Some practices that you can put into place at the farm or at home include no till or reduced till which can reduce soil erosion and soil compaction. The use of cover crops is a great method that can build soil organic matter, reduce erosion, and provide nutrients to future crops. Crop rotation is a practice that can reduce pests and diseases that are specific to certain plant species.

These are all practices that we have used here at Green Bridge Growers that have proved to help improve soil health in a sustainable and organic way. You can implement any of these practices to your at home garden to help improve soil health. If you are interested in learning more about cover crops as a way to improve soil health, you can check out my other blog all about cover crops and how we use them at the farm!

If you are interested in learning more about soil health, I have attached some helpful links below.

https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/soil-structure-and-its-benefits/#:~:text=It%20provides%20an%20environment%20for,contains%20immense%20levels%20of%20biodiversity

https://www.farmers.gov/conservation/soil-health

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/national/soils/health/?cid=nrcseprd1850026

-Keely Charles

Growing up, my parents have always been avid gardeners. In the backyard of my childhood home, we had plenty of space for crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and an assortment of peppers. I wish I had the knowledge I do now about sustainable farming practices such as the use of cover crops to implement into my family’s garden to improve the quality and quantity of delicious vegetables available.

Cover crops are one of the many environmentally friendly farming practices that have been applied to both large-scale farms and home gardens. According to an article written by Andy Clark from SARE Outreach, “A cover crop is a plant that is used primarily to slow erosion, improve soil health, enhance water availability, smother weeds, help control pests and diseases, increase biodiversity, and bring a host of other benefits to your farm.” I find this to be a great definition of what a cover crop is because it explains how many benefits cover crops can bring to your farm.

Cover crops are really a long-term practice so it might take some time to see the true benefits they bring. The way cover crops work is after the season for a crop has ended and it has been fully harvested, it is time to plant a cover crop. For example, once a summer crop like tomatoes have reached the end of their lifespan, a cover crop is planted for the fall and winter months. Some cover crops that are widely used include grasses, legumes, brassicas, and non-legume broadleaves.

After planting your cover crop, you want it to mature as long as possible without making seeds. When the crop reaches maturity, you must figure out how you will kill it. By killing the crop, you are allowing it to provide nutrients to soil as well as protecting it from the elements. There are different ways to kill a cover crop depending on how much space you are taking up. For example, home gardeners typically mow or weed eat to kill their cover crops. An important component to take into consideration is whether the crop you’re working with will completely die from mowing. If not, the crop will regenerate, and the soil won’t receive the full benefits from the crop.

At Green Bridge Growers, we are big fans of cover crops! We have used cover crops to let the soil have a rest and absorb all of the important nutrients it needs to grow gorgeous vegetables in the following season. We have even used cover crops to alter the composition of sandy soil which in turn helps conserve soil moisture and become better for more picky crops. Hopefully this post has provided some general information on cover crops and how you can implement them in your garden at home! Just remember, it’s important to be patient and choose the right cover crop for your soil health needs. Below I have attached some additional resources for cover crops if you’re interested in checking it out.

https://www.sare.org/resources/cover-crops/

https://organicgrowersschool.org/gardeners/library/basics-of-cover-cropping/

https://joegardener.com/podcast/100-understanding-cover-crops-the-basics-and-beyond-with-jack-algiere/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i_ocliy4Qk

-Keely Charles

Hello everyone! Today we are going to be talking about aquaponics. Here at Green Bridge Growers, we are quite fond of aquaponics as a way to grow food sustainability. At our farm, we have a whole greenhouse dedicated to our aquaponics system that is made up of hundreds of koi fish along with nearly four hundred vertical towers that help us grow crops year-round.

Aquaponics is a sustainable farming system where fish provide nutrients for the growing plants. The system starts off when the fish are fed and in turn, they produce waste in the form of ammonia. Microbes in the system break down the ammonia into nitrates and nitrites which is very nutrient rich for the plants. After this, the water is pumped to provide a constant supply of water to the plants. When the roots take up the fish nutrients, it actually purifies the water which is cycled back to the fish tank. Essentially, aquaponics is a closed loop, self-sustaining system.

Aquaponics is a great method for people to grow their own food by using sustainable and organic farming practices. It is a great choice because a system can be set up anywhere and they can be all different sizes. At the farm, we have a greenhouse that helps us to grow year-round but you can definitely create your own system at home!

Some of the benefits of aquaponics include:

1. Minimal land usage is required for aquaponics compared to conventional farming.
2. No soil is involved which limits the production of weeds and worrying about soil health.
3. Minimal water usage is required since the water used is mostly recycled.
   

