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ESJ # 1 – Buffone Garden
ESJ Field Trip Report-Charlie Buffones Garden
Sarah Ouellette
On September 17th,2008, our Environmental Science Class went on a field trip to Charlie Buffones Garden. When we first arrived at the garden I began to realize that I was looking at some plants that I had heard of but never seen before. I had never been to a garden like this before and I came across a book called “ A Patch of Eden” which is about community gardens all over America. It answered a question I had about community gardens which was what kind of people would want to work in this kind of garden? In the book it said “ The gardeners of these Patches of Eden include children, elders, immigrants and low income people.”
The first and most interesting observation was the sunflower. It was very tall and looked like a bright yellow sun. It was one of the tallest plants in the garden. I wondered why it was so tall then I remembered how we learned about adaptation in class. The sunflower needed to be tall so it could rise above other plants and get the sun so it could grow healthy. While observing the sunflower it reminded me of how much I used to like eating sunflower seeda with my uncle when I was little.
Our field trip to Charlie Buffones Garden helped me to better understand just what Environmental Science is all about. I observed many really neat looking plants and I wondered how people could eat some of these plants like squash and eggplant. The just don’t look very good to eat when they are in the garden. It was neat to see how people can grow plants without using all of those bad chemicals and poisonous sprays. This helped me to understand what people mean when they us the word organic.
The field trip made me wonder how someone can start a community garden. I came across a book called “The Handbook of Community Gardening” and it said that the first step to starting a community garden was “forming a planning committee”. I think I am going to plant a garden in our backyard next year. What is really neat is the fact that people take there grass clippings , leaves, rotten plants, and make a compost pile to make their own soil for their gardens. Even worms in the compost pile help make the soil. Everybody in the community can contribute to the compost pile!
Another interesting observation was seeing real pumpkins growing. Pumpkins remind me of Halloween but I didn’t know that people actually eat them. Pumpkins must need a lot of water to get so big!
ESJ # 2 – Cooper Hill
EJS Field Trip Report – Cooper’s Hilltop Dairy Farm
Sarah Ouellette
Recently our Environmental Science Class went on a field trip to Cooper’s Hilltop Dairy Farm in Rochdale,
Ma. The dairy farm has been selling milk, cream, and eggnog to people in the area for more than 90 years.
When we arrived at Cooper’s Hill Dairy Farm the first things we observed was cows grazing in open pastures, corn growing in fields, a big barn, and some farm equipment. It reminded me of Tufts University Veterinary School which is located right down the street from my house in Grafton, Ma. We learned that the dairy sells fresh whole milk, skim milk, and low fat milk, and eggnog. They also sell products from other companies like Cabot’s Cheese and Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream. They also sell honey and maple syrup made right here in Ma. People can even buy bread, pies, and cookies.
We also went inside a big cooler where they keep all of the products fresh. We also went to a big barn where they keep hay for feeding the cows. After these first observations I began to think about how we learned in class that there are some big farms that only care about making as much milk as they can by giving the cows drugs and chemicals. These big farms only care about how much milk they can sell and not how they treat the cows. I have read that some cows are kept in stalls and never get to move or use their legs .The cows at Cooper’s Hill Dairy farm get to move around the pastures and are feds hay and corn .After the field trip I found a book called “Organic Dairy Farming” that explains how to take care of cows and what to feed them so they can make healthy organic milk. The book mentions how important it is to let the cows live and eat in a natural environment. It says that even if you pasteurize the milk that since you are only heating it up and not adding bad drugs or chemicals that it is still organic. It is important to know that heating up the milk will make it loose some of its nutrients. Milk is best if you can drink it fresh but if you are going to store it for a period of time you should pasteurize it so you do not get sick from bacteria.
After visiting Cooper’s Hilltop Dairy Farm I sat down to look at my notes I took while on the field trip. I learned that the milk is heated up to 145 degrees and stored at a cool temperature of 40 degrees. This is so they can store the milk and prevent it from growing bacteria .I learned the even though cows are really big animals they are very quiet. You would think that such a big animal would be very loud! My dog is really small and really loud! I learned about how and why cows chew their cud. They don’t have very good mouths and jaws for chewing like other animals. I did not know that there are hundreds of varieties of corn. I had only heard of sugar and queen corn. The dairy farm has 35 acres of corn. Finally, based on my notes I learned that at Cooper’s Hilltop Dairy Farm they can milk three to four cows at a time.
