Goodbyes

My final weekend at Northey Street City Farm came more quickly than I could have ever imagined. My time in Australia was over and I wasn't even aware how quickly it had come and gone.

My last Friday was spent finishing up my work on the Market Garden. I wanted to create an easy way for Simon to access and present the inofrmation to others. It was his job to find funding and volunteers for the garden and I could only hope to help. After a few hours work, I explained to him how to use Prezi and gave him access to the presentation I made, which can be found here.

Saturday came and went, business as usual in the Nursery. Slow after the Winter Solstice Festival, there were few customers and the day was spent simply planting seeds and weeding.

When the Sunday Markets came around, it was a bittersweet moment for me. I knew I would only be back at Northey Street in order to talk briefly with Murray and I was sad to have to say bye to Peta. Luckily, the markets were busy and I was able to occupy my time until the time came to close up the nursery for the last time.

Winter Solstice Festival

Though it is sunny and warm in Arizona, Australia just experienced it's winter solstice about 2 weeks ago. Boy oh boy, has it been cold at night! The house that I have been living in doesn't have heat and it's nearly as cold as it is outside. Brisbane has never gone below 3 degrees Celsius but it feels so much colder than that compared to the warm daytime sun!

As the solstice approached, Northey Street began geering up for it's Winter Solstice Festival which was scheduled to take place the Saturday after the solstice. When I arrived on the farm on Friday the 22nd, Simon approached me and asked if I wanted to do something a little "different" that day. Hesitant and unsure of what was about to unfold, I was led to the Northey Street Kitchen. There I found about 20 kilograms of onions that myself and a volunteer were given the task of frying. Not exactly what I had in mind for the day, but it allowed me to cross one of the things I wanted to do off my list: Cooking at Northey Street. (The onions would later be made into a soup for the solstice.)

After an easy Friday, I wasn't sure what to expect on Saturday. I always struggled through my Saturdays because of being so tired. I never worked at my restaurant job on Friday's so took advantage of a free evening and night to go out with the people I lived with. This usually caused me to be extremely tired the next morning at the farm and even more so by the time I made it to work in the evening. My day in the nursery was rather uneventful. There were few customers during the day and Peta anticipated that most of them would be coming later during the Solstice. This didn't help my exhaustion.


Luckily for me, Peta told me that I may be able to stay home the following day. After the Solstice the Nursery was bound to be slow and I was able to take Sunday to sleep in.

This was the bonfire that was built for the Winter Solstice Festival.

Market Day

A warm and sunny Sunday for the markets! As I've already said, I couldn't be happier for the sunshine. This Sunday was one of the busiest I have seen at the markets. The Nursery was crowded when I arrived. It seems that I am not the only one who is glad to see the sun! Peta and I were flooded with orders, questions about how to plant or take care of things, and people asking for an ATM (we still don't have one, sorry!). All in all, it was an exciting day.

I was able to have a look around even though it was busy. A chocolate croissant and soy chai later, I was happy. I have gotten used to waking up early for the markets and will be sad when I am not able to go to them anymore. Such a wide variety of products and people make waking up on Sunday morning well worth the lack of sleep.

I was able to feed the chickens again yesterday. These guys are too cute, following me as soon as they see the feed bucket. As soon as I step into the pen they look at me expectantly. 

Yum yum, I found another egg!

Sunny Saturday

A day in the Nursery without rain! It's warm! What is this?!

I was beside myself to see that it wasn't raining when I woke up to head to the farm. But, when I got there I was a bit disappointed to learn that there wasn't much for us to do. With a full shadehouse we are unable to propagate anything or even do cuttings. To take up some time Peta and I began making bamboo stakes to sell but it was guaranteed to be a slow day.

Later, I was sent to harvest chili peppers to save for seeds. Peta told me to touch them as little as possible and handed me a bucket and a pair of scissors. After gathering a sizable amount, I left them in the nursery office until next weekend when we can hopefully begin to plant some new chilies.

The view from the nursery office. This is our selection of fertilizer and tools that can be purchased from Edible Landscapes.