Aquaponics is a very popular farming practice among sustainable and organic farmers because the use of fertilizers are not required, and the nutrients comes directly from the fish. When it comes to the types of plants able to be grown, it is important to consider temperature conditions and the time of year. For example, this summer at Green Bridge, we have been planting heat tolerant lettuce varieties to ensure the successful growth of our crops. In addition to the types of crops grown in an aquaponics system, it is important to consider the type of fish used in a system. Different fish can be used for different reasons, and some might have different needs. Some fish such as tilapia and salmon are used so that they themselves can be harvested when they get to a certain size. At Green Bridge we use ornamental koi because they can tolerate the range of temperature conditions that the Midwest offers.

There are many different types of aquaponics systems, some of which you can make at home! There are kits available to purchase or you can even use materials that you have at home. First, you want to consider your size constraints and the climate that your system will be in. Next, you will be able to better understand which crops you can grow and what kind of fish your system needs. There are many helpful sources for DIY aquaponics systems as well as systems available to purchase. I have attached a link below along with some other links with additional information on aquaponics.

https://gogreenaquaponics.com/blogs/news/ultimate-aquaponics-beginners-guide#:~:text=Aquaponics%20is%20a%20combination%20of,create%20an%20effective%20aquaponics%20system

https://fisheries.tamu.edu/aquaponics/

https://www.aquaponicsforbeginners.com/aquaponics-resources-for-beginners/

https://aquaponics.africa/2021/10/07/the-chemistry-behind-aquaponics/

-Keely Charles

At Green Bridge Growers, we're always interested in adding trees to the landscape appropriately because of their impact on mitigating climate change. Researchers at Boston University have found that trees on the outer edge of a forest or wooded area grow faster and differently than trees on the inside of a forest. The ones on the outer edge are able to absorb more carbon dioxide than those on the interior. They also found that soil on the edge of a forest in urban areas can store more CO2 than soil in rural areas.

According to the scientists, these findings indicate the carbon emissions forests take in are underestimated, but may diminish as the effects of climate change become more severe.

According to one of the studies the scientists conducted, trees on the edge of forests grow nearly twice as fast as trees on the interior of the forest, which increases the outer trees’ potential to serve as a carbon sink.

Another study they conducted looked at the soils at the edge of forests, and it found a significant difference between rural and urban soils. In rural areas, the warmer temperatures (compared to the interior of the forest) caused microorganisms to work harder at breaking down organic matter such as leaves, which resulted in more carbon dioxide being released on the outside edge of the forest than on the interior. But in urban areas, the soils on the edge of urban forests didn’t release as much carbon as their equivalents in rural areas. According to the scientists, it’s too hot and dry in urban areas for carbon dioxide-releasing microbes to prosper.

These findings suggest the conservation value of forest fragments should be reassessed.

Urban forests “provide stormwater control, filter air pollution, [and] reduce heat,” among many other benefits. As such, groups like the Indiana Forest Alliance try to convince Indianapolis city leaders to take action to protect Indianapolis’ urban forests.

The IFA recently introduced its “Forests for Indy” strategy for protecting the city’s urban forests, which cover about 59 square miles. According to the IFA, 9 square miles of urban forest are within city property and protected by city ordinances. But the other 50 square miles are privately owned and at risk of being developed. The committee will meet again this month (April 2022) to discuss possible solutions to this problem, to figure out a way for the city council to act to protect existing urban forests as well as plant new ones.

Resources:

-The Nature Conservancy, “How Urban Trees Can Save Lives”

-South Carolina Forestry Commission, “Benefits of Urban Trees”

-Chris Tidmarsh

The Saving and Storing Seeds Webinar hosted by Purdue Extension Orange County is an amazing resource. I learned a lot from it about seed saving and the best practices for saving your own seeds. Here are the highlights to help you get started in seed saving.

Seed saving is what has made farming possible over the course of the 12,000 years humans have been farming. Over time, we’ve bred plants to become more resistant to certain pests and diseases. Now, many countries have passed laws allowing private companies to copyright or patent plant genetics, such that saving seeds from plants with proprietary genetics can have legal consequences. So when you’re saving your seeds, it must be from genetics you yourself have developed (less likely), or from an open-pollinated plant whose genetics are not proprietary and which you’re sure has not been cross-pollinated with a plant of unknown genetics (more likely).

