My favorite way to introduce myself is to tell people that I’m a wanna-be vegetable farmer that, until recently, hated vegetables. Which is completely ridiculous, but also completely true. I wouldn’t dare touch a veggie until age eighteen, and now I want to spend the rest of my life producing and educating others on their importance as a part of our food system. There are a lot of people and experiences had that I have to thank for this evolution, but the Student Farm has by far had the largest hand in helping me grow. I’ve gone from being a girl who despised cucumbers and carrots to a co-founder, co-director and current summer intern for the Student Farm at Penn State.
This time next year I will (hopefully) have a degree in Plant Sciences from Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. I don’t think that my degree would have felt complete, however, had I not invested in the wonderful opportunities and community that have grown out of establishing the Student Farm. I’m spending this summer coordinating volunteer and community events on the farm, as well as researching and implementing integrated pest management at our one acre site as a recipient of the Erickson Discovery Grant.
Never would I have ever imagined that I would willingly be working with bugs, but here I am as Student Farm’s insect expert for the summer. I have always been the girl at the campfire who shrieked and spazzed each time a buzz of wings whizzed past my head. Now, after taking my first entomology course this past fall, that fear has turned into curiosity, intrigue, and even affection. I can talk for hours about predatory insects as a form of biological control, and get excited to learn about a new resident insect on the farm each time my fellow interns ask “What’s this?”
Photo Credit: Michael Cahil, farmer-intern-photographer extraordinaire
This summer, as a part of my research project, I’m hoping to increase the activity of natural pest predators on the student farm. By supporting and utilizing pest predators as a preventative measure in controlling crop pests, we may not have to rely on chemical controls. Already, we have built one pollinator and beneficial insect habitat garden along the length of our fence with the help of community and club volunteers. This week, we’ll be planting an additional two beneficial insect habitat gardens on the farm that we hope to get certified by Extension as pollinator gardens. The hope is that pollinators such as butterflies and bees will find a home alongside predatory insects such as praying mantises, lady beetles, and parasitic wasps that will take care of the pesky insects that like to eat our crops. In addition to the habitat gardens, we’ll soon be installing bird and bat boxes around the acre. Birds and bats are great predators of insect pests, and by providing shelter for them, we are encouraging them to dine on those critters that are damaging to our harvest. We are partnering with the ACRES Project to get the boxes built, and are hoping to draw a diverse array of birds including bluebirds, chickadees, swallows, warblers, and titmice. Moving forward, I’m really excited to partner with wilderness courses on campus to survey local wildlife around the one acre site.
Planting the pollinator garden along the norther fence of the farm in June
48 students from Penn State’s LEAP program came out to the farm to help us mulch the beds in July.
This project has allowed me to explore the possibilities of increasing the environmental sustainability of agriculture where food production and ecosystems work in harmony rather than working against one another. I’m grateful to be a part of the Student Farm community, and to learn about sustainability from different perspectives everyday. I’ve met some of my best friends through the Student Farm here at Penn State, and I’m happy to report that they’ve helped me to grow and learn every step of the way!
