Katie Holm

Homework 5

A “major food moment” that I had in my life was quite recent actually. Over the summer I took a class that required us to watch Food, Inc. Watching that documentary gave me quite a different perspective on what I am consuming. After seeing the movie, I decided to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle (pescetarian sometimes). This was not such of a major change for me as I live alone and rarely would cook meat for myself. However, I loved getting chicken on my burritos at Mexican restaurants and having a nice filet mignon when my parents were paying. These days I am all about the veggie burgers, tofu, and beans, at least when it comes to protein sources. I’ve found myself having to look at ingredients in foods I purchase at the grocery store or even looking up restaurant ingredients more often. I was disheartened to learn that my favorite broccoli cheddar soup at Panera was made with chicken stock, so now I can’t have it anymore. It has made me feel better about my eating habits though, even though I may miss some things like my soup. I cook for myself almost daily now and know exactly what I am putting into and getting out of my meals (and it’s been cheaper!). I also feel good about this decision because I have heard that even one person becoming vegetarian can save a chicken or a cow; not right away, but in the distant future. I am a huge animal lover so that is a bonus to me. And we know that agricultural production, including raising animals, is super expensive, so my decision may cut down those costs eventually. Overall for myself, vegetarianism has not been a walk in the park, but I think I can get used to it.

Katie Holm

Homework 3

I have never been much of a writer. To be honest, I have grown to hate writing over the years. I think this is because I have mostly had the types of teachers/professors in my higher education who would give word and page minimums and who push all of the “rules” of writing onto students. I tend to be more of someone who like to say what is needed and nothing more. I do not want to fill out five pages of a paper with just fluff and adjectives because it needs to be a minimum of ten pages. This is not to say I never have liked writing. I remember in my sixth grade English class we did a unit on creative writing and I LOVED it. I wrote a fairytale type story. I recall I was frustrated though that I wanted to tell the whole story and have a complex storyline and characters, but writing it all down as it came to me was the tough part. I do enjoy writing about topics that I care about. For example, I could write a series of novels on my sweet, little baby (dog) Lucy. However, I probably could barely write 500 words on why cats are ok. I hope to become someone who enjoys writing, or at least does not dread doing so. Baby steps.

Katie Holm

Homework 2

Hey Erin, how’s it going? I know we both share a love for food and for sustainability, so I wanted to share with you something cool that the University is doing. Did you know that the U of I has its own Sustainable Student Farm right near campus? They do! The really neat thing is that they take student volunteers to help farm and grow these fresh fruits and vegetables on the almost 10,000 acres of land, so then these students can be educated on sustainable farming techniques themselves while also helping out the farm. The fruits and veggies grown here are also used in the dining halls around campus. The lucky students who eat in the residence dining halls get to enjoy fresh, local fruits and veggies almost year-round. The farm also holds a market of sorts on the quad once a week which I have been to and got some superb tomatoes. Maybe I’ll bring you next time you’re in town.

Best,

Katie

Katie Holm

ESE 360

Paper 1

Walking in a Prairie Wonderland

Illinois has long been known as “The Prairie State,” and with the University of Illinois being the second oldest public University in Illinois as well as located in Central Illinois, it should come as no surprise that prairie plants are often incorporated into the landscape of the Champaign-Urbana university campus.

One such example of prairie landscape on the University of Illinois campus is the Florida-Orchard Prairie located in Urbana in front of the Horticulture Field Laboratory. The prairie plot is roughly 2.7 acres of native tall-grass prairie species and assorted wildflowers commonly found in prairies. I, along with my class, had the privilege of touring this area, with Jamie Ellis as our guide. Ellis is a botanist at the Illinois Natural History Survey and the board president of Grand Prairie Friends. When I asked how many plants he knew, he said that he can identify anywhere between 4,000-5,000 different species of plants. That’s about 4,000-5,000 more than I can identify (at least before the tour with Jamie). Needless to say though, the tour was very informative.

Upon arriving to the prairie plot and stepping out of my car, I already started sweating. It was a hot and humid day yet again in C-U at around 88 degrees Fahrenheit. We started our tour first in the area surrounding the prairie grasses. This area was basically lawn. It was plain green grass with tall deciduous trees and a very distinct line could be seen all around the designated prairie area separating this lawn from the prairie plants. There were plants on the edge of the prairie that looked in pretty rough shape, and Jamie Ellis explained that this was probably due to chemicals the neighboring lawn blowing over and disturbing the grasses. The neighboring lawn, by the way, happens to belong to the University of Illinois’ President’s house. Anyways, since we were not yet in the prairie we were able to stand under the towering trees growing in the lawn and have some shade/relief from the heat. It was hard not to notice all of the insects and animals flying over and diving in and out of the prairie grasses. It was quite obvious that there were more in the prairie than where we were standing. It was also quite a sight to see the plethora of plants in just this 2.7 acres! There were ten-foot-tall golden rods, two-foot-tall New England Asters, and more. Purples, yellows, light blues, whites, and all shades of green were melded into this one prairie scene almost like a watercolor painting. Jamie Ellis told our group that there were around 45 different grasses and a large number of flowers all in this one area. That amount of plants can support a pretty large ecosystem.

Almost immediately after entering the prairie the temperature seemed to rise again. There was no airflow with all of the tall plants and no shade from trees to help. Wandering through the prairie on a narrow dirt path we could see even more types of plants and animals. Jamie was kind enough to answer all of my questions about almost everything I saw. I asked a lot about the different types of wildflowers, and he informed me that there are thousands of plants in the aster family, only a few types of which were growing in the Florida-Orchard Prairie. Some of those types included the New England Aster and the Black-Eyed Susan. There were goldfinches, monarch butterflies, bumblebees, and a multitude of other animals flittering and floating around us. Animals such as bison and elk are common in a prairie environment, but since this was such a small area when it comes to prairie environments and we were in the middle of neighborhoods and a university campus, we of course did not see any. There are usually rabbits and mice running around in the prairie we toured, but we most likely scared them off so were not able to see those either. We did see a red tail hawk soaring way above the grasses, possibly looking for the rabbits and mice we scared into hiding (sorry, hawk!).

Once again stepping off of the path of the prairie and onto the lawn again was somewhat shocking. There were no longer tall grasses surrounding me every which way or scores of bugs whizzing around (which I did not mind to be honest), just regular lawn grass under my feet and the large Horticulture Field Laboratory in front of us. The sun was still beating down on us though. There was a stark contrast between the feeling of being in the prairie and being on the outskirts of it. I felt like I had gone into a different area outside of Champaign-Urbana completely, and then had stepped right back into it after walking out of the Florida-Orchard Prairie. This difference was made even clearer after I had gotten back into my air-conditioned car and drove to the corner of Florida Avenue and Orchard Street. I saw the cars zooming by and the busses rumbling past the peaceful prairie I had visited minutes ago.

Work Cited

Ellis, Jamie. Personal Interview. 8 Sept. 2015.

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