Mapping it Out

This past Friday, the 15th of June, I was finally able to work with Simon in the Market Garden. Not only did I get to spend a full day on the farm, it was sunny, warm, and wonderful! I couldn't have been happier about the weather and it put me in such a good mood to take anything on.

Simon walked me though the garden and explained the history of the site and his plans for it's future. A key aspect missing from the garden is a map of the site with it's different zones and uses. That's where I come in. I am helping Simon put together a brief of the site along with a map that he can show to other members of the farm and future volunteers. You can find a detailed outline of the information he gave me here. I will soon be creating a Prezi for him to show to others in Farming Meetings. While work such as this doesn't have to do with physically planting or harvesting, I am happy to help the Market Garden live up to it's full potential.

Finally a wonderful and sunny day on the farm! Here you can see the herb spiral just behind the tree. This is part of the Kitchen Garden. The food here is grown specifically to be cooked in the Northey Street kitchen. 

I can't take the rain anymore!

These past two weekends on the farm have come and gone without me being able to update about them. Though some people are just settling into their placements, I feel like my time left in Australia is a race against the clock. I'll be leaving for Arizona around 6am on July 5th and am feeling the pressure to complete my hours and coursework for my capstone and simply enjoy my time in Australia while I can! I am planning to spend all of today knocking out as much of my capstone work as possible so I can enjoy a nice day in the sun at Southbank tomorrow. I've complained nonstop about the cold to my friends back in the Arizona heat but even I can't complain about it being 70 and sunny when the winter solstice is just around the corner here in Australia!

Southbank's "beach" with the Central Business District just across the Brisbane River.

Friday the 15th I didn't have to make it out to Northey Street. The has been such a downer and it makes it hard to work on the Market Garden project without being able to properly see the garden. I was happy for a day to sleep in but not pleased that I would have to put off my mapping project for another week.

On Saturday I arrived to yet another wet day in the Nursery. The rain was simply getting to me. It deterred customers and made time in the Nursery cold and miserable. Huddled around cups of tea, I was reluctant to even begin propagating anything due to the fact I'd have to step out into the rain.

When Sunday rolled around I was entirely fed up with how the weekend turned out. The puddles around the markets were enormous and I, of course, managed to step in one that went up to my ankles. Needless to say, I ended up with cold feet for the rest of the morning. Customers were scarce and Peta and I even closed up a bit early. What a bummer of a weekend!

A typical gloomy day in the Edible Landscapes Nursery, not a person in sight. 

I did have a highlight during the bleak hours of Sunday morning. I was put in charge of taking care of the chickens for the day! I went around and gave them all fresh food and water. Even though it was raining and cold, the chickens didn't seem to notice. They were excited to see me and knew it was meal time. Almost like dogs, they came up to me and gathered around when they noticed I was bringing food. I was just waiting for one of them to ask to be pet! :)

Henrietta is one of my favorite chickens on the farm. She lives with just one other chicken because they were aggressive towards the rest. She is extremely people friendly and lets me feed her like this. 

Sunshine or Bust

This past weekend was jinxed, I knew it as soon as I got up on Friday morning. Saturday I woke up to rain once again. Determined not to let the rain get to my fun day with Peta in the nursery, I set out for Northey Street.

To begin the morning, my bus was late at the stop near my house. I walked to Woolloongabba station, about a 10 minute walk, to catch the 66 bus to the hospital that is near the farm. It was only then I realized it was Saturday and I had to take the 333 from the Cultural Center station instead. I hopped on the next bus to the city and managed to still make it to the farm about 10 minutes until 9 am.

I arrived before Peta so I sat near the kitchen, out of the rain. Time went by and I saw Murray, my supervisor, come to the farm. He asked me what I was doing and gave my Peta's number since she was nearly 30 minutes late at this point. With no answer from Peta, I waited until Murray left the farm around 10 am and walked back to the station in the rain.

Sunday's weather proved to be no different than Friday and Saturday. Upset about the rain and knowing I would not be much use in the markets on a rainy Sunday, I decided to stay home on with the hopes of a better weekend in my near future.

You're not in Arizona anymore...

