This week’s activities were inspired by the hallmark of the Cornell Cooperative Extention: to translate classroom knowledge and expertise into practical knowledge delivered through outreach to address the needs of the community, while learning in a real-world environment with communities. This challenged us to be reflective and constantly interrogated who we were, what we were doing, why we were doing it, and what we were learning.
In order to be fully immersed, and not just do insect sampling and surveys on the farms, we decided to attend some of the events hosted by the partnering farms, for instance, during the weekend, we participated in a fireside chat at Oko Farms, led by Isa Jamira, a video artist, urban grower, and educator. We gathered around the fire to harness the energy around the conversations while setting intentions for ourselves and a just and equitable future together. Nevertheless, we also signed up to volunteer at both Oko and Pink Houses farms to help with some of the farm-related tasks such as wedding pruning, harvesting, and watering the plants.
It was also stimulating to apply our knowledge to help brainstorm some of the puzzles around the farms, for instance, we helped figure out why the picks of some Common rue plants at the Pink Houses Community Farm appeared to have been cut or plucked and bruised. Investigating further, we realized the possibility that Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars could have done the damage. We advised Kelly, the Farm Manager, not to take any action as those caterpillars benefit the whole farm in very interesting ways, and that they would not do any further damage, beyond what they had done. Nevertheless, we helped Yemi, the Founder, and Director of Oko Farms brainstorm on why the leaves of her Tomatillo plants were folding and yellowing. We advised her to add more nutrients since those Tomatillo plants were in their fruit formation stages and thus needed more nutrients.
