AY Honors/Subsistence Farming/Answer Key
1. Participate in the preparation of a food garden nine meters square. Cover the following points.
Template:Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Problematic requirement
a. Choosing the site
The garden site should be:
- well drained
- have access to water
- be close enough to your home that you can manage it regularly
- not belong to someone else or, if it does, you get permission to use the site
b. Clearing the bush
c. Cleaning the area
d. Preparation of the soil for planting
2. Through a practical demonstration show how you will make and use compost in your garden.
3. List the crops from the following plant families you will plant in your garden and the time of year that you can do this.
Here you need to choose what to plant, taking into consideration what you like to eat, what there is market demand for (assuming you plan to sell some of your crops) and what will grow well in your region. The answers to the question about when to plant is going to be fairly locality specific. If you do not know when to plant consult a garden supply store or local experienced gardeners.
a. Root crops—e.g. cassava, sweet potatoes, carrots
b. Grass—e.g. corn, sugar cane
c. Legumes—e.g. beans, peanuts
d. Leafy vegetables—e.g. cabbage varieties, aibika
e. Fruit—e.g. Bananas, pawpaw, tomatoes, egg plant, pumpkins, cucumber
4. Show by practical demonstration and by diagram how you will divide your garden to plant your crops.
5. What crops will best grow where you have burnt out stumps and logs?
6. Show and demonstrate how you will keep your garden free from weeds and garden pests.
7. Demonstrate how you will plant your crops to have a continual supply.
This requirement presumes you live in a tropical climate where growing food for continual harvest is possible. Where climate conditions do not permit harvesting year road, traditionally people turned to food preservation techniques to meet their needs through the winter. Preserving food at home is less popular now that global food distribution brings fresh produce to the local supermarket from areas in the South/North where the seasons are reversed.
Even in temperate climates there are techniques to extend the harvest period including:
1. Planting the same variety of seed early, middle and late in the planting season to allow plants to reach maturity at different times
2. Planting different varieties of the same plant that mature at different times. Blueberries, for example, come in varieties that allow a farmer to harvest over about a 3 month period.
3. Choosing plants that provide a continual harvest. Chives, for example, regrow when cut and therefore can be harvested again and again. Potatoes can be harvested over time, a few plants at a time.
4. Choose a range of different plants that are ready for harvest at different times.
8. Show how to harvest crops for family use and commercial sale.
When preparing vegetables and other crops for market, consider the following attributes:
- Ripeness
- Choose vegetables that are at their optimum ripeness.
- Color
- Bright colors are more attractive to buyers than dull colors.
- Size
- Consumers do not like vegetables that are too small or too large.
- Shape
- Look for vegetables that have a "regular" shape.
- Injury
- Choose vegetables that are free from injury.
- Cleanliness
- Wash and trim them before taking them to market.
Crops that do not meet market standards but are perfectly edible should be taken home to eat. Commercial processors use off size and odd shaped food to make processed (canned, dried, pureed etc) food and so can you.
9. Show how you will rotate your crops.
Different crops pull and add (through the decay of unharvested parts) different nutrients from the soil. Where practical it is a good plan to rotate or vary the crops grown in each spot in the garden from year to year. Of course this does not work for fruit trees and beds herbs that provide a continual harvest, but it is applicable to vegetables and other plants that grow from seeds each year.
10. Outline what you would do with your garden area after several seasons of cropping.
In some areas it is traditional to let the soil rest, going to weeds. This gives the soil a chance to replenish nutrients. In other areas especially with richer soil, this is not practical. Instead you might consider adding compost, commercial fertilizer, or natural fertilizer (dung) and giving the whole garden a good dig or plow.