There is nothing worse than a lovely week and then waking up early on Friday to see it has begun to rain, once again. That was what happened to me this past Friday and I was not too happy about it. Last week, my plans with Simon were foiled due to the torrential downpour. This week was shaping up to end the same way.

When I arrived on the farm I was happy that it had stopped raining for the time being. Simon sent me out to the Market Garden with Tim, a volunteer and student at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to map out the garden and begin to come up with a plan for it's future. I had never done something like this before so I was excited to learn something new that would help the farm in the future.

We began with an aerial shot of the Market Garden. The chickens, trees, and paths could be easily identified, but the actual beds were a big blur. Once in the garden it was easier to spot the different plots but many were overgrown and the pumpkin patch had taken over a good fourth of the area. These areas were a little more difficult to draw onto the map but we did a rough sketch of what was in the area. We included what saw growing in each plot in a list below the photo.

The day went from beautiful to rainy once again and just as we finished drawing in the last of the beds, it began to pour once again. After heading back to the office, Simon determined that we should continue a different day and I was able to make my way home in the rain.

Sunday Funday

Sundays are both a blessing and a curse for me. I have fallen in love with Northey Street's organic markets but they start at 6am. Not only is it difficult for me to wake up so early, it is extremely cold! Luckily Peta told me I won't have to start arriving until 8am so this Sunday had a bit of a later start than last week, which I was quite happy with.

This week I joined Peta in the Nursery for most of Sunday. It was a slower day due to the herb show and the bitter cold. I was happy to explain to a few customers where the finger limes were on the Northey Street property, how to join the farm as a volunteer, and how to acquire one of the allotments.

Because it was slow I was able to enjoy a sampling of food from the markets. An organic soy chai latte, bagel with halloumi and hummus, and chocolate croissant later, I was full, warm, and happy. It was a wonderful way to start off my Sunday and I look forward to the coming weekends at Northey Street.

Finger Limes and Good Times

Within my first few days with Peta in the NSCF Nursery, I made a wonderful discovery. Finger limes, a native Australian bush plant, produce a small fruit who's inside looks like caviar, but tastes like a sweet lime! I immediately fell in love with the plant and it's delicious fruit but soon learned that they were a dangerous plant to have around. Peta and I set out to plant clippings of the plant in order to sell them in the nursery. This is usually a fairly easy, if not boring, task that involves cutting a few branches off and cutting them down to allow them to sprout roots and grow a new plant. Finger limes, however, have an extremely sharp defence mechanism. Covered in small thorns, the plant does not make it easy to do up cuttings or to enjoy it's delicious fruit.

Saturday at the farm was much less wet than the previous day. I was able to get a handle on the register and help Peta prepare some plants for an herb show that was happening in Brisbane the following day. Planting finger limes was by far the highlight of my day but I was beginning to notice that my knowledge of plants was starting to grow. I could answer customer questions about how to keep possums out of the garden (Plant dogsbane around the edges as it is a natural deterrent.), how to best grow seed potatoes (Build up a bed and when you see the green shoots begin to spring up, cover them again until the the mound is about a meter tall. They are ready to harvest when the tops begin to brown off and it should produce about 20 kg of potatoes from 1 kg of seeds.), and how to break down hard soil and lower the pH (Gypsum, but it works slowly.). I was surprised about how much I had learned from Peta just from simple observation. A wonderful source of knowledge, I am excited to continue my work with her in the coming weeks.

A red finger lime is hiding in the middle of all these leaves and thorns. So hard to reach without a few cuts!

Rain, rain go away

This Friday was meant to be the kick start to my Market Garden project with Simon, the farming director of Northey Street. The Market Garden is a portion of the farm that is specifically planted and harvested in order to sell food at the organic markets on Sundays. The garden, however, has fallen by the wayside due to a revolving door of management at the farm. In order to be brought up to par again, it needs some TLC.

