Saying Goodbye To The Kojo Nnamdi Show
On this last episode, we look back on 23 years of joyous, difficult and always informative conversation.
Jared Planz waters plants in one of the greenhouses at Clagett Farm in Upper Marlboro, Md.
This year, spring arrived early…and quickly went away. Now, the cherry blossoms are frozen in green bud phase and once-in-a-generation storms are popping up on the regular. But what happens to our food when the weather goes berserk and the seasons are out of whack? We talk to local farmers about how they’re adapting to a longer growing season with lots of interruptions. Plus: The Capital Weather Gang tells us whether we can attribute all this craziness to climate change.
Guests
- Angela Fritz Deputy Weather Editor, Washington Post and Capital Weather Gang; @angelafritz
- Carrie Vaughn Vegetable Production Manager, Clagett Farm in Upper Marlboro, MD
- Rachel Bynum Owner and Operator, Waterpenny Farm in Sperryville, VA
- Janice Stillman Editor, Old Farmer's Almanac; @almanac
Take A Tour Of Clagett Farm
More than 60 cattle roam the fields of Clagett Farm in Upper Marlboro, Md. “When summertime hits, they’re going to work their way down the farm, eating down the grass," says Jared Planz, assistant vegetable production manager. "We don’t have to use corn or anything like that. They can just be fed on our pastures.”
The farm, which is owned by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, grows organic vegetables, working with the Capital Area Food Bank to donate produce.
There are 20 sheep on Clagett Farm. They occasionally eat their meals with the cattle.
On March 4, Carrie Vaughn taught a beginner farming seminar at Clagett, which introduced 20 or so volunteers to techniques for new farmers, including how to use a tractor.
“They’re coming here to be future farmers, which is really important because currently the average age of a farmer is 65," Planz says. "We’re really hoping to get more young people interested in farming. We’re here. Carrie Vaughn is showing them how we use different agricultural implements and how we use them with sustainable agriculture.”
“They’re pretty amazing animals. A couple hours after they’re born, they’re hopping around and everything like that," says Elissa Planz, a seasonal worker on the farm. "It’s pretty amazing to see something that’s born and two hours later is running around and jumping. It’s just crazy.”
“It’s a little worrisome right now because a lot of the plants are growing a lot faster, because it’s a little bit warmer than it had been in the past. So the stuff is already ready to go out of the greenhouse when normally we’d have a couple more weeks," says Planz. "We’re trying to decide whether to take the plants out now and risk late frost or keep them in and risk them running out of nutrients."
“Right now they’re kind of in lock-in because we’ve had pretty serious fox attacks on them.They took out like eight in a day," Planz says. "So we’ve decided to keep them in here for a while, until we find out where the fox is getting in."
Inside the greenhouse, you'll find lettuce, spinach, collards, kale, onions, chives, leeks, and more. “As the year goes on and it gets warmer and warmer, we have to water the greenhouse about three times a day, very heavily,” says Planz.
During the windstorm earlier this month, the panels of the greenhouse blew off. “It’s just a pretty good amount of damage from one storm, but it’s kind of part of farming," Planz says. "You kind of have to adapt to everything that Mother Nature will throw at you."
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