What a great bunch of students we’ve had out here at Morven for the past two weeks!

Anna Nott and Cece Conner giving their joint final presentation, entitled, “So What’s Wrong With Soda?”

Today was the last day of Block A of the Morven Summer Institute and we were treated to a plethora of interesting final presentations!

Charlie Garcia presenting on his research testing the old wive’s tale, “what goes together, grows [well] together.”

Anna Nott & Cece Conner (PLAP 3160): “So What’s Wrong With Soda?”

Chris Saeli (PLAP 3160): “The Taxpayer’s Burden: Why You Should Pay More To Pay Less”

Brodde Lamb (EVSC 4559): “The Effect of Fragment Size on Pollinators”

Mariel Teresa Sullivan (PLAP 3160): “Hungry in America”

Austin Palmore (PLAP 3160): “Food Ethics: Dog and Horse Meat”

Charlie Garcia (EVSC 4559): “What Goes Together, Grows Together”

Jarrod Avery Nagurka (PLAP 3160): “The Environmental, Economic, and Health/Nutrition Implications of Eating Locally Grown Food”

Hannah Neukrug (PLAP 3160): “The Affordability and Availability of Eating Locally Grown Products in Lower Income Populations”

Adam Rosen (PLAP 3160): “Amurica’s Sprint (or Walk) to Obesity”

Emily Heymann and Navona Gallegos (EVSC 4559): “The Effect of Lemon Balm on Herbivory of Common Vegetables”

Abdallah Barqawi (PLAP 3160): “The Corn Conundrum”

Taylor Hewes (PLAP 3160): “NYC Soda Ban”

Hart Mayhew Clements (PLAP 3160): “The Plight of the Passive Eater: America’s Infantile Dependence on Pre-Made Food”

Chris Saeli giving his final presentation on “The Taxpayer’s Burden: Why You Should Pay More To Pay Less.”

Even before presentations began, the students of Agro-Ecology were busy in the Kitchen Garden taking down their research projects…

Emily Heymann taking down the pink and orange plant tags used for her and Navona Gallegos’ Agro-Ecology research project.

It has been an absolutely fantastic two weeks with this guys and gals! We have all learned a ton about the ecological, political, economic, and social aspects of food and agricultural systems and will hopefully carry that knowledge with us in our future academic pursuits, social interactions, and personal lifestyles. Cheers to MSI Block A! A job well done!

Now on to Block B of the Morven Summer Institute…

Plentiful row after row of lettuces out at Maple Hill!

Oh what a glorious day!

Today we took a fantastic trip to Maple Hill Farm, which is the certified-organic educational farm connected to the Charlottesville Local Food Hub. Local Food Hub is a community supported nonprofit organization striving to “improve small farm viability and increase community access to local food.” Local Food Hub enables small, local farmers to sell their produce and meats to large, wholesale markets. They run a local food warehouse, where locally grown produce, meat and eggs are aggregated and distributed to public schools, hospitals, restaurants, grocery stores, and other larger markets around our region.

In their words, “by creating “one number to call” for local food, we enable public schools, hospitals and retailers to easily purchase local food in large quantities.”

Rows of spring onions, chives, and leeks. The black covering is used for weed control and irrigation purposes.

Aside from being a sustainable local food distribution center, Local Food Hub operates an educational farm, Maple Hill Farm, which is where we visited today. In addition to growing their own beautiful organic fruits and vegetables at Maple Hill, Local Food Hub runs farm education classes and workshops at the farm. At any given time, these classes might include a tutorial about a new and successful method of trellising tomatoes or how to build your own inexpensive hoop greenhouse.

What a beautiful place! (Notice Sully the farm dog in the foreground)

Maple Hill donates twenty-five percent of their produce to local food banks such as the Haven and Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. The other seventy-five percent goes back into the warehouse distribution center.

Educational Farm Manager, Steve Vargo, telling us about how they manage pests and weeds at this certified-organic farm.

This morning we were lucky enough to get an inspiring, in-depth tour of the Maple Hill grounds by Educational Farm Manager, Steve Vargo, and Director of Marketing and Communications for the Local Food Hub, Emily Manley (both pictured below). Emily told us about the ins and outs of managing a local food distribution center and bridging the connection between local farmers and consumers. Steve led us on a eye-opening walk around the farm, stopping to tell us all about what they’re growing, what sorts of seasonal issues they face from time to time, as well as a bunch of other fascinating information about their plowing techniques, method of irrigation, etc.

Emily Manley (left), Local Food Hub Director of Marketing and Communications, and Steve Vargo (right), Educational Farm Manager.

