It is July 29 and the internship is almost over for me. I started it right after the exams, and I think it has been my most productive summer so far.

 We started exploring the concept of permaculture, an acronym for “Permanent Culture” and “Permanent Agriculture”. Even though more than 30 years old, this concept is blooming again all around the world as people are realizing that our industrial agriculture system is falling apart because of its economic and environmental non-sense.

 Most of the work done this summer was qualified as “ground work” because it is the very first year of the Organic Garden Internship and we needed to install all the basic infrastructure. Since we started this project, we have raised up a 6 feet fence around a 1-acre piece of land (in a slope!)  along with several gates, a 12×12 chicken coop that will host 45 chickens, a chicken tractor, and a chicken brooder.

Yes that’s right, 45 chickens, representing at least 9 different breeds! Of course, they need care (water, food, protection), but they will give us eggs, manure, meat, and feather (last 2 are optional), they are an excellent natural pest control, and they weed the land we want to plant on thanks to the chicken tractor. A chicken tractor is a structure containing a small coop (for 3 to 5 chickens), and a run (ours is 4×10 feet) that can be moved all around the garden at any time. The concept is simple: the chickens will prepare the beds (4×10 feet) for us! When the soil is weeded and fertilized, we move the tractor and we can start planting. It goes without saying that one of the best thing the chickens bring to us is their presence. They are really fun to be around!

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Additionally we have started different beds using different techniques (rectangular, keyhole, raised, etc), and we have grown a large diversity of crops in small quantities (we mostly experiment and learn new techniques of cultivation). These crops include but are not limited to: tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli, cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini, peppers, basil, dill, onions, garlic, carrots, beans, peas, pumpkin, corn, different native flowers and other plants, wild raspberries, wild blackberries, blueberries, hops, grapes, etc.

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The organic garden has been a success so far. We have already held a workshop (see below) and received the visit and the help from a nationally known fruit trees expert, Tom Burford, and several bees’ specialists.

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Several projects are under construction: pond, beehives, greenhouse, several compost piles, vermiculture, orchard, mushrooms, etc. The list can be long and expanded everyday!

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The overall goal of the garden will be to attract many local people and turn this project into a center for community building around the concepts of sustainable agriculture for a sustainable living.For more info about this unique project, or if you would like to participate, contact Mr Abbassi at sabbassi@randolphcollege.edu, or Professor Warren at kwarren@randolphcollege.edu.

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PS: a second workshop is coming! August 22nd is the date, and the time will be confirmed to all the participants. Please contact Mr Abbassi or Professor Warren to sign up!

What a pleasant surprise when something you wanted but did not expect to have comes at you, effortlessly.Last night, as the work day in the garden was over and everyone was ready to head out to our dorms to cook, relax, and have a nice movie night with the rest of the summer resarch students, these green beans peas appeared out of nowhere…ready to be harvested. To say the truth, we’ve already had a good amount of these different kind of beans out of only a 10 foot square plot and we tought that after the second harvest we made, the season would be done for these beans as most of the plants started dwindeling and returning to the ground, closing the cycle of life and death. But like a gift before the final act, the bean plants decided to honor our efforts by feeding us some more before feeding the soil.