When saving seeds, it’s important to keep in mind the differences between self-pollinated and cross-pollinated plants. Self-pollinated plants are great choices for saving seeds, since they require little or no special treatment before storage. Cross-pollinated crops, on the other hand, are harder to keep their genetic strains pure, because of their tendency to breed with any other nearby plants from the same genus. So for example, if you grow popcorn near sweet corn, the two will breed with each other, and the seeds you save from them will end up being a cross between the two, which will be neither sweet nor good for popping. It takes some engineering skills to figure out how to stop wind, rain, and insects from cross-pollinating two different varieties of a plant in order to get a pure strain of both plants. But in general, it’s safer to save
seeds from self-pollinated plants than cross-pollinated ones.

Another distinction to take into account when saving seeds is the difference between open-pollinated and hybrid plants. Open-pollinated plants are self- or cross-pollinated plants whose offspring is very similar to the parent plant with nearly identical fruit. As such, they are the best option for saving seeds. Hybrids, on the other hand, are a cross between two different varieties of a particular crop that were cross-bred for a particular purpose, like being hardier, more disease-resistant, etc. It’s technically possible to save seeds from hybrids, but doing so may bring out traits in the offspring that weren’t apparent in the previous generation, some of which may or may not be desirable. Therefore, it’s much safer to save open-pollinated seeds than hybrid ones.

In order to obtain enough genetic diversity to choose desirable traits in the next generation of plants, you will need to save a lot of seeds. If you only save five seeds of a certain crop, that probably won’t be enough genetic diversity. Also, you want to save seeds from plants that have traits you want. If you’re trying to breed the sweetest possible peas, you’ll need to save seeds from whichever pea plants produced the sweetest peas. Also, if appearance is important to you, then you’ll need to save whichever seeds come from the plants that have the appearance you want.

You should save seeds in an airtight glass jar. You can keep different kinds of seeds separate by putting them in different plastic or paper wraps, but they should be in an airtight glass jar.

Store them in a cool place around 32 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit (between 0 and roughly 7.2 degrees Celsius). Your fridge is a good place for them, or if you have a cellar, you can put them there as well. If you put them in your fridge, be sure to put them in the back, so that they’re less exposed to warmer air from outside the fridge. Also, be sure to use your seeds within one year if possible, because seeds’ viability decreases after each year they aren’t planted. You will want to treat your seeds before you plant them to help reduce the risk of disease. Note, however, that certain methods of treating seeds (such as bleach water treatment or hot water treatment) may reduce their germination rate.

There are two methods of saving seeds: saving them from the fruit itself, or saving them from packets. Saving seeds from the fruit is more labor-intense and can have varying degrees of success, whereas saving them from the packet expedites the process and guarantees dried seeds.

Some crops it’s easy to save seeds from include tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, lettuce, and herbs. It’s best to wait until the fruit is fully mature before saving the seeds from it. In some cases, that may mean waiting until the fruit is dry and wrinkly (but in the case of tomatoes, the tomato will spoil instead of getting dry, so you’ll want to save seeds from tomato fruits that are fully ripe.)

Vine crops, biennials, and sweet corn are among the more difficult crops to save. That’s not to say it can’t be done, but you need to carefully research how to grow difficult crops in order to grow these three kinds of crops.

When saving seeds, you need to make sure they’re completely dry, to the point where they snap rather than bend when you try to break them. Once your seeds are dry enough, then store them in airtight containers that don’t allow moisture to enter. Also, make sure they’re stored in a place with constant temperature, because fluctuations in temperature will reduce the viability of your seeds. Also be sure not to move your seeds too much, because each time they’re moved, it can interfere with the seeds’ viability.

You can perform a simple viability test by dropping your seeds in water. Any that sink to the bottom are probably viable, and any that float on the surface are probably not viable. This test isn’t 100% accurate, but it’s a pretty good rule of thumb. Another test you can do is to test for germination, by placing 10 seeds on a wet paper towel and place in a resealable plastic bag (leaving the bag open), and storing in a warm, dark place. In several days or a week, you should start seeing germination. The number that germinate out of ten should give you an indication of how viable your seeds are.

Saving seeds from flowers is pretty similar to saving seeds from crops with fruits or edible seeds. Allow the seeds to completely mature and dry while still on the plant. Then, collect the heads of dried flowers and put them in a brown paper bag to let them dry for about a week. Then, gently break apart the flower pods and look for seeds. The most viable seeds will be the ones that look the firmest, largest, and thickest, and they’ll usually be in the middle of the flower.

You can also save bulbs from certain species of flowers as well. Hardy plants like crocuses or daffodils can be left in the ground all year; all you need to do is replant them after you divide the plant. But less hardy plants like begonias or dahlias will need to be stored each winter. Gently dig out the bulbs, being careful not to damage them, and then allow them to dry for a few weeks. After you clean off the bulbs, store them in unsealed paper bags or in nylon stockings with peat moss, and keep the bags in a cool, dry place like a garage, basement, or cellar. It’s best to store them between 35 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit (between 1.7 and 7.2 degrees Celsius).

