Squish Nemo

[Baudilio Eliason]

Mydaughter is OBSESSED with Finding Nemo and Finding Dory right now. Seriously obsessed! She was sick a few weeks ago and couldn't move a muscle, so we snuggled and watched both movies on repeat. They were the first movies she sat through and she now talks about them constantly. If I can't find the fish in her alphabet book fast enough she can't handle it! Every octopus she sees she calls, "Hank." It is hysterical and maddening at the same time.

In an effort to cheer her up after I said no to watching Finding Dory today (she asks all day long, hoping my answer will change)... we made this simple ocean squish bag. We have a bunch of other favorite ocean activities I will be trying this week too. This one was a LIFE/SANITY SAVER. If your kid isn't obsessed with ocean animals, just throw whatever they ARE obsessed with into the bag and hopefully it can save your life like this little bag did for me today. Scroll down for more details.

Original Game Soundtrack for NASA NeMO-NetMusic by Chord ShoreAlbum Art by Allyssa de la Torre NeMO-Net is a single player iPad game where players help NASA classify coral reefs by painting 3D and 2D images of coral. Players can rate the classifications of other players and level up in the food chain as they explore and classify coral reefs and other shallow marine environments and creatures from locations all over the world!Download NASA NeMO-Net (free):apps.apple.com/us/app/nasa-nemo-net/id1506604930Visit Project Website:nemonet.info

Andony Melathopoulos: [00:00:00] Integrated pest management is often held up as a great way to protect pollinators on managed lands. But frequently it's of held out as a bit of an abstract concept. So we have this series that's been supported by the Western I P M center called. What the heck does IPM mean in some very specific cases?

Now we have previous episodes based in Oregon one in commercial, blueberry production and nursery production. And this week we turn our attention to New Mexico, the heart of Albuquerque to be exact. We're gonna be speaking today with Casey Holland, who is the farm manager, a CHISPA farm, which is a four acre urban farm.

They grow 120 varieties of fruits and vegetables, and they also. Flock of milk goats and grazing sheep and hens and ducks and geese. And you're gonna see how all of these parts together create a wonderful systems approach to managing pests and. With all sorts of [00:01:00] opportunities for nectar and pollen not only for pollinators, but the beneficial insects that sort of are the under the motor that drives integrated pest management.

This is a great episode, especially if you're in New Mexico, but even if you're not in New Mexico, just to see how you can bring all the pieces together and really, truly integrate pest management this week on pollination.

Andony Melathopoulos: So tell us a little bit about the farm. It sounds like a really remarkable farm, a really great example of where integrated psh management and pollinator protection come together. Tell us about the farm.

Casey Holland: the farm? Yeah the farm itself is about four acres. We are not certified organic. However we used to be, and there's a whole bunch of political stuff that went into that. But so we really approached the farm from how do we make the soil, the people, and all of the more than human beings that share this space as healthy as possible.

So to do that, we cultivate a little under two [00:02:00] acres and active vegetables and fruits. So that's like tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, all those kinds of things we have about an acre that's utilized in perennial pasture for our livestock. We keep a herd of milk goats, a flock of sheep, over a hundred laying hens and ducks and geese.

And I'd love to talk about how they're also really vital in pest management. Later on. And we we grow for a large CSA program that we run of over 60 families. We go to the largest farmer's market in Albuquerque called the downtown growers market. And we host a number of different like free cooking classes and music times and things on the farm in order to help people.

Be involved in the farm as much as possible in addition to different workshops and stuff that we do. Yeah, we've always got a lot of, a little bit of everything going on at any given time. Wow.

Operation, but also I imagine at the same time, there's a lot of logistics, you're, I can imagine you're out weeding a row and then the public [00:03:00] shows up and you gotta you gotta do these kind of transitions. Tell us a little bit about the challenges of, having really good really good, sustainable farm that's so public facing.

Casey Holland: Oh yeah. I also live on the farm, which is its own set. Delineation between what is farm and who am I? So that's constantly a line that like is attempted to be blurred. I think one of the things that's really sweet that I've barely been focusing on, not just for myself, but again, for the pollinators is this whole idea of like systems and structures of support and like what actually is sustainable.

And we have a like a pretty decently sized crew this year. That's helping support all of the work that we're doing. And I'm like the, I'm the infield person working with the crew. And I'm also like the logistical manager. So what's fun is that I set the priorities for the week and everything.

We're implementing them as we go harvesting, planting, weeding, whatever that. Calls for. And then I am training a couple of the PE folks who work with me to also be able to engage with the public [00:04:00] and who like, speak really well about the work that we're doing. So sometimes if I'm there, I'll be able to be like, like just literally the other day, we had two community members, one of thems, a mom of one of our CSA members who were taking a walk in the neighborhood and decided they wanted to stop by the farm, and we're in the middle of the harvest.

So I'm able to like peel away and welcome them. Cause I want them, I want everybody to feel welcome when they come. And what's really nice is that we've really clearly delineated kind of paths for folks and stuff. So I was able to give them a brief introduction, say hi, welcome. And then allow them to take like a self-guided tour and chatted with them a little bit.

Cuz they, everyone always asks about all the flowers that we've got growing and what they're about. Give them a little bit of a taste of what's up. And then invite them to come back during one of our more formal open days or when we have the free cooking classes and a more intentional space to engage.

And now more and more members of the crew are feeling empowered that if someone does walk up and they wanna know what's going on, they can stop what they're doing and chat for a little bit and say, Hey, and then go back to it. So it's just nice balance of, we typically do try to always [00:05:00] make time for the.

And then plug them into existing initiatives or times where we do specifically have the farm open for folks to come and chat and talk. And that way we weave in a number of different folks from the community and neighborhood into our work and it happens almost every day. It really does where somebody comes up and wants know what's going on.

I can imagine the other day, even a FedEx worker, who lives in the area, stopped by and dropped off a package and wanted to sit and chat about what was going on, which is just a really fun thing, too. I think about being such an urban farm as.

Andony Melathopoulos: Yeah. And I guess that is a great it in UN unlike a farm that isn't public facing, you're able to introduce people to pollinators and, sustainable issues in a, you're on the front lines of making that bridge.

Casey Holland: Yeah. And I'm like a huge nerd specifically about all of the wasps we have on the farm. I think they're fascinating. I love them. So it's really sweet to like, be able to share that with folks. And oftentimes people just thinks of wast as like this kind of annoyance at a picnic or something.

And I'm like, no, you have no idea how [00:06:00] integral they are to operations here actually. And how cool. They really can be. So it's fun too, to have our own special interests that we can share. Whenever folks,

Like I always think with bees, it's oh, people think honey bees and they don't know that, but really when it comes to wasps, I think nobody thinks I probably very few people would identify with the small wasps that are going after your aphids or. Yeah, that you

Andony Melathopoulos: So cool. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about how you are able to attract these beneficial, including bees. You talked about having, ma having specific pollinator habitat. But when we were talking before the episode, you mentioned that also the cropping area is , it's turned into habitat.

Casey Holland: Yeah. So it's extremely integrated, which I think is the idea of integrated pest management. And it's [00:07:00] multifaceted in a bunch of different ways. So one of the primary ways is anytime for active cultivation, I plant di or cilantro. I always plan in the crop plan to allow those beds to grow and flower and fully develop.

Primarily because they are such hotspots and beneficial insects love those flowers to death. And because I let that happen, what happens is they go to seed and then they spit seed everywhere. And then every year, since, I think we did our first planting of di and carrots in 2018 in the fields.

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