Reciprocal farming is the mutual relationship between Land and humans where the act of farming regenerates soil carbon and nutrients rather than extracts them. In this program we will use Evergreen’s campus farm to experiment with alternative ways of farming that move away from extractive practices and, instead, regenerate soil health. If thinking deeply about food systems while getting your hands dirty sounds appealing, then this program is for you!
Building off of winter and spring quarters of the Edible Evergreen program, students will manage on-farm tasks using dynamic governance while continuing the work of tending perennials and chickens, seeding, transplanting, irrigating, weeding, harvesting, fertilizing, food processing, and staffing a market stand. Students will help run crop variety trials with fertilizing regimes that include urine, compost, and feathermeal to investigate the effects on crop nutrition. Some of these field trials will involve tending to Palestinian heirloom varieties and learning about traditional Italian methods of maximizing crop nutrition. Students will learn to sample plant tissues for commercial lab nutrient analysis, interpret results, and make fertilizer adjustments. Students will help design a sampling regime for a new long-term soil health monitoring program, including analyzing for soil carbon, nutrients, and macro- and microscopic organisms. We will also be interacting with the Southwest Washington Food Hub, with its broad network of farms.
The second half of the summer quarter will engage part-time with Prof. Prita Lal’s program Food Sovereignty at the Roots that explores Indigenous food sovereignty with an emphasis on nutrient sovereignty. As an interdisciplinary group, we will explore the socio-ecological aspects of the circular nutrient economy including ways to create new economies through solidarity. We join a field trip to Salish Roots farm and co-facilitate exchanges between Evergreen’s farm and the House of Welcome garden. Students will learn how farming locally can have a global impact on carbon and nutrient cycles as well as socio-economics. Taking a global perspective, students will critically engage with human relationship to Land in the context of growing food.
All students will work on the farm every week to gain practical, experiential learning. This program is physically rigorous and academically demanding. It requires a willingness to work as a team outside in adverse weather. Topics will be explored through on-farm workshops, seminar discussions, lectures, laboratory and field exercises, and field trips. Expect weekly reading and writing assignments, extensive collaborative group work, and a variety of hands-on projects.
Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:
8 - Agroecology
4 - Soil science
4 - Circular (bio)nutrient economy
Weekly schedule:
Monday, 9–noon: Theory in the classroom
Tuesday, 9am–3:30pm: Farm practicum (with breaks) OR day-long field trip (ending at 5pm)
Wednesday, 9–noon: Farm practicum or laboratory work
Thursday, 9–noon: Farm practicum
Friday: Study day/submit weekly homework
**One overnight field trip, in addition to two day-long field trips. Dates TBD**
Registration
Academic Details
Farming, graduate school, USDA, Conservation District, government positions
$200 required fee includes an overnight camping field trip ($100) and a required lab fee ($100).