Ag Studies
Ag Studies has begun with a flurry of activity this year with students harvesting, processing and sharing garden produce.
In spite of the harsh Summer conditions, we produced an abundance of watermelon this season. We grew two varieties, ‘crimson sweet’ and ‘black diamond’. Both have fruited heavily and the quality of the fruit has been outstanding. About 50kg of these were cut up and shared on ‘Watermelon Wednesday’, with all of the fruit being quickly consumed by grateful students. We look forward to further opportunities to share! We also have cantaloupe and figs in season at the moment.
Last week we picked our first harvest of Roma tomatoes. These were processed into passata by the Ag Studies students and will be used in the canteen and Food Tech areas. We have an abundance of tomatoes and expect to be making passata regularly for the next few weeks. Next lesson, Ag Studies students will harvest our potato crop. Last September we planted the Dutch Cream variety and they appear to have done well. Of course we won’t know for sure until we dig them up, but a brief ‘possum around’ in the potato patch yielded very promising results. Once harvested, these will also find their way into the canteen and Food Tech areas.
As far as theory work is concerned, students in Ag Studies are focusing on the improvement of genetics in domesticated plants and animals. We have studied the origins of agriculture and have completed a task to examine how food plants have been improved over time. After looking at the work of pioneer geneticist Gregor Mendel, students will shortly complete an essay looking at the work of Australian agriculture scientist, William Farrar and his work in breeding the ‘Federation’ variety of wheat. This will be followed by two further tasks related to GM crops in Australia.
Andrew Allen