Day 8 and 9

Day 8 by Emma

Today Mr. Winsberg showed us around his farm. 

Ted Winsberg giving us a TED talk

 Then, we went to the University of Florida Research and Education Center in Belle Glade. We learned about love bugs, barn owls, and brown and orange rust. We went to an old building where a bunch of barn owls lived, and as you walked, you could hear the rodent bones crunching beneath our feet. We saw baby owls that were adorable.

Digging up wire worms - an enemy of the sugar cane

Sugar beets - so much to think about

Baby owls, eggs waiting to hatch, and dead rats

We went on an owl walk in the evening. We dissected owl pellets and ate dinner there.

They fed us hot dogs and deliciousness and we had a bonfire. Then we found a campsite and set up camp in the dark. Everyone was tired. We slept.

Day 9 by Wild

Today we woke up at a campsite and ate granola. It was good. Then we packed up and headed to Monsanto. They gave us swag bags and told us about selective breeding and that molecular breeding is just a fancy way of saying sped up selective breeding. Selective breeding is when you choose the plants you like and keep regrowing them until you get the plants you like. With molecular engineering, they sample the leaf of each plant and send it into a lab to read the DNA. Genetically modified organics is when they take a gene from something and put it into something different. Everyone has been eating GMOs since 1995 – corn, Hawaiian papaya, soy and wheat. We don’t eat cotton, but it’s a GMO crop. Then we ate lunch and drove to Asher’s mom’s house and we’re going to camp in her backyard.

Pepper plant starts being used for selective breeding research

Day 1, 2, and 3

Day One by Andrew

We started driving. I was so excited to go to Florida and find so many lizards. The first stop was the South Carolina welcome center. We ate our lunches. I had a PB and Jelly sandwich and a grilled cheese. I was pretty disappointed that we saw no lizards. Then we got back on the bus and kept driving.  It was around 6:30 to 7:00 that we ate dinner. It was pesto pasta. After that we got to Al Geiger’s house and we got to meet him. He is an awesome guy. Al Geiger has his own kumquat tree. We got to try some; they were really sour. They were still good. Alexia and I went outside for a walk and we saw a frog at the pond. After that we went to bed.

Day two by Adalaya

                This morning we drove for about an hour and came to an amazing citrus grove.  The owner of the grove, Cecil Nelson, was very nice and gave us a tour.  We walked through the trees and he taught us the names of many of the different fruits as well as letting us sample all of them.  My personal favorite was called the Golden Neighbor, which was probably the best orange I have ever eaten.  At the beginning of the tour Cecil gave us all plastic bags and as we went he let us pick all the oranges and grapefruit that our hearts desired (we have tons).  When the tour was over, we all piled into the bus and drove back to the Geiger’s.

After a delicious lunch (PB&J on a tortilla), we explored around Al Geiger’s property.  We saw where he grows sugar cane and the equipment he uses to make sugar syrup.

We ended up in a small field with a large pile of scrap wood which we quickly turned into a large bonfire. 

We have just been relaxing and jumping on the giant trampoline in the back yard for the rest of the afternoon.  Now there is vegetable stir fry on the stove and it smells great!  I can’t wait for a fun and relaxing evening.

                                                                

  Day three by Joshua

For breakfast we had pancakes and we forgot to bring the syrup so we had honey instead. We got to jump on Mr. Geiger’s trampoline. Sadly, we had to leave Mr. Geiger’s house. Now we are in Boynton Beach at the Winsberg’s .

And then Micah found a beautiful knife in the couch. And then we went for a walk through the Winsberg’s farm. And then we went to a wetland overlook. 

Tomorrow we are going to Florida crystals to see their sugar cane crop and their sugar refinery.

Day 4, 5, 6, and 7

Day Four by Shogo

We started our day at 5:30 and drove to Florida Crystals.  Florida Crystals is a sugar factory that is located next to Lake Okeechobee. Florida Crystals grows organic and non-organic sugarcane, then boils it into sugar.   We were given two tours.  On the first tour, we drove to the sugarcane fields and watched the sugarcane get harvested by huge machines.  

We also got to sample some sugarcane and take some with us.  

On the second tour, we went inside the factory and saw the sugarcane get milled, cleaned, then refined into sugar.  The aroma wasn’t exactly enjoyable.  We went into the room where the sugar was packaged and you could taste the sugar in the air.  The most amazing thing that I saw in the factory was the sugar barn.  The sugar barn was a giant 300 by 100 foot barn-like-thing where they stored all the unrefined sugar.   We walked inside and there were literary 100ft tall sugar dunes.   After our journey in sugar land, we came back to the Winsburgs and went to Green Cay Wetlands.  The wetlands were really cool.  There were over 25 different bird species, a couple alligators, turtles, and frogs.  

Day five by Sage

On day five, our trip drove to the everglades. Before that, we volunteered at the Pine Jog environmental education center. We helped remove invasive species of plants. We also saw their controlled burn areas. 

THEN we drove to the everglades. On the way there, we stopped at this fruit stand called Robert Is Here. Robert Is Here is an AMAZING fruit stand in Florida City. They sell all sorts of weird and tropical fruit. Some of the fruit there is Mamy Sapote, Camilla , and dragon fruit. They had so many types of honey. The honey was SO GOOD. I LOVE HONEY. THIS IS EXCITING. HONEY. Anyway, they had all these FREE samples of honey and all of them were AMAZING! There were also REEEAEAALALALLAYYYY good mangoes called Kent Mangoes. They were so much better than any mango I’ve ever had in my life! 

After RIH, we drove to our campsite in the everglades. We walked to a pond there and an Alligator swam towards us.  

Baby alligator or lizard? We'll let you decide.

Day 6 by Micah

We went to a thing called Vintage Day at Royal Palm in the Everglades, which is an annual celebration of the protection of the Everglades. We saw a historic debate reenactment about whether to drain the Everglades or not. We walked on a boardwalk and saw alligators and sunbathing alligators and birds. 

We ate all the fruit that Sage was talking about plus miracle fruit which makes sour things sweet. Miracle fruit is a little red berry that makes sour things sweet and we had key limes and grapefruit and it made them taste very sweet. 

Miracle fruit sticks to the sweet receptors on your tongue, and when you eat sour stuff it activate the sweet receptors on the tongue. We also went on an alligator watch at night and saw alligators up close. Their eyes glow because the light goes through their eyes and bounces back, stimulating the rods and cones twice to get them to have better night vision. It was cool to see alligators and eat so much crazy fruit.

Note the "Wild Sage" sign

Day 7 by Minto

Today, we went to Flamingo and saw American Crocodiles. 

After that we went to look for a place we  could park our bus and swim at the beach. We were looking for parking for about an hour and a half and we were right next to the beach, but there were too many people and no parking spots. That was horrible. Finally we found a place to park and hung out at a beach for while, then came back to Green Kay farms to stay for one more night.