{"id":3811,"date":"2017-10-28T18:26:27","date_gmt":"2017-10-28T22:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/?p=3811"},"modified":"2017-10-31T19:46:53","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T23:46:53","slug":"living-the-farm-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/2017\/10\/28\/living-the-farm-life\/","title":{"rendered":"A Rad (ish) Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past month or so, I have had the opportunity to volunteer at the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming. The Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming is a one-hectare farm\/learning facility run by Martha Scroggins. The farm is located directly on the University of Guelph campus, yet many students and members of the Guelph community are unaware of this amazing place. This is somewhat disheartening as the farm does rely on student volunteers and has so much to offer. Every Thursday, during the summer and fall months, the farm puts on a market and sells their certified organic produce.<\/p>\n

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During my time at the farm, I participated in many different activities, such as; rolling electrical fences and storing other farm equipment, preparing for markets and harvesting\/cleaning vegetables. I also learned many things; including a new appreciation for the amount of work that\u2019s involved with farming. To demonstrate this I thought I\u2019d show you what it takes for a produce to get from farm to table.<\/p>\n

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These are radishes. Radishes are root vegetables and are often enjoyed raw, in dishes like salads. Fun fact, these radishes here are in the same family as the horseradish, which is one of the main ingredients in wasabi. The process of harvesting begins with pulling the radish from the earth. After collecting the radishes transportation begins, which doesn\u2019t sound so bad, but when you are on a farm that doesn\u2019t use machinery, things can get tiring real fast. Then begins cleaning and trimming. This may sound crazy, but there are people who don\u2019t realize that when vegetables come from the ground they don\u2019t already look like they do in the grocery store. When vegetables are pulled from the earth they are covered in dirt and must be washed. There are also things like roots and tops that need to be cut off. After doing some final quality checks the radishes are ready for market. One aspect that people often forget about when dealing with marketing a product is presentation. People don\u2019t want to buy food if it doesn\u2019t look appetizing. For that reason a great deal of time is put into things like cleaning and arranging the produce in a way that looks pleasing to the consumer.<\/p>\n

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Et Voil\u00e0, the final product. On the left, we have the memorizing black radish. This radish has a tough black skin and is more often than not cooked. More recently, the black radish has been used in fine dining restaurants and is considered a delicacy. On the right, we have watermelon radishes. The outside of the radish is green\/white, however, if you cut open the radish you reveal a truly beautiful red\/pink inside.<\/p>\n

Through my time on the farm I have learned a great deal, most importantly the time and effort that goes into farming. One thing that I hope for the future of the farm is that more students get involved and if you haven\u2019t already been to the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming, it\u2019s definitely worth a visit.<\/p>\n

Written by: Brett Studden<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past month or so, I have had the opportunity to volunteer at the Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming. The Guelph Centre for Urban Organic Farming is a one-hectare farm\/learning facility run by Martha Scroggins. The farm is located directly on the University of Guelph campus, yet many students and members of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7CROG-Zt","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3811"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3996,"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3811\/revisions\/3996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}