If you want to check out more about the Local Food Hub and Maple Hill Farm (and you really should because they are doing some totally rad things there!)…visit: http://localfoodhub.org/

The structural support system, or “skeleton,” if you will, of a greenhouse.

See the asparagus??

A mature cicada (known as an “imago”) on the left and its abandoned exoskeleton. This dude, along with about 600 of his friends, was found on a tree across the field from the Meeting Barn at Morven!

A strange sound has been getting louder and louder each day out at Morven. It started as a shrill and high-pitched call coming from way off in the distance, beginning at the edge of the forest, crossing the corn field, and finally reaching the ears of those here at the Summer Institute. It almost sounded like a car alarm from somewhere far away that just never stopped ringing.

But in these past few days, the sound has made its way over to the trees right across from the Meeting Barn at Morven, becoming more and more low pitched and buzzy-sounding as it does. And the culprit…or should I say, various many culprits…have been spotted!

It’s the cicadas!! What an odd bunch, they are. We are seeing Brood II of the 17-year periodical cicada (known as Magicicada). That’s right, this type of cicada only comes out every 17 years(!!) and, when they do, they’re only here for a couple of weeks! So what do they do for those 16 years and 11 months when they can’t be found? It’s pretty cool, actually — they are living underground as nymphs and sucking on the xylem (vascular tissue) of various species of tree roots. Just before they are ready to emerge, they build a tunnel that they then use to come to the surface.

So let me ease your nerves a bit about these bizarre creatures…they are NOT blood-sucking, crop-ruining, home-wrecking bugs, as they are sometimes falsely labeled to be. All of those rumors that these are scary bugs that you should keep your kids away from are totally unwarranted!

In actuality, cicadas can be a blessing for many predator species such as birds, foxes, raccoons, opossums, and even other bugs like beetles, wasps, and praying mantises! For those predator species that happen to be around the areas where the cicadas are emerging this year will surely be feasting! In fact, in many Chinese, Latin American, and African cultures, cicadas are skewered, roasted and eaten by humans! I knew a kid in middle school that microwaved one and plopped it in his mouth!

Cicadas themselves don’t eat very much besides a little plant sap, they are much more focused on finding mates so that they can reproduce in their short time above the ground. The male cicadas are the singers of the bunch, calling out just about 24/7 in the hopes of attracting a mate.

Once they are able to reproduce, the female cicada lays several hundred of her eggs in the bark of a twig, from which they will hatch and then fall to the ground, where they can burrow underneath the ground, starting the cycle all over again.

So you see, these little guys aren’t to be feared, though they may be quite high in number! My advice is to simply open your windows, kick back, and enjoy the sound of this cicada-filled summer! Because in just a few weeks time…they’ll be gone for another 13-17 years, and this is a natural phenomenon that you don’t want to miss!

Note: some of the information stated above was obtained from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada

“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.”

– George Bernard Shaw

Radishes, blooming sage and thyme, and rosemary (not pictured) freshly picked from the Kitchen Garden for today’s cooking demo!

Our taste buds could not have been treated better today, with a visit from Martha Stafford, who is a renowned chef, cooking instructor, and owner of the Charlottesville Cooking School (see http://charlottesvillecookingschool.com/).

Our trays of ingredients for the cooking demo!

Martha led us in a wonderful cooking demonstration using several simple ingredients: three types of herbs (parsley, rosemary, thyme), lemon, butter, bread, pumpkin seeds, strawberries and radishes (oh, and just a bit of salt and sugar to bring out the flavors)! With the parsely, butter, lemon and salt, we made a simple, but incredibly tasty, french herb butter, which we then spread on our sliced baguette. We added a tiny bit of sugar and lemon to the local strawberries that Martha had brought for us to bring out their sweetness and added thyme to give them an even more intense flavor, yum yummm! Spreading just a tiny bit of butter a a pinch of salt on the radishes took away some of their bitterness and made them just absolutely delicious!

Martha telling students about the benefits of toasting (pine nuts, walnuts, almonds…you name it!)

After the participatory cooking demonstration, Martha led us into the kitchen where she showed everyone how to make kale super tasty using butter, lemon, herbs, salt, and raisins!

Martha showing us how to make a delicious kale dish!

Following the lovely cooking demonstration, we all headed outside to eat lunch and our two professors, Manuel Lerdau and Paul Freedman, took to the fields to play a little frisbee…who knew they had such skills!

Frisbee-playin’ professors! …They’re pretty darn good!

We have our MSI Barbecue to look forward to tonight! So excited…and I’m even a vegetarian!!

