Navajo poet visits Swinomish site

This week we were visited by Sherwin Bitsui for an afternoon discussion and reading.  You can find more information and his website here. He is a nationally famous poet that is in La Conner for the biennial Skagit River Poetry Festival.  In a roundtable format, he read us some of his work and we did poetry writing exercises with him exploring sound and our stories.  We had great discussions about language, culture and the connections between poetry, place and identity.  We are grateful that he was able to join us and we recommend his two books of poetry, Shapeshift and Flood Song.

 

 

 

 

 

This week we do not have class on Thursday since there is a Blessing of the Fleet ceremony. We have sun for this event and it is a beautiful blue sky day! You can learn more about it here.

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April showers…bring May flowers

The May flowers are blooming at our site.  Here we see the Camas plants that have been in bloom this week at Swinomish.  It was a perfect time to be talking about flowers and flower parts in the Plant Biology class.  It was also a great time to discuss the plants we utilize for carbohydrates in the Honor the Gift of Food class–tubers, grains and bulbs.  We discussed cultivated grains, like wheat and barley, and the Ozette potato as well as the harvesting of wild bulbs, like Camas lily.

For the weekly potluck we had a Beet salad, that was delicious and colorful. A member of the Chenopodiaceae family, the beet is a storage root that we consume for vitamins, minerals and energy.  Swiss chard, a healthy green, is also in this family.

While we still have several weeks of the quarter left, time is passing by quickly.  Today we spent some time in the sun discussing techniques for vegetation monitoring.  We did some mock transects in our living laboratory (aka, the garden).  We will be doing transects to collect data at the Port Susan restoration site.

We also are starting an experiment looking at bean growth over time in relation to fertilizer as well as a dry bean variety trial.   We will be comparing the growth and productivity of four varieties of dry bean that are available to farmers in the northwest.  It was exciting to see some new growth and emergence today!

Next week if the Blessing of the Fleet on May 17th , so we will not be having lab.  We will be returning to Port Susan Bay on May 24th.

 

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Port Susan Bay

The Plant Biology class visited The Nature Conservancy’s restoration project at Port Susan Bay outside of Stanwood, WA.

After eight years of planning and permitting this restoration project is ready to begin. The levees will be removed this summer, and it is projected that sediment from the mouth of the Stilliguamish river, located to the south of this site, will be less restricted and able to move northward.

We will be helping collect data on vegetation monitoring as part of our lab for this course.  This information can be used over time as the waterflow changes over time and in comparison with an intact estuary system to the south.  Although we had a rainy day it was interesting to see the project site and get a better understanding of the restoration research needs.

We look forward to visiting Port Susan Bay again this spring!

 

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Farm systems tour

Today the Honor the Gift of Food class toured several Skagit Valley farms to learn more about local food production and food systems.  We visited Kai at Hedlin Farms and learned about their interesting and diverse 400-acre mixed vegetable, fruit and flower farming systems and we discussed their various markets, including their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), farmstand, wholesale and farmer’s markets.

Then we visited Christie Stein at Riversong Farm, a beautiful 5-acre CSA farm. She showed us her vegetable fields as well as her friendly sheep, ducks, chickens and turkeys.

 

We finished our tour by stopping at the WSU Master Gardener demonstration garden were we saw some good examples of home gardens and composting systems.  A full day and luckily we were back in the van before the rains came.

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Week 3, already?

We are moving along through the spring quarter. It is hard to believe that April is almost over.  Today we featured brussels sprouts in our weekly potluck.  They were sauteed in olive oil with walnuts!  Yum.  This side dish went well with our chicken and rice.

 

Learn more about brussels sprouts here.

 

Meanwhile, the Plant BIO 202 students were hard at work learning the difference between gymnosperms and angiosperms and understanding the life cycles of bryophytes and ferns.

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3rd Annual Tribal Community Gardener’s Forum

On April 4th I was able to visit with NWIC cooperative extension and other tribal community gardeners around western Washington at the 3rd Annual Tribal Community Garden Forum in Tacoma, hosted by the Puyallup tribe.  It was so exciting to learn about everyone’s work.  We also visited the Puyallup tribe’s new community ‘Good Medicine’ garden which is very impressive.  Here is more information.

I also have some other reasources on these wonderful tribal community gardens! Please take a moment to look at all the good work being done.

 

Nisqually tribal garden project LINK

Skokomish tribal garden LINK

Tulalip tribal garden project LINK and Newsletter.

These are just a few examples/  We are looking forward to this year’s growing season and the springtime ahead!

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Garden beds

With the break of sunshine we had this week we were able to start getting the mulch spread and the garden beds installed in the food garden area. This area will be used for service learning in the Plant Biology class and Honor the Gift of Food class next quarter.  We even were able to plant a few berries (currants and blueberries) along side the beds.  There is a lot of more work to do, but with the quarter come to an end soon it was good to get started.  The mulch was provided at a generous rate from BTI landscape supplies in Burlington, WA and we will be getting soil donations from a local farmer.

Can you guess what seed this is?

It is grown locally in Skagit county?

 

 

If you want to help with the garden, please get in touch with Gaylene at ggobert@nwic.edu.

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Greening up for spring

We still have a few more weeks of winter but we are excited about spring and the possibilities for our community garden.  The garden committee has been meeting and planning and we are looking for new sources of funding to get our garden growing.

Also, this spring we will be offering the NWIC cooperative extension’s ‘Honor the Gift of Food’ (HLTH 130) that will be open to current and new students for CEUs. We will explore food, food systems, food quality, traditional diets as well as gardening basics in this class. Contact Gaylene for more information (ggobert@nwic.edu).

Our Thursday potlucks have also been growing and we are trying new recipes and ideas!  This week Josiane made a great salad, along with chicken and rice.

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Water quality sampling

 

A chilly day for sampling on the south fork of the Skagit River.

During Fall 2011 quarter, students in CHEM 111 were able to participate in a research proejct that looked at water quality parameters in the Skagit River.  At the end of the quarter Swinomish students got together with Lummi students from the same class to share results and present their projects.  While presenting your research can be nerve-wracking all of the students did a great job and it was a good experience for all participants.

Lummi students present their water quality project to Swinomish students. All of the students had been in lecture together via ITV and this was their first opportunity to meet face to face.

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