Jet Rye

May 9, 2012

What does Jet Rye mean anyway?  Well, it is the latest endeavor of our sustainable agriculture plan; Jet meaning 7 and Rye is a plot of land which equals about 2/5 of an acre.  This plot of land, located about 30 minutes northwest of Legacy, we have reserved for the staple food items like rice, corn, soybeans, and peanuts mainly because it is the largest plot we have to work with.  Graciously a friend of the school has let us use his land because he cannot farm it at the present time.  With the help of a tiller to break the ground the students started planting soybeans last year to replace the nutrients, mainly nitrogen from the rice depleting the soil year after year.  Rice left from past plantings also came up and covered the land with a green blanket and proves to be a current rival for any crops we have planted.  Thankfully we have been able to raise some rice and soybeans without too much effort.  Our latest planting was done on May 2 where we planted corn and peanuts together in 4 large plots. Corn depletes the soil of nitrogen and peanuts enrich it with nitrogen, so we planted the seeds in an alternating fashion. This sense of balance can be found in nature and we are employing this way of planting in our other 2 garden plots back at the Legacy school’s farm as well by planting crops together or rotating them.  Because Thailand is close to the equator, it does get extremely warm during the hot season and the students and I took plenty of breaks for water, lunch, and snacks.  Hopefully in several weeks we will be able to see the corn and peanuts coming up because of the wonderful rain we have been receiving this week!

Abigail Syltie