The field trip to Cooper’s Hilltop Dairy Farm made me think more about how cows are really nice gentle animals. It kind of made me mad when I thought about how we learned about the big farms that don’t care about the cows but only how much money they can make off of them. In the book “Hooray for dairy Farming” by Bobbie Kalman it talks about how important it is to respect farm animals and give them the most natural environment possible.
I decided to go on to the Cooper’s Hilltop dairy Farm and see what else I could learn about the farm and it’s history. I learned that Cooper’s Hilltop dairy Farm had been pasteurizing their milk since the 1930’s. They didn’t do this just to prevent bacteria! They also did this to kill protozoa, molds, and yeast. These are also things that can make people sick. I learned that whole milk really contains 3.8% cream which is all of the cream that cows can provide. They point out that whole milk is not just a drink but a food. Skim milk is made when they try to get rid of all of the cream they can. Low fat milk has a cream content between the whole milk and skimmed milk. I also learned about the difference between heavy and light cream and how people use it. People like to put heavy cream on deserts while putting light cream in beverages like coffee. They even have chocolate, strawberry, and coffee flavored milk.
The trip to Cooper’s Hilltop Dairy Farm helped me get the answers a lot of questions I have had about cows and milk production. I had heard of homogenized milk but never understood what it meant. I learned from my follow up research that homogenized milk is made by using pressure to destroy the natural fat cells in milk. I also found out that some people think that this is bad for you and might help cause heart disease. I also learned that if you want real organic milk than you have to start with the soil that you use to grow the grass and corn that you feed the cows The soil must be organic like the soil used at Charlie Buffone’s Garden. You cannot use chemical fertilizer in the soil. This also means that the grass and corn you grow will be organic as long as you do not use pesticides or chemicals on the plants. As long as the cows are eating organic grass and corn grown in organic soil you will have organic milk. Pasteurizing the milk will take away some of its nutrition but it is still organic. You cannot add any chemical preservatives or coloring. Just store the milk in a cool place at 40 degrees like they do at Cooper’s Hilltop dairy farm. I wonder if it is still organic if they flavors like chocolate, strawberry, and coffee? I should also mention that there are still some apple, pear, peach and plum trees at the dairy farm that were planted by the original owners. The farm was bought by man named J. Arnold Cooper at the end of World War I. It was a woman called Grandma Cora who bought the first cow and had his son J Harold deliver the milk as he walked down the hill on his way to school. Coopers Hilltop dairy Farm has been around for a long time and I hope it is around for many more years.
Visiting Cooper’s Hilltop Dairy Farm with the rest of my Environmental Science Class helped me to learn about how a dairy farm works and how it involves our environment. I like small farms like this one because the animals are treated with respect and the milk is fresh and organic. It makes me angry to hear about how farmers that only want to make money as fast as they can and will use drugs and chemicals to make cows bigger and stronger so they can make more milk. They don’t care about our health and they don’t care about how bad they treat the farm animals. I am so glad that we have farms like Cooper’s Hilltop Dairy farm. I like what I saw and learned while on our field trip to the dairy farm. I hope I can find a dairy farm near us that we can go to and buy fresh milk. I am going to ask my parents to take me bnack to Cooper’s Hilltop Dairy Farm so I can learn more and buy some of their milk.
End Notes
1. “Organic Dairy Farming – A Resource for the Farmer” by Jody Padgham 2006
2. “Hooray for Dairy Farming” by Bobbie Kalman 1998
3. “Coopers Hilltop Dairy Farm” www.coopershilltop.com 2008
ESJ # 3 – Nicewizc Farm
Nicewicz Family Farm
Sarah Ouellette
On November 3rd, 2008 our Environmental Science class went on a field trip to Nicewicz Family Farm in Bolton, Ma. The farm was bought by Julian and Catherine Nicewicz who came from Poland in 1929. They grow apples, peaches, pears, blueberries and cranberries. They have a 5 acre cranberry bog on the farm. They used to have a small herd of cows that produced milk, cheese, and butter. Today the four sons named David, Alan, Ken, and Tom run the farm with their mother Vera. Today the Nicewicz family farm grows 17 varieties of apples along with 15 varieties of peaches, 5 varieties of pears, plums, berries, apricots, pumpkin, corn, beans, and squash. They also grow flowers that are sold to florists. Some of the kinds of flowers they grow are dahlias, snapdragons, asters, zinnias, sweet peas, and certain kinds of flowers that they dry out for decorations.
