Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Life Science Director Presents at AEOE and SLC Conferences - April 2014

I had the pleasure of presenting on Permaculture and WWOOFing at the AEOE and SLC Southern California conferences.  I discussed how both having wwoofers and implementing practices of Permaculture laid the foundation for the new curriculum and development of the Life Science program.  It was such a wonderful experience to have met so many individuals working in the camping community all for the same goals and outcomes in outdoor education.

What I did find almost shocking to hear, was that most camps do not have a functioning garden and that it seems to be the last priority on most most administrators lists.  Not having an experienced and dedicated individual seemed to be the biggest issue, as well as the difficulties of not operating year round and only needing a garden during the summer.  It is for these reasons that I'm in the progress of developing a program for camps to come learn how they can implement a garden at their sites successfully without too much hassle.  

Of the workshops that I took while at the conferences, my favorite were on Birding and Wildflower Botany, both of which I have incorporated new curriculum from.

I took a lot of photos, but here are some highlights.  AEOE was held at a camp in the Sequoia National Forest and SLC in Palm Springs:













Saddleback Colleges Hosts Annual Faculty Retreat - March 2014

The faculty from Saddleback College held their annual retreat at the OEC for a day of teambuilding, workshops, leadership and more.  Robert Farnsworth of the Horticulture Department led a class on gardening and potting plants.  Their department has created an incredible native plant nursery that students work on first hand and also sell to support their program.  Their student gardens are also a wonderful space for experimental growing and practices.

Visit Saddleback's Horticulture Department
Here













Visit to Camp Stevens in Julian, CA - March 2014

The wwoofs and I had the opportunity to visit Camp Stevens in Julian for the weekend.  Our intent was to see their grounds and operations, specifically their agriculture program where they grow all the produce that they use in their kitchen.  I was dying to see how they do it and was impressed with their growing spaces and practices.

During our visit we were able to tour their compost, chicken coop, garden, large growing lots, trails, high ropes and more.  Their food service was fantastic, offering vegan, vegetarian and GF options at each meal, while also reducing their meat consumption to a few times a week.  It was incredible to see how they put the effort and investment into good food for not only their staff but their campers and guests as well.

I also loved that their curriculum is really focused on environmental stewardship and that their naturalists have flexibility when it comes to which curriculum they will be teaching with students.  It is truly a beautiful camp with many offerings for its area!

Visit Camp Stevens by clicking, here










Visit to the Central Valley to see Griffith Farms and Suntreat - Feb 2014

Michael Jacobus and I had an amazing opportunity to visit Griffith Farms and Suntreat in the Central Valley.  Griffith Farms is the donor of all our amazing citrus trees we have onsite and they offered to show us around their orchards and packaging plants to get a first look at the operations.

It was an amazing day seeing how efficient the process of growing a fruit to selling it all over the world has become.  We essentially followed the path of an orange from tree to truck and it was pretty fascinating to see the intricate designs used to make everything hum and fall into place.




Washing after harvest

 On its way to being sorted



Machine sorts fruit by weight



QC check


Packaging into boxes



Tape being added




On its way to distant destinations!



Tree nursery


SUMO variety

Griffith Farms Annual Maintenance Visit to OEC - Feb 2014

This February, Griffith Farms was back to service our citrus orchard and to check on the health of the trees.  Our friends Rick and Dave and their incredibly kind crew spent the day with us pruning and surveying the orchard.  They were happy to report the trees are doing well, except for the deer feeding on them.  Our new wwoofs had a chance to learn how to properly prune trees with guidance from the masters.  After the clean up, we were able to donate over 100 pounds of fruit to OC Food Access to be distributed to those in need in OC.


New wwoofs Kristin, Angela and Jason learning how to prune