Farmers Market Trip!

I met my group downtown at 5 PM at the farmers market in Derby Square. My first reaction was that it was very similar to the market in my town! There were many different farms that where there selling their products. I thought the setup of the market was fun and I loved the fact that when we went there were dancers there! As soon as the song thriller came on all these zombies jumped up and started dancing, it was so cool!

At the farmers market we met with Chris from Grants Family Farm, his Aunt was also there helping him out at the market!

Me and my group were able to ask multiple questions including...
What are your most popular flowers/ vegetable to sell?
Their most popular flowers to sell are Zinnias. Their most popular vegetables are lettuce and arugula.

What is your most popular product to sell?
Eggs are always a big hit and actually when we were there they had sold out of eggs.

In a typical week how many hours on average do you spend tending to the farm lands?
Over the summer he told us that he spends on average 80 hours waking up at 4:30 AM, now that's dedication! Over the winter since there is less to do he sleeps into about 6:30 AM and spends less time tending to the farm.

Being at the Salem farmers market, how does it play a role in developing a sense of place?
Working on a farm and selling their produce at the Salem farmers market is a tradition for him and his family. His grandfather started it and there was a break and then it re started. When his grandmother found out they were starting it up again she was so happy!

Why did the name change from Grant’s Plants to Grant’s Family Farms?
The name changed because they used to plant for garden centers and they changed the name when they started more traditional farming to sell at farmers markets.

What would it mean to be certified by a third party?
It would cost a lot to be certified by a government third party.

When did you decide you wanted to work on a farm, and sell your products at farmers markets?
It was an easy choice since he grew up with it. He had an office job for a few months but he was not enjoying his job and so that was when he knew he wanted to work on the farm and sell at farmers markets. However he did tell us how retail is tough and its hard to stand up for four hours and smile and communicate with everyone.

What is the community like in Salem at the farmers market?
He discussed how he loved seeing his regular customers children growing up. He also stated how the whole month of October is crazy at the farmers market.

What is the craziest thing you have encountered since starting up your farm?

When I asked him whats the craziest thing since he has started he said besides it being in Salem I get weird questions. For example when something has run out, "can you check out back" or "are the chickens happy, do they have names".

Did the summer drought affect your crops?
Yes it did make an impact on their vegetable crops but they still had enough to sell at the farmers markets.

Are you in any other farmers markets?
The answer is yes Grants Family Farm participates in three farmers markets, Salem, Swampscott, and Marblehead.

Does any non- family members work there?
When we asked him he said no its all family run and he is the only full time employee the rest of the family is part time.

When did the farm begin?
It began in the 70's when it was bought, for a time it there was a break before Chris and his brother re started it in 2006.

How affordable is your products?
Their eggs are roughly the same price as store eggs, where as the vegetables are a bit more expensive.

I loved going to the farmers market it was a great experience and it was fun to get a fresh insight into another part of Salem! I loved waling around with all my friends and seeing the different vendors there. I also really enjoyed watching the zombie dancers. It was also a great experience to get to talk to some of the locals and met their dogs!! Going to the farmers market helped me to develop my sense of place because it gave me a chance to meet with locals and discover another great aspect of Salem!

Howl-o-ween Parade!

I went to the Howl-o-ween Parade with my friends last weekend, on Sunday! We were going to walk but ran out of time before parade started so we drove. Driving in downtown Salem during October is bad and parking was even worse. However it was a great opportunity to meet some of the locals and who doesn't love animals dressed up in costumes? It was adorable! The parade was held along  Derby Square, in downtown Salem. It was a very family friendly event, with numerous pets dressed up as well as some of their owners. Not only did they parade up and down the street they then preceded into a costume contest.

Some of the contest winners were....

1. A group of dogs dressed up as characters from The Wizard of Oz!
2. Three cats dressed up as a Thing 2, Fish, and the Cat in the Hat!

These were also my two favorites of the day! But I also loved the dog with her own Popsicle cart! The dog dressed up like wonder woman, the dog as the trolley conductor, shark, dinosaur, Hillary Clinton and, the dog with  a jokey on its back!

All I could think of when watching this parade was A. how cute they all were and B. how my dog would love to be dressed up but would hate all the people around. Although going did kind of make me miss my dog and two cats it melted my heart to see how excited they all were and that in itself made me instantly smile!

If you love animals as much as me I would highly recommend putting this parade on your to do list for the years to come. It was definitely worth the trip downtown! I will definitely be going next year!
Howl-o-ween!

Library Tour!

Me and my friends found the library part of our sense of place right off the bat. We found it was the easiest way to get our homework done while being able to be together. It also provided a quiet space with enough seating for us all to work! At first we fell in love with the round booth tables, but as the weeks went by  we realized those were very popular and in a crowded area so we had to find a new spot. From then on we found our spot being the long tables in the back where we could all fit and work on our homework as a big group. We have also rented out study room which make the library that much more fun due to us not having to worry about being super quiet. In there we can play music, help our friends study using the whiteboard walls and, yet still get our homework done. 

First study space for me and my friends!

New and improved longer tables for studying!

The location of the Library is in the center of north campus, which allows for it to be easily accessible to all students. In my mind the location of the library makes a huge impact, it allows for students to always be walking in, near and around the library to get to their classes. That alone may entice students to come after class to get some homework done in a quiet environment and find their sense of place in the library.