When our Environmental Science class arrived at the Nicewicz Family Farm our first observation was the yellow farmhouse on our left and the orchard on our right. It was very cold and most of the apples and other fruits had already been picked.
Two very interesting facts we learned was how they prevent certain bugs and insects from damaging the apples. One of the methods is using apple maggot traps. At the Natural Insect Control website that I discovered I learned that these traps have scents or smells that attract apple maggot flies .The reason why apple maggot flies are so bad is that they lay their eggs inside of the apples. The eggs hatch larvae about ¼” to 3/8” long and then the larvae tunnel through the apples leaving brown marks and then the apples rot. Apple maggot traps attract the maggot flies and the red spheres of the traps have a sticky kind of glue that the maggot flies stick when they land on them. This is really good because then they don’t have to use many or very little chemicals and pesticides. We have learned in class that chemicals and pesticides are bad for people and even the plants.
We also learned that the Apple Leaf Minor is another insect that is harmful to apples .These bugs can eat the apple leafs and cause other problems for the apple trees. There are special traps that can be placed on the trees that used scents to attract and capture these bad insects. According to the article “What’s eating my apples?” by Alice Wise of the Long Island Horticulture Laboratory, what attract these bugs are pheromones which are smells or lures that cause a sexual attraction to the bugs bringing them to the trap and not the apples on the tree. When people use these kinds of traps and not use chemicals and pesticides then the apples are more natural and a lot healthier for people. The Nicewicz Family Farm uses what is called integrated pest management so they use only a very small amount of pesticides. Inteliegrated pest management is pretty much when you use common sense when you try to control bugs and insects. This means using natural traps and other methods instead of just spraying a bunch of chemicals on the apples to save time and because it’s quicker and easier. Integrated Pest Management is kind of a way of thinking. It is understanding how these insect interact with the environment and carefully planning ways to get rid of the bugs in a natural way that does not hurt the environment.
Our Environmental Science class trip to Nicewicz Family Farm was very interesting and we were able to learn a lot about apples and what are safe ways to grow and take care of apples and other crops We have been learning a lot about our environment and how farmers can grow crops in a safe way for people and the environment. We learned that the people who own the Nicewicz Family farm care about the Environment and the things that they sell to people. It would be interesting to ask the people at Brookfield orchard how they keep these bad insects away from their apples. My family has been going to Brookfield Orchard for many years! It would be fun to take what we have learned in our Environmental Science Class and Compare the Nicewicz Family Farming methods to the farming methods used by Brookfield Orchards! If you are interested in getting apples or products from Nicewicz Family Farm you can find there products at farmer markets all around MA. Just visit there website at www.nicewiczfarm.com fir a location near you.
End Notes:
1) www.nicewiczfam.com/index .html 2004
2) www.nnantural-insects-control.com
3) What’s Eating my Apples?, Alice Wise – Long Island Horticulture Laboratory.2001
4) Integrated Pest management, U.S Environmental Protection Agency, 2008
ESJ # 4 – Alta Vista
Alta Vista Bison Farm
Sarah Ouellette
On Monday November 10th, 2008 our Environmental Science class went on a field trip to the Alta Vista Bison Farm in Rutland MA. We also stopped at the Pine Hill Reservoir to make some observations after we left the Alta Vista Bison Farm. For many of us it was the first time we had actually seen a real live bison. Bison are also called Buffalo and at one time there were millions in the North America. “ Bison we an integral part of the ecosystem for centuries, thriving on wild and drought resistant grasses, shrubs, flowers, and other plants.” (www.ebabison.org/bisonn_facts.htlm) Bison were very important to the Plains Indians in America. American Indians used the whole bison for food, clothing, jewelry, tool, and to make tents. Bison almost went extinct because people used to abuse them by shooting them for fun and leaving the body of the Bison on the ground to rot. Alta Vista Bison Farm uses almost all most of the entire bison when they send them to be butchered. The Alsta Vista Farm website says they even sell Bison skulls in the store! “The near-eradication of bison during the settlement of the west is a familiar story: with rifle, plow and barbed wire as instrument of mass destruction. “(The Journal of Canadian Studies,2008) By the 1890’s it was believed that there were less than 1000 Bison in America.
