Einstein, seen here strutting around the pen, is one of the more interesting chickens in the Organic Garden. Photo by John Abell, professor of economics.
Vegetables grown in the Randolph College Organic Garden. Photograph by John Abell, professor of economics.
I technically already finished my garden internship, but just couldn’t seem to stay away. I’m back a week early to work there a bit more before classes start.I returned to the garden this morning after several weeks away, and found it to be as beautiful as ever: an early morning fog hanging low, the smell of moist earth, ripe tomatoes on their fragrant vines, and the chickens just starting to stir and peep in their coops. The two small roosters are just learning to crow, and it’s darling to see them clumsily fly to the highest perch they can find, strain their tiny necks, and try their hardest to sound big and tough (it comes out a cute, wimpy, “cock-a-doo-ooo”).I walked back to my dorm room feeling wide awake and at peace in a way that I can’t just can’t seem to feel in many other places. I didn’t have my camera, but that’s alright, because I believe that the most beautiful things (like a garden’s smell and feel, not just appearance) are made all the more beautiful by merit of the fact that their beauty can’t be captured. I do, however, have a picture (below), of me holding one of the little guys with little crows a while back, and Ludo with el Jefe.
So fall is coming soon, and classes starting sooner, and I’m looking foward to a little fall gardening and even to the winter preparations. There’s just always so much to see and do in the garden.
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.
We’ve harvested a few things in the garden (herbs, squash, peas, onions, and bok choy to name a few), but the most delicious so far has been raspberries.
We actually didn’t plant these raspberries, but rather just let them be. They’re wild, and grow along the fence and in a bed where we planted some cuttings (the cuttings aren’t producing yet). Every day there are more wonderfully tart, red, ripe raspberries that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. I’ll be making a cobbler tonight while the season’s bounty lasts!
Until recently, our rooster didn’t have a name. He was simply called “The Rooster.” We felt that no title could do justice to his arrogant cockiness. He reigns over a kingdom as far as the eye can see. From a chicken’s eye view, that is only about three hundred feet. However, to The Rooster, such trivial details regarding size and distance obviously do not matter. Although we are nearly three times as tall, apparently that makes no difference to him. Every run in with The Rooster seems to mirror a David versus Goliath struggle - with The Rooster playing Goliath!”Chicken wrangler” is the standard job title for us students who are dealing with hens this summer in Randolph College’s Organic Garden, but with the addition of The Rooster our job seems closer to “Matador.” As I enter the bullring, the rooster begins to charge. I pull out my red bandana to distract him. Olé! Often times an audience of forty or so amused chicks gathers around to watch the spectacle. Following a series of deft maneuvers that include some impressive passes, I usually succeed at luring him into the chicken coop for the night. Next, I try my luck with the balls of fluff, employing more maneuvers that make herding cats look simple. After getting a good chuckle out of my pitiful attempts at baby chick wrangling, The Rooster will let out a cock-a-doodle-do signaling all the chicks to obediently get in the coop.The chicks already knew The Rooster’s name. Now I know it, too: he is “El Jefe,” aka “the Boss.” I have a lot to learn. Olé!
The organic garden has had a few chickens for a while now, and we love having them there. The benefits of chickens are numerous: pest control, wonderful organic fertilizer, & delicious fresh eggs ”produced” right in our garden.
This spring, Karl hatched an ingenious “adopt-a-chicken” program, and over 40 students and faculty members selected a chicken breed and named their soon-to-be baby chick. The chicks arrived shortly after, tiny and fluffy and cute as can be:
That was a while ago, and our not-so-tiny chicks just moved outside this week! There’s plenty of pictures, so take a look at their big day in the big new world (and if you’re a proud chick parent or if you’re just curious, come visit them in the garden)!
Moving out of the old carboard box house:
Timidly peeking out of the new house down in the garden:
The RC Organic Garden recently held a workshop on permacultural practices for the Lynchburg community!We had a great turnout and met some of the loveliest people from all over the Lynchburg area.This is Ludo, showing a couple of workshop participants how we sheet compost:
And this is kind friend of Mr. Abbassi’s who volunteered to teach swale construction at the workshop:
We’re planning another garden workshop for later in the summer… stay tuned for details, we’d love to have you!