Lettuce and carrots and beans, oh my!

There are many interesting techniques to produce organic vegetables: companion planting, double-digging, mulching, manuring. Student Rubén Quispe did a project comparing these techniques, and discovered that growing carrots, lettuce, beans, summer savory and basil together with double-dug beds, mulch and chicken manure resulted in big increases in production compared to the region's traditional horticulture techniques.


Photo: Rubén signs a copy of his thesis after his successful defense.

Rubén is a very quiet and humble young man, and very generous with his time. While he was (supposedly) writing up his project, I often found him helping other students with their projects, especially statistics. I joked with him that it took him so long to graduate because he spent so much time helping other students with their projects. But graduate he did, and we send one more professional off into the world to help all live dignified lives.


Photo: Rubén stands with his defense committee (L to R: Ángel Garabito, Desiderio Flores, Rubén Darío Gómez, Rubén Quispe and Hugh Smeltekop).