# 1 – Alta Vista Bison Farm website logo
The first observations we made when our Environmental Science class arrived at the Alta Vista Bison Farm were fenced in fields of grasslands with some muddy areas. I always wondered if these muddy areas were where the Bison liked to lay down. I always wondered if they liked to lay down in the same spot and this killed the grass. I have seen muddy area’s like this at farms with cows in it in Grafton and Northbridge and has wondered the same thing. We got off the buss and walked toward the fenced in fields and came upon about 30 Bison herded together. We learned that Bison are symbiotic which means they like to herd together. After further observations you couldn’t help but to notice how thick the buffalo fur was and how warm it must have kept them. The Bison seemed pretty calm and comfortable having people watching them. I also was amazed at how big the Bison are and discovered from the Alta Vista Farm website that the average mature Bison can weigh 1,500 to 2,000 pounds.
The Bison at the Alta Vista Bison Farm eat the grass that grows naturally in the fields. This is good because we learned in class that chemical fertilizers are bad for the bison and bad for the environment. Using chemical fertilizers would also be bad for people eating the bison meat. We can conclude that the meat at Alta Vista Bison Farm is pretty much organic. Also, the bison are not given any “growth stimulants or hormones.” (www.altanvistabison.com/meat.htm) Bison is very nutritious and healthy. It is very low in cholesterol, fat, calories, and very high in protein.
# 2 – Nutritional Comparisons Chart
The Alta Vista Farm website offered to brief history of the farm. The farm started as a livestock and dairy farm back in 1724. A family with the last name Mann bought it on 1951. They are the ones who began to call it the Alta Vista Farm without means “high view.” This must be because the farm is so high up on a hill. In 1961 the farm brought the first Bison to the farm. They came from South Dakota. According to the Alta Vista’s Farm website there is a store at the farm that sells variety of bison products. People can buy buffalo roast, steaks, ribs, and ground buffalo. People can even buy buffalo liver, hearts, and tongue. These were very popular with the Plains Indians of America. The store even sells buffalo robes, skulls and other interesting Bison- products. My father makes buffalo burgers, chili and meat loaf all the time. On occasion we will go to Ted Montana’s Restaurant in Westborough MA. They sell Buffalo steak, chili, peppers, burgers, meatloaf, and ribs on the menu.
# 3- Bison
After our visit to the Alta Vista Bison Farm our Environmental Science Class got back on the bus to return to Worcester Academy. We were given the opportunity to stop and make some quick observations at the Pine hill Reservoir. We traveled down a dirt road and at our left there was the reservoir and at the right was a stream. The reservoir was surrounded by trees. Reservoirs are water sources that are protected from pollution. People are not allowed to swim or go in the water for any reason. Reservoirs are also great places to protect and preserve wild life. After the field trip I researched reservoirs and was surprised to discover that “ 94% of water fills our oceans, 2% are trapped in glaciers and snow caps, 4% is underground and only 0.1% of all water on Earth is fresh surface water.” (Department of conservation and Recreation, P.1 2008)
Overall, our field trip to Alta Vista Bison Farm and our stop at Pine Hill Reservoir was an excellent learning experience and a lot of fun. We can definitely conclude that the Alta Vista Bison Farm is environmentally friendly and Pine Hill Reservoir is environmentally clean.
# 4 – Pine Hill Reservoir
End Notes:
1) Journal of Canadian Studies, 2008
2) www.ebabison.org/bison_factshtlm p.1
3) www.altavistabison.com/meat.htlm
4) Department of Conservation and Recreation, P.1, 2008
2)
There may have been more apples varieties that existed at one time but have disappeared over time.
www.frontiercoopers.com
3) over the past 100 – 200 years people have expiermented with graftin and budding nppier to make new&better tasting varieties. Historians believe that the first applies were located many thousands of years ago near the modern city of Alma-alta, Kazakhstan. European settlers brought apple seeds with then when they settles in America.
history of apples www.geocities.com/perfect applehistory.htlm
4) One of the biggest natural predators of apples are mites.