Politics of Food class discussing the problems of “empty” calories, sugar, and obesity faced in the world today.

It’s business as usual on this rainy Monday at the Morven Summer Institute and students and professors are hard at work tackling difficult topics in their respective classes!

This coke bottle is filled with the amount of sugar that it actually contains…YUCK, right?
Photo-courtesy of Emily Sydnor.

Today, the Politics of Food class tackles the interesting and controversial topic of soda and its “contribution to poor public health outcomes,” as Professor Paul Freedman puts it. More specifically, their discussion focuses on “soda, obesity, and policy responses.”

Professor Freedman asks students to ponder such questions as:

What should we do about soda consumption in the United States? What is the nature of the problem, if there is a problem? What solutions should be pursued?

As we all know, obesity is a serious problem that our country faces today. Political figures such as Michelle Obama have taken steps to get this issue at the forefront of public policymaking and educational curriculums across the country. Programs such as “The Edible Schoolyard,” founded by Alice Waters, in California are sprouting up all over the country promoting the availability of and education about healthy, local, and organic foods in all public and private school systems.

Here in Charlottesville, we have The City Schoolyard Garden Initiative, which seeks to “cultivate academic achievement, health, environmental stewardship, and community engagement through garden-based, experiential learning in Charlottesville City Schools.” (see http://www.cityschoolyardgarden.org/about/)

This is a great initiative and you should definitely check out what they’re doing local Charlottesville area!

In other news, it’s a very rainy and muggy day out here at Morven…but, man, are the plants loving it…

Notice the nice, UVA-colored flowers growing in a window-box outside of the Meeting Barn!

A patch of clovers still wet from last night’s rain.

This blooming tree has been filling their air around the Meeting Barn at Morven with the most lovely aroma all week!

It’s the fifth day of class here at the Morven Summer Institute and man our students are workin’ hard! Getting through a whole semester’s worth of material in 10 days can be extremely challenging and takes a ton of diligence and perseverance, both from students and from professors!

But, let me tell you, it’s still all smiles here at Morven and students are obviously having a great time despite the academic rigor of the coursework. I strongly believe that each burst of fresh air, twitter of a passing bird, and hum of a cicada that we’re hearing out here breaths new inspiration into our MSI students and allows them to power through their intense readings and research projects.

As promised, I’d like to give a more full description of what each of the students in the Agro-Ecology class will be working on down in the Kitchen Garden for the next few days…

1) Navona Gallegos and Emily Heymann will be testing the natural pesticidal effects of lemon balm on various plants in the Kitchen Garden. They have made a lemon balm paste and purchased an organic lemon balm oil extract that they have spread on tagged plant leaves in the garden.

Cabbage plant tagged for natural lemon balm pesticide application.

Sweet pepper plant tagged for natural lemon balm pesticide application.

Lettuce leaf tagged for natural lemon balm pesticide application.

Leaf of a potato plant tagged for natural lemon balm pesticide application.

2) Helen Brodde Lamb will be monitoring bee pollination patterns with varying sizes and distances of populations of blossoming chive plants.

Large population of blooming chive plants in the Kitchen Garden (see the bee colony in the background!)

3) Charlie Garcia will be testing the adage “What goes together, grows together!” using tomato and basil plants (which are believed to grow well together…and quite obviously go well together!) Charlie has planted five plots of tomato-tomato, basil-basil, and tomato-basil plants in each plot. He will be testing whether growing tomatoes and basil together enhances their growth rate and success.

Tomato-Tomato

Basil-Basil

Tomato-Basil

Charlie’s whole row (5 plots).

“The source of a true smile is an awakened mind. Smiling helps you approach the day with gentleness and understanding.” (Author: Thich Nhat Hanh)

Marga Odahowski teaching happy MSI students about “mindfulness.”

We began our day with a very special mindfulness activity and discussion, led by Marga Odahowski, who is the Director of Studies at UVA’s International Residential College (IRC). Marga led us on a journey of the senses, with mindfulness activities that involved walking, breathing, and eating. Through these activities we became more aware of our own thoughts and sensations.

Such a lovely setting to practice mindfulness in…

Circling around our mindfulness teacher and (hopefully) being aware of our beautiful natural surroundings.

Earlier in the day, before class even officially began, students in the Agro-Ecology class were being busy bees in the kitchen garden, setting up the research projects that they will be conducting over the next several days!

Check it out for yourself:

Navona tagging the leaves of a potato plant!

Emily tagging some lettuce leaves!

Brodde transplanting a chive plant!

Lot’s more to come about the details of each of these projects tomorrow!!