a must-see event. Make a weekend trip out of it! There is excellent hiking and camping opportunities at Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island. Also, you can take a ferry from Fort Cassey on Whidbey to Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula to both avoid Seattle traffic and have a gorgeous drive back to Olympia via highway 101. Whidbey Island is really fun and has a slew of different places to check out and events going on. Last weekend (Saturday April 14) Langley had their annual Welcome the Whales parade, hosted by the Langley Whale Center, with festival activities and whale watching! Also on Whidbey Island is Meerkerk Rhododendron Gardens where you can walk around, looking at loads of different cultivars.

McLane Nature Trail

If you’re looking for a hidden place to go hiking that is near campus but not actually on campus look no further than the McLane Creek Nature Trail. McLane Creek is a salmon-bearing creek, so during salmon spawning season you can catch a glimpse of the salmon life cycle (although be forewarned it is a stinky experience!) You can also see newts in the wetlands all around the nature trail! There are a ton of cool plants growing along the trail and in the marshy areas. There are some massive old growth cedar stumps (one even big enough and rotted through the middle that you can sit inside of it!). Every time I’ve been there, I’ve seen two parties or less, so it really is a quiet place to walk or sit and think or even do reading. There are a lot of benches for just that purpose. Also dogs are allowed (on leash) so you can bring your furry friends. The trail is only 1.5 miles if you take the longest route, but there are shorter loops.

If you are looking for a more structured walk and find yourself wanting to learn more about the native plants of the PNW, check out McLane Creek’s Native Plant Walks put on by the the Native Plant Salvage Foundation. I talked about these a little bit in my post about foraging in the Evergreen woods, but truly they are amazing so here’s some more information. These walks are very friendly for people of any and all abilities. Some trails are ADA accessible and they walk extremely slow, looking at and discussing the flora.  Beth, the assistant manager of the Organic Farm at TESC, is a part of these tours, often leading them. The first one of the 2018 season will be on Thursday April 26 at 6pm. These walks go one every thirst Thursday of the month, April through August. Going to multiple (or all!) of these walks is really cool too because you get to see all of the plants at their various stages of life from dormant to pushing bud to flowering to fruiting. If you want more information on this, check out the Native Plant Salvage Foundation’s website on these walks.

Skunk Cabbage growing at McLane Creek Nature Trail

HOW TO GET TO McLANE CREEK NATURE TRAIL FROM CAMPUS:

From McCann Plaza Dr NW (off of which, B and C lots are located) take the first exit (left) on the roundabout onto Evergreen Parkway NW (same as if you were trying to get to 101 or I-5) (1.5 miles). Take the ramp for 101 N/Aberdeen/Port Angeles.  Turn right onto Mud Bay Rd, and almost immediately (0.1 mile) turn left again onto Delphi Road.  Follow Delphi for 3.3 miles.  Look for “McLane Creek” sign on your right; turn right onto nature preserve’s roadway and follow 0.4 miles to the lower parking area.

*It is part of Capitol State Forest, so you do need a Discover Pass to be able to park there.

With Spring quarter kicking off, the Organic Farm will soon be starting up their biweekly market stand on Red Square. Check it out Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3-6 pm April through October. The first market will be this upcoming Tuesday April 10th! All of their yummy vegetables will be sold there as well as tulips. As someone who planted these tulips back in October (on Halloween to be specific), I am extremely emotionally invested in them. Some are even popping up right now. I was able to harvest some last weekend and they are looking beautiful on my kitchen table, still holding their petals a week later! Its a little far out but a great Mother’s Day gift is a bunch of these organic, sustainably grow tulips. Definitely pick some up and check out the farm stand on Red Square next month. All of the proceeds go back to the Organic Farm, buying seeds and soil amendments and maintaining the farm in general, making Practices of Organic Farming the only self-sustained program on campus.

Allie harvesting tulips

Wildcrafting can be a really fun way to learn more about the flora of the PNW as well as gather your own edible plants/mushrooms and medicinal herbs. If you know where to look and how to properly harvest, the Evergreen Woods on campus are a great place for it. Things like morel mushrooms, salmon and thimble berries, Salal (berries can’t be taken in large quantities but the leaves are good for tea and for anti-itch salve), stinging nettle, and mint can all be found on campus. If you don’t know a lot about plant identification, definitely make sure to go with someone who knows what to look for your first few times. Another great resource would be to check out a Native Plant Walk put on by The Native Plant Salvation Foundation at the McLane Creek Nature Trail near campus off of Delphi Road. Beth, the assistant farm manager of the Organic Farm on campus is a part of this group and will often lead the walks. She is a wealth of botanical knowledge!

Early springtime is always great for harvesting stinging nettle. Stinging Nettle (of the Urticaceae or Nettle family). It is most often found in the shady understory of wetter environments but can be found in meadows as well, spreading easily via seed and rhizomes. If you are going to harvest this plant, WEAR GLOVES WHEN HANDLING!! According to Herbal Resource, an online index of medicinal herbs, their uses, and side effects: “the leaves and the stem of the plant are covered with small brittle hairs that break on contact and inject a mixture of histamine, acetylcholine, and 5-hydroxytryptamine, along with small amounts of formic acid, the same substance that makes ant bites sting. This mixture is what produces an inflammatory response in the skin. These chemicals cause pain, numbness, and itching which can last from a few minutes to a day, depending on the sensitivity of the individual.” Further, when harvesting nettle (and most herbs) take only the new growth tips (the first two to three leaf pairs). This allows the plant to regrow as well as ensures you are consuming the freshest, most nutrient-packed part of the plant.

