June 27, 2011 - Mizzou

Hi again,

Today started out working on our mini-special events. They are coming along very nicely. I recipe tested 'green pancakes' today. They are a spinach pancake that I found in this medieval book in the library. After tweaking the recipe a little, they came out great! I forgot to take a picture of them - but they will be at my event, so you'll see what they look like then.

Later in the day we went to Bradford Farms Research Extension. On this farm, they conduct research and contribute to community projects. The farm works with CDS by collecting the food wastes (plate waste) from the dining halls and combines it with animal by-products to create a composting mixture. They also collect the fryer oils as well. The compost is then used to grow their crops, which then can go back to the serving lines in the dining halls.

They also grow many varieties of tomato and peppers on the farm. The farm is over 800 acres and about 60% is used for research. They test many different varieties of crops with different genetic alterations to find the best product.

They have a green house that faces south and these black barrels full of water heat up - to heat the green house. The heat keeps the plants warm and healthy during the winter. There is no electricity involved to heat this green house, especially during the winter.

They have a biofuel garden on the farm as well. They grow a variety of plants in this garden to test the biofuel ability. It is great to learn all the different sustainability practices the university is implementing and investing in research.

These are basically giant 'umbrellas'. They are drought fields - that control the amount of water on the field. Here they have only soybeans and corn. Right now the two structures on in the rest position, but when it starts to rain, the doors will open up and move over the crops. After 30 minutes after the rain, the structures will move back to the resting position.

This was definitely a great experience and I was glad that I was able to see the country side of Missouri.