Certain seeds will need to be stratified, in particular ones with a hard outer shell. Stratification essentially means tricking the seeds into thinking they’ve been through winter. This will help coax them into germinating sooner. To stratify the seeds, you’ll need to wrap them in a moist paper towel and place in a sealed resealable plastic bag, and place them in a cool area like a fridge, and leave them in there for about a month. So it’s somewhat similar to the germination test, except you seal the plastic bag instead of leaving it open, and you leave them in the bag for a month instead of a week or so.

Hopefully some of these techniques might help you with your seed saving. We’d love to hear how your seed saving goes!

- Chris Tidmarsh

You may have heard that “carrots love tomatoes” or that certain crops “love” other crops. But there is actually a science behind why certain crops grow well together, according to this article in the New York Times.
​
Jessica Walliser, a horticulturist and author of Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden, wanted to research which companion plants would reduce pests and improve pollination. She wasn’t satisfied with anecdotal recommendations, so she researched scientific literature to find out for herself which plants were the best companions and why.

Most of the literature she found was aimed at large-scale farms rather than small-scale gardens, which was the kind of growing Walliser was used to. Nevertheless, it was still an improvement over the folklore she had heard, so she dug in.

The one idea she discovered in her research that unites all others is this: Diversity in your garden always helps the plants, and monoculture always harms them. Companion planting can attract beneficial insects, which reduces the need for pesticides and other chemicals that can harm the environment. But companion planting can also reduce weeds and improve the soil as well. Cover crops are one example of this. They can act as living mulch, limiting weeds by crowding out any weeds that might try to grow. And certain cover crops like rye and oats contain natural weed- suppressing chemicals, which can prevent weeds from growing in your garden after you till the garden to make room for your regular crops.

Walliser also explains that understanding the “how” and “why” of companion planting is important. For example, many gardeners often assume marigolds can repel pests. But in reality, what marigolds do is mask the scent of the plant the insect is seeking, and thus interfere with its ability to lay eggs on the target plant.
​
Certain plants can also act as a decoy to protect your crops. For example, radishes planted among young tomatoes can distract flea beetles from the tomatoes, and draw them to the radishes instead. If you’re trying to distract a species whose adults are mobile, such as potato beetles, squash bugs, cabbage butterflies, etc., then it’s best to plant the decoy plants on the perimeter of your garden, several feet away from the crops you’re trying to protect. But if you’re protecting against a pest with more limited mobility, like aphids, flea beetles, etc., then you can plant the decoy very close to the actual crop, in alternate rows with the crop.

Of course, even with companion planting to deter pests, gardeners are almost certain to get some kind of pests on their crops at some point. Walliser recommends we develop a realistic tolerance to some amount of pests. She also suggests we remove any diseased or faded leaves as they appear, and that we combine companion planting with smart mechanical controls, like putting row covers on vulnerable crops to protect the plants against flying insect pests, or scraping pest eggs off leaves and letting them fall onto sticky tape to trap them. And finally, she warned, please allow enough space for each plant to grow. Companion plants may work well close to each other, but if you put them too close, then they will compete for water and nutrients.

I hope this blog is helpful to you for starting a companion planting garden of your own. If you do grow your own, we would love to hear how it turns out!

- Chris Tidmarsh

          Recently, one of the things that have caught my attention while driving is seeing the rise of Tesla cars on the street. Just back a few years ago, seeing even one Tesla was like once in a blue moon. There are also quite a few charging stations for Tesla cars near the Green Bridge Growers farm, the local mall, and around the University of Notre Dame campus. And the demand for electric cars continues to grow. I recently saw that Mustang is joining the competition with their very own SUV-style electric vehicle. You probably have seen advertisements for it if you watch the local channels or even YouTube.
   ​

           Besides electric cars, there has been a rise in new companies looking to create other ways to introduce sustainable products to consumers. I read an article that talks about the recent partnership of Emma Watson, who rose to fame with Harry Potter movies, and Twitter co-founder Biz Stones, who are investing money into FabricNano. FabricNano wants to make a biodegradable plastic that is cost competitive to that of regular petroleum plastic. ​          All of these examples point toward the topic of sustainability and how our society is making sustainability more possible.  Just like the elements 

(Top) These charging stations have caught my attention and put a genuine smile on my face as I pass them at the UP Mall. 

​Photo Credit: South Bend Tribune

(Bottom) Above is the mentioned Mustang Mach-E their all new electric vehicle. 