Stinging Nettle

So what is stinging nettle even good for? Well, according to Dr. Mercola nettle contains impressive amounts of vitamins and minerals. Some of the vitamins it contains include vitamins A, C, D, E, and K as well as amino acids and antioxidants. They’re also know to help detoxify the body, promote healthy blood circulation and cardiovascular health, alleviate allergic reactions, and reduce arthritis pain. It is an excellent source of iron and even protein!

Please keep in mind the etiquette of ethical wildcrafting! These principles include always asking permission if on private land, never harvesting all that is available, and if at all possible (and especially if you are harvesting the entire plant, roots and all), bring seeds with you.

Early spring is also an excellent time to see the trillium blooming throughout the woods. Be on the lookout for these delicate three-petaled white flowers all around the main trails to the Puget Sound Beach access via the trailhead from F Lot.

Trillium blooming in the Evergreen Woods

SOURCES:

Stinging Nettle- Herb Uses, Benefits, and Side Effects 

Nettle: The Weed That Can Help You Detoxify

Stinging Nettle: How to Identify, Harvest, and Prepare It

Hiking just outside Reno, NV

Spring Break is always a great excuse to go on an adventure no matter what school you go to. Evergreen’s spring break is really nice for the added bonus of having evaluation week the week before the official week off. The equivalent to a finals week at a normal college, evaluation (eval) week is extremely anticlimactic in comparison. While finals weeks at other schools are notoriously stressful and tense, eval week is really just a final checkin with your professors to go over their evaluation of your performance in and out of class over the ten weeks of class as well as award credits based on that evaluation. As long as you put in the work over the quarter, eval week is very low pressure. All of the final projects and hard work have already been completed and turned in and you just have the one meeting (normally 30 minutes) with your professor. Other than that, nothing. That being the case and especially if you set your meeting early in the week, this basically means a two week long spring break.

My friend and I took advantage of this and drove down to Reno, NV to visit another friend who we met at Evergreen and has since graduated. Only 11 hours away, it is a doable trip in one day but could easily turn it into a multiple day trip, stopping at Crater Lake National Park, Redwood National Park, and/or Lassen Volcanic National Park. Other  road trip destinations from Olympia include San Francisco, CA (12.5 hours), Vancouver BC (3.5 hours), and Bend, OR (5 hours) in addition to the obvious Seattle and Portland.

Downtown Reno was cool with a lot of thrift stores, good restaurants, and casinos (if you’re into that). The co-op there was amazing too. We were also able to go on a lot of hikes and drive up to Lake Tahoe to go snowshoeing. It was a fun trip and nice to get out of the rainy PNW during the last dredges of winter (although to be fair it did rain or snow in Reno pretty much every day we were there). It was also really nice to see our friend and all of the cool things she’s been up to since graduating.

Snowshoeing near Lake Tahoe

Today marked the start of week 10, our last week of the quarter before Evaluation Week. Evaluation Week is just when students meet with their professors to go over the work of the quarter and evaluations, your own self-evaulation of your work, your faculty’s evaluation of that work, and your evaluation of your professor/the program as a whole. Pretty low pressure, especially if you’ve been putting in all of the hard work through out the quarter. So basically, the most stressful week is week 10 as that is when all of the projects are wrapping up and all of the hard deadlines are truly looming. Thus, it was also the last Monday of my internship at Thistlehook.

Cerinthe transplants

The temperatures started out below freezing but ended up being in the seventies by the time I left at 3PM. Once it got into the mid-40s outside, we transitioned to preparing the bed where the Matthiola and Cerinthe were to planted. Doug had already removed the occultation tarp over the weekend to let the bed dry out and had Phalin power harrow the bonemeal (used as a organic fertilizer to boost Nitrogen in the soil) in. We set up drip tape (slowly drips out water rather than overhead irrigation that sprays water; conserves a lot more water over time and better for smaller plants). We also put up the support for the row cover that will keep the plants warm and pest-free. Then we got to planting. We planted out two 72-cell trays of Matthiola (one of each variety, Glory Lavender and Noble White) and two and a half 72-cell trays of Cerinthe (Kiwi Blue variety). The bed is 75 feet long, and we planted three rows of each. The Matthiola spacing was 6-8 inches apart and the Cerinthe was a foot apart. The Matthiola’s roots were not as mature as the first two flats of Cerinthe which were nearly pot bound, meaning the Matthiola takes a little longer than the Cerinthe in terms of days to maturity in the greenhouse. It was also interesting to see the first two trays of the Cerinthe (seeded 2/5/18) which were just past prime for transplanting versus the half flat of Cerinthe we stuck into the bed (seeded 2/13/18) which were not quite ready to be put out into the field (roots not quite long enough, stems kind of flimsy). It’s awesome that we were out transplanting today and it definitely has me excited about the fact that spring is so close.

Everything was blooming on the farm too. The Prunus mume (Japanese apricot), plum, Asian pear, and apple trees were all flowering or pushing bud. The crocuses and daffodils are even past peak! If you were to walk around the Capitol campus (or really anywhere down-town Olympia) all of the cherry blossoms are beautiful. Definitely worth a walk to go see all of the new flowers!

Daffodils blooming

Plum blossoms