The so called "floating stairs"

Through our private tour of the library from Jason I got to fully walk around the entirety of the second floor! I also learned the favorite spots to sit and study with beautiful views of almost all of north campus. I also learned that is acceptable to take naps on the booths/ in the chairs. He also mentioned the reasoning behind the architecture behind the building. For example he mentioned that they built the staircase in the middle of the library with the glass to make it seem like it was a floating staircase. Another one of the features was the big glass windows to allow for a lot of natural light and to make it feel more comfortable. They also incorporated  wood to give it more of a home like atmosphere. Lastly there is plenty of seating and over 200 computers available for students to use; as well as multiple study rooms which are first come first serve and very popular. 

We had one of the faculty of the library support team talk to us on researching. This was an extremely informative session where we found out how to look for CRRAP on websites, use the libraries database to find books and, lookup articles through the Academic Search Premier, through Ebsco. Throughout the process of researching through Ebsco you are able to refine your search. He told us that theirs a magical button that will even find us Scholarly Articles which may become very handy throughout are academic career at SSU!

Mapworks is here to help the university as a whole by connecting students and faculty. They host survey to help determine whether or not you as a student are having difficulties in your academics or just being at Salem State as a whole. Based on the survey they are better equipped for being able to provide you with the correct support to help propel your life here on and or off campus. The survey also asked for suggestions for what the school could approve on.          

Link to a sense of place article in Salem

This website is our schools version of Ebsco which is a data base that I became familiar with in my high school for our research papers. I always found this sight to be extremely useful while researching. 

Trip to Salem's National Park

I learned a lot about Salem from the National Park Salem. Through my NPS reading, my fellow peers, the ranger, and from the place itself. We learned about the Maritime, the Custom House, the middle class, and the Polish Immigrants. My group personally researched the Polish Immigrants, and then got to teach the class about what we learned. We were also able to ask our questions to the park ranger!

Maritime

Salem Maritime- It was when ships came in to the ports and this is where their cargo would be weighed, inspected, and taxed. Interesting fact: The first elephant came over on a ship to Salem.

Custom House

Custom House- Salem was the leading trading site in the Country. They would mainly receive sugar, pepper, spices through trade. At the house they would use scales to weigh the cargo and calculate the tax and collect them. 

Original Eagle 

Narbonne House

Middle Class- We got to explore the Narbonne House. It had two rooms and six families inhibited it over 400 years from 1675- 1964. 

Derby House

Polish Immigrants- The derby house is the last Polish House standing in Salem, MA on Derby Street. Polish Immigrants came to Salem to escape Poverty and Starvation. They had their own community where they worked, and went to school and held social activities. 

More Information on Polish History in Salem

My Nature Journal!

Reflection on visiting NPS... 

Going on this field trip was extremely insightful, I loved being able to explore the different historical buildings! When first arriving at the site the first things I noticed was the smell of the ocean and more importantly the beautiful view. While exploring the old buildings it was amazing to see what was used back then in the Custom House, as well as seeing the old artifacts that were dug up out back of the narbonne house.

Walking around and learning some of the deep history that is a huge part of what Salem means to so many; allowed for me to add to my sense of place. Physically being able to go and see NPS allowed for me to add another place onto my place of where I could see myself going with friends and family in Salem. With the knowledge of history I have gained it has allowed me to be able to be like a tour guide for my family and friends! 

Questions...

1. Where does the path of the red line go around Salem?
2. What is the most famous part of history in Salem?

Storytelling to figure out ones place in Salem

Today in class we had two visitors come visit us to talk to us about their experiences and stories in Salem, MA, and finding our sense of place. One of our guest talked about her partnership with the Salem Farmers Market and the second one was a local historian who talked about his finding of a sense of place in downtown Salem. I found it really interesting when he was telling his story about the community he came a part of living on derby street and always going to RED's Sandwich Shop! This struck me because communities have always been a big part of my life growing up. To me being a part of a community helps create a sense of place.

I did not ask a question.  However I found out that a bar called in the pig's eye closed and it was a local tragedy. This came up with a question asked from a classmate who played guitar and was looking for a place to get a gig at. I found this interesting because live music events have always been an interest of mine.

I would love to learn more about the rich history of downtown Salem as it is always changing. Just from hearing about how our first speaker was talking about how REDS was in the past and how it s now, the whole atmosphere has shifted.

RED'S Sandwich Shop- "WHERE THE LOCALS MEET TO EAT" (redssandwichshop)
They like to pride them selves on being where the local go to eat. After looking at RED'S website I have learned that they have opened up a new location in Peabody. Also it has been a popular landmark for Salem for over 50 years! RED'S is definitely on my list to go check out with friends to get a sense of the community of Salem!
http://redssandwichshop.com/

In preparing for our speakers to come tell their stories to our class about Salem, learning some background on them was fairly helpful. It allowed for me to understand a deeper meaning on what they were actually referring to. Understanding the background information made listening easier and it made me more interested to hear more about their stories.

Both of the speakers mentioned places and ways to get involved in the Salem community to help identify a sense of place. For me these resources will help me to develop my sense of place and where i fit into Salem's Community. Our first speaker effectively made it interesting to listen to his story by making it relate-able and funny; while presenting important lessons on finding a sense of place. It could of been better to break up the days on which we heard from both speakers. This would of made it easier for me to fully engage in our second guest speaker's story. For our first guest I rated myself a two as being engaged with the experience. I gave myself a two for engagement because I was interested in what he was saying but it was very long and toward the end  I found myself loosing focus. For our second speaker I rated my engagement a 4 because my attention span was gone from listening to our first speaker and I found myself spacing out a lot and adding to my map of SSU. Although I did find what I payed attention to about the farmers market and the dog parade was very informative.