mites, predators, insects dept. of Entomology by K.A Sorenson
5) Mites are controlled by using chemical spray like mitcides. Apple seeds from a particular apple should give you a tree of the exact same variety. You must use the exact same seeds and not combine seeds. New kinds of apples can be made by grafting or budding apple seeds.
www.Universityofillinios-apples and more- U.S.D.A
6) Apples are very nutritious. They are a great source of fiber pectin. They are fat, sodium and cholesterol fuel. A medium apple is only 80 calories and one apple only has 5 grams of fiber. Remember, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”
U.S.D.A National Agricultural Statics service and the U.S. Apple Association
Food is also really important to us as humans on certain holidays or in different cultures. For an example most people that celebrate Thanksgiving has a traditional turkey dinners and the holiday is all about giving thanks and being together to enjoy all that wonderful Thanksgiving food. There are many cultures around our world where food and eating together is a very important part of there lives. Some cultures spend hours enjoying dinners together and it’s a big family event.
My favorite fruit are Mangos. Mangos are found in tropical areas near the equator. The soil it needs to grow is fertile soil with a lot of nutrients and water. The nutrients that Mango’s have are carbohydrates, fiber, and vitamin c. The functions that carbohydrates, fiber and vitamin c has is that vitamin c helps fight colds and keeps the body healthy, carbohydrates gives us energy when we are working or playing sports and fiber helps our intestines healthy. When you don’t get enough nutrients in your body it is called, vitamin deficient. The difference between malnutrition, hunger and food insecurity are when hunger is when someone hasn’t eaten in a while and there stomach hurts but they don’t eat even though they can get food, food insecurity is when they don’t know if they have enough food to feed themselves or there family. Last but not least malnutrition is when someone does not have the proper food, vitamins, or nutrients for there body for a long time. Malnutrition is when someone doesn’t grow properly because they don’t have enough food to eat every day of there life.
Our first question was about Harmful pesticide and fertilizers. The question was, which ones are used on these types of crops and what effects do they have?
People who organize and work at community gardens like Mr. Buffones and the one in Grafton don’t use pesticides on thier crops. The whole idea behind these kinds of gardens are to use as much of mother nature as possible to protect the crops naturally. The whole idea of being organic is to not use pesticides.The tomatoes,pumpkins,squash,beans,corn,peppers,herbs,cabbage,lettuce,eggplant,and cucumbers all work together in a natural way and growing lot of different kinds of crops help keep the soil good quality for a longer period of time. Alot of the crops grown at Mr. Buffones Garden are not as attractive to the kinds of bad insects that might hurt them. If they did use pesticides it would be very dangerous for people living around the garden. Pesticides can run off and get in peoples drinking water. Pesticides on the crops would be really bad for the people who ate them.
The fertalizers come from people in the community who make it in compost piles. They use grass clippings,weeds, and sometimes rotten food and vegatables to make the fertalizer. This keeps it natural and even worms help by eating and pooping in the compost pile. the tomatoes and other plants are healthy because they are grown with soil and fertalizer made from compost.
Our second questions was about Nature’s pattern. The question was, what does that mean for agriculture? Well Nature’s pattern is the pattern which nature goes year after year. It is all about how the weather, climate and geography has to do with the kinds of plants grow in your area. Some plants can not be a grown in certain areas . An example would be mango’s. Mangos can only be grown in tropical areas such as the Philippines and not Massachusetts. They need that real hot and humid weather with lots of rain to grow good. For the Tomatoe plants grown at the Buffone Garden or anywhere in our area, the pattern of weather and our landscape is pretty good for these kind of plants that grow on vines.The weather patterns in our area of the country give us a long enough growing season for tomatoes and other plants like this. Natures pattern is good for these kinds of plants that are grown in Mr. Buffones garden. Natures pattern also has to do with the amount of sunlight,rainfall,soil quality,and the landscape. Nnew England has always had alot of rocky soil but these kinds of plants have always been able to grow good in this kind of soil. So what does natures pattern mean for agriculture? It means that if we are going to grow plant as natural and organic as we can, we are going to have to keep an eye on any of natures patterns that might be changing. Global warming could be a big problem for the kinds of plants we want to grow in our area. A big change in the average rainfall could be a problem foor the kinds of crops we have been growing in our area. If tomatoes get to much water they can rot! If tomatoes don’t get enough water they will not grow! These plants in our area are used to natures pattern in New England.
