Teagan Flaherty -Week 5

While this week was much less eventful than most of the internship has been, as I was away at the Maryland FFA State Convention, I was still able to get a bit of work done at the office and learn some new things. However, while I was at the State Convention, I presented a workshop on entomology and its relationship to agriculture, drawing on work in toxicology and pesticide safety. While this was separate from my internship, it was also good practice to have, as one of our extension coordinators in the office has plans for me to present an entomology workshop to some 4-H students before the end of my internship this summer.

My workshop titled "Insects Up Close" which I presented at the recent Maryland FFA State Convention in Garrett County, MD. This information will get to be shared on our extension office social media in addition to building a 4H centered workshop based on what I learned from this experience. In this workshop students got to handle insects and learn about taxonomy!

Before I left for the convention, I attended my first staff meeting at the office. This was an excellent opportunity to observe more of the office workflow and how my mentor manages not only as the agriculture and food systems agent but also as the principal agent at the office. Some of the important notes from the meeting included distributing the work left by our master gardener agent, who recently left us, as well as the 4-H camp and other activities happening this summer. Beyond this, I have also continued to pick blackberries at our research site and am happy to report we officially have over 40 pounds of blackberries frozen. This means we have the proper weight to take to Pherm Brewery, so I am very excited about that.

When I returned from working with Maryland FFA, I was surprised to find there was more produce to harvest besides just blackberries, as usual. As a result, when I came back to the office on Friday, I was able to spend part of the day harvesting zucchini and jalapeños. While not all the plants were fully ready for harvest, it is still shocking to have firsthand experience of what small-scale farming can produce. Beyond this, another exciting opportunity I had was to help identify an insect brought in by a member of the general public. This is a common task for my mentor, as he is well-versed in plant diseases and pests, so it was really awesome that he let me take the lead. I observed the insect under the microscope my mentor gifted me, and we confirmed it was a carpenter ant. While this ant is not harmful to any crops, my mentor helped explain where they may be coming from and how to keep them out of the house.

Some carpenter ants under a magnifying class. This is typical for what it looks like when insects are brought into the office for my mentor to identify. With this experience I learned the entire protocol for when an insect is brought into the office and how we can best help someone solve a pest related issue. It was super fun to use my identification skills at work!

After some identifying and harvesting, I was also able to get back to my main project, which I have been working on in the office recently. That being said, we are updating all of our flyers and QR codes for our farm tour occurring on July 23. Each QR code will be posted for a different fruit or vegetable grown on the farm and will allow the public to learn how to grow the crop, what meals to make from it, and even how to preserve it. My job has been updating all the information on the digital flyers and adding a section on plant diseases and pests that can affect the given fruit or vegetable. We have a decent variety of crops growing in the urban research farm, so it has been an ongoing process of updating these flyers, and I will most likely be working on them during the upcoming week.

Speaking of these things, some of the biggest challenges I have faced have been learning to apply my prior knowledge while constantly adapting to new information my mentor taught me. One thing I seem to always talk about with staff in the office is that working in extension is a constant learning process. This involves not only learning new things as you take on new tasks, but also learning how to work with other people or apply skills on projects you are unfamiliar with. In my internship, one of the biggest unknowns comes with food systems and traditional agriculture. Although I like to believe I am well-rounded in these topics, having grown up in a rural area and been heavily involved in FFA, I actually know very little about growing fruits and vegetables. Before this internship, I didn't know how to weed crops with a hoe, I didn't know what was required in a nutrient management plan, and I definitely did not know all the work that it takes to manage a farm, even on a small scale.

Regardless of this and the different projects I have had to tackle, it is not only about being open-minded and actively listening to the information my mentor shares, but also about how I apply myself. There are often days when I get my farm work done early, and I have the opportunity to find out how I can best contribute. While this is not always easy to figure out, I am always being reminded that this internship is what I make of it and is all about what I want to learn from it. As a result, I have been able to take the information I do know (such as IPM and entomology) and apply myself to this unfamiliar territory. From this, I can create my own IPM scouting logs, develop an entomology workshop, and add pest management information to the flyers. While most internships for college students are opportunities to learn, it has also been a good experience to be put into a situation where I am responsible for applying myself, and this will definitely be applicable to any future work.