Zenger Farms

We had our last environmental science field trip today (it's late, so now it was yesterday - Friday). It was at Zenger Farms which is a 16 acre "non-profit farm and wetland in outer southeast Portland dedicated to promoting sustainable food systems, environmental stewardship and local economic development through a working urban farm" that was purchased by the city in 1994 from the Zenger family. The farm had been in family since it was originally purchased in 1913. They could have sold it for for much more to housing or business developers but wanted it kept as as farm and wetlands.

It was an interesting place. The lack of growth made it less dramatic, but it is only March. Our guide was a cute blonde named Prairie (I didn't ask if that was her real name. Maybe its like a stripper name but for farmers) who had worked there for two years, was very enthusiastic, and seemed to love what she was doing. They had a couple of small hives of bees, mainly for pollination. It was only the second years they had kept bees and were still learning about them. They were keeping European honey bees, but were also trying some native mason bees. We went down into the wetlands and saw some geese (Prairie didn't seem to like the geese that much), a few ducks, and globs of frog eggs.  The Springwater Corridor runs along the northern boundry of the farm on the far side of the wetlands. There were also 30 chickens (Australorp - same as E & MK's) with a nice wheeled chicken tractor and a large portable enclosure. We got to taste some tiny purple broccoli, several other in the broccoli family, and some leeks. There was garlic, carrots in one of the greenhouses, and some overwinter clover crops growing but not much else. I would like to go back later in the year and see what it looks like. There are also a lot of volunteer and a few intern opportunities. I'm glad I got to see this place.

One of the small out buildings had an ecoroof with succulents and small ferns. Saturday morning I'm going to the second day of a free two day seminar/demonstration on green roofs. I found out about it from a classmate and the instructor decided to give extra credit for going there and writing a short blurb about it. That's great because I was going anyway. I told Erik and Mary Kate about it and they are going to meet me there.

So that's it for this class other than the final exam. I've studied a little for it, but have been concentrating on math and econ. I will start in earnest on Tuesday after my appointment at NAYA about my educational IDA account.

I'm looking forward to taking the other two classes in this series: Chemical and Geological. It sounds like enough people expressed an interest in these classes that they will have one of them over the summer, although I can't remember which one it might be. I said I would take it if it was offered. From what the instructor said, there are a lot more field trips in the summer and it is a lot more fun, plus the summer term is two weeks shorter than normal. Sounds perfect for a summer class. I was thinking about taking a digital photography class for one of my Arts & Letters requirements. Summer seems like a good time for that one too. I want to keep taking math, but I'm a little gun shy of taking math (calculus!) over the shorter summer term. I hated it when I did that last year. At the same time I want to keep going with the math without a break to prevent forgetting stuff. It happens.