It is my job to redesign and map out the garden. By doing so, Northey Street will be able to maintain a simple crop rotation system in order to keep feeding the soil nutrients. The "Leggy, Leafty, Fruity, Rooty" system is what is it known as on the farm. Legumes (leggys to the Aussies) come first because they produce their own nitrogen and are able to add nitrogen to the soil.  Leafy greens are next in the ground due to the fact that they require a high amount of nitrogen. Fruiting plants, peppers for example, like a lesser amount of nitrogen and rooting plants, such a carrot, require the least amount. This crop rotation system is one of the principals of permaculture that can be seen all over Northey Street City Farm. Rotating the crops allows for the maximum yield without needing to clear new areas to plant. A rotating set of volunteers make it difficult to oversee that this rotation is always used but by planning and mapping out the garden, instructing volunteers with little permaculture knowledge will be made much easier.

Sadly, I wasn't able to get past the initial planning stages for the garden on Friday. The weather turned against me at about midday and it started to rain. Instead, I spent the afternoon in the nursery, learning the register and beginning to answer customer questions.

As you can see from this photo, the market garden has become a bit overgrown. 

Introductions and Farm Tours

My first few days at Northey Street City Farm (NSCF) were filled with introductions, a blur of people I was sure to not remember, and a sneak peek into what the rest of my time on the farm would be like. Adrian, Northey Street's Education Coordinator and my main supervisor, was stepping down within a week of my arrival and I was introduced to Murray, my new supervisor. Adrian and Murray put together a weekly schedule that would allow me to experience different aspects of life at Northey Street while also giving me freedom to learn on the farm.

My schedule is beginning to come together and has me working about 20 hours a week until I am due to leave Brisbane.

Fridays: My Friday's are scheduled to be spent with Simon, the Farming Director at NSCF. I would be working around the entire property and dealing with compost production, creating no dig beds, the planting and harvesting of crops, and other day to day farm tasks. By working with Simon I am able to learn more about the processes that are involved with large scale compost making and organic farming. Designing beds, planting, and harvesting will help me better understand the actual act of growing food.

Saturdays: Saturday's are to be spent with Peta in the NSCF nursery. I was already able to spend a day with her, learning how to propagate seedlings and create clippings. My plant knowledge will be put to the test by customers and time will tell how much I am able to learn during my time with Peta.

Sundays: The Sunday Organic Markets are the highlight of the week at Northey Street. Sundays are going to be spent helping out in the farm's market stalls, selling fresh produce from the Market Garden or cooking up food to raise money for the farm. I am excited about this aspect of my internship because I will be able to connect with the local community about fresh food, organics, and nutrition.

I have already spent a good amount of time in the different areas of the farm but I am excited to have my first full weekend working at Northey Street. I have gone on a number of farm tours and may even be able to start leading a few in the next couple of weeks.

Life in Brisbane

As a poor college student, the thought of leaving my job for two months was daunting. Even scarier was the possibility of not having a job for two months and not having a place to live when I arrived in Brisbane. I was so stressed about these thing, overly so in retrospect, that I considered turning down the internship and finding something else that would satisfy my Capstone requirement. With encouragement from my parents and friends, on both sides of the world, I managed to pack my bags.

As soon as I arrived in Brisbane I knew I had made the right decision. From the trees to the warm sunshine, I was reminded of what a good time I had had here for Spring Break. Busses could easily bring me to any area of the city and I had found a place to live that would not only be fun, but also relatively easy on the wallet. Finding a job is still a bit up in the air but considering I've only been in the area for a week and a half, I'd like think that things are beginning to come together better than expected.

This is an aerial view of Brisbane. The Central Business District is easily seen just across the river. (I live a few blocks to the right of the stadium.)

How did I end up here?

For Spring Break 2012, I decided to take an extra week off of school and take a trip across the world to visit one of my best friends who lives in Brisbane, Australia. Because of this, when it came time to choose a location to look into for a project for Sustainable Food and Farms, I chose Brisbane. In my research I stumbled across Northey Street City Farm and later presented on Brisbane's largest urban farm.

When I got to Brisbane in March, I was very excited to be able to visit the place I had done research on. I had been in communication with some of the leaders on the farm about possibly coming back for my Capstone experience but it wasn't until my visits to Northey Street in March that the plans began to become a reality.

I came back to ASU, met with Sada, and began the process of becoming an intern at the farm. Luckily for me, everything fell into place and I am back in Brisbane until early July, working at an organic urban farm just outside the center of the city.