Photo Credit: ford.com/suvs/mach-e

of charging stations available for Tesla owners and having different companies compete, the electric car business can advance this field to more ​​consumer-accessible levels. These include pricing and versatility. Back in the early 2010s, we saw electric cars take the shape of an unattractive mini cooper-like form. Although for many, they may enjoy the look, if you were to put an electric vehicle compared to today, like a Tesla Model S, which would you rather have? Having better technology, which does not take away the usability of such devices, innovation in longevity, and an attractive design that everyday consumers can afford, makes it possible to see more possibilities for a green future. 
          One of the most significant factors that affect global warming is petroleum usage, either for fuel, single-use plastic items, or packaging for almost all of our everyday things in our house. Please take a look around; it would not take you more than a minute before you find something plastic around your house that you know can not be recycled. However, what if that plastic can be degraded down to its core form and be recycled into new products? That is the mission of FabricNano’s goal of turning microbes into materials that we can then use. However, the explanation is better done by fortune.com than me, so I highly advise you to read up on it further on their site.
             The core of this article still comes back to our farm Green Bridge Growers. One of our missions on the farm is to grow sustainably and to help educate those around us about the good it will do for our environment. One of our most cherished systems at the farm is our Aquaponic Greenhouse. This is a closed-loop system between our fish tank’s waste and the filtration ability of the plant. We all know to grow plants, we need fertilizer and water. At our Aquaponic Greenhouse, the vegetables such as kale, lettuce, and chocolate mint all flourish through water from our fish tanks and the fish waste in them. As the water with the waste goes from the top of a growing high tower to the bottom, the water is then cycled back to the fish tank providing the fish with more freshwater. When water levels decrease for the fish, we add more fresh water to the tank and make sure the pH level of the tank stays consistent throughout growing seasons and every few days. As a result of this process, many of the high towers eventually develop a layer of bio-waste around the edge. In some cases, it calcifies the towers on some sides and maintenance is required. 

​

(From Left to right): 1. These are the pipes that bring water and fish waste in a cycle back and forth from high tower to the fish tanks. 
2. The brown stains on the high towers in the calcification left behind from the old plants being grown in it. 
3. These are how some of the kale we sell at the farmer's market in Mishawaka is grown. Also the white rectangle is the high towers that we use, with the black mesh inside the tower. The tray at the bottom helps water filter back to the plant. 
4. The little black tube at the top is where the waste water will come in from the fish tank. 

          The vertical grow towers, along with the plastic mesh making up the core of the growing system, are all made up of recycled plastic. Many vertical grow towers have sustained their usability since the start of the farm, making it a high-yield and highly sustainable system. 
         When it comes to making our community cleaner and helping source food most sustainably, it has to start first at the farm where the food is planted and harvested. But food is part of the bigger picture, and our technology has a long history of massive carbon footprint. It would be great to see in the next ten years that we will move from fuel-based cars to more electric-friendly vehicles with just as much power and efficiency. This also applies to the plastic that we use and the food that large agricultural farms mass-produce. I can go through the channels in stores to support more businesses that grow organically, like our farm Green Bridge Growers. Along with that, I want to save up enough funds to get myself an electric vehicle in the next five years. But lastly, I want to spread the word of what the possibilities of FabricNano are working towards so that people can help raise funds for the company if a biodegradable future is possible. 
--Leo Zheng
​

To close out Autism Acceptance month, we are happy to reprint these comments from the Arc of Indiana by Carol Quirk, an ally, on her growing understanding of the many abilities of autistic individuals. Her insights provide much food for thought and capture what we know and experience so well here at Green Bridge Growers

I once thought autism meant a lot of inabilities: cannot talk, cannot switch topics, cannot give eye contact, cannot handle transitions or new routines, cannot read social cues, cannot control motor movements, etc. And I once thought some of the can-dos were not necessarily “adaptive” (as they say in the psychological and educational literature): perseverates on the same activity or conversational topic, gets anxious in uncertain situations, uses aggressive and/or destructive behavior, engages in self-injurious behavior.  In my early days as a professional, I assumed – as too many people still do – that intellectual disability was a part of the package.
 
So what happened to change my views on all of this? I got to know some autistic people who had acquired the ability to communicate, verbally or through pictures/typing, as well as some who did not yet communicate in any kind of traditional manner. I read the writings of autistic people. I listened to parents who said that, despite the testing results, they KNEW that their child was smart and understood what was going on. I listened to them say that their child was not only empathetic, but almost preternaturally so. I began to “presume competence” rather than make assumptions on face value. And I paid attention (or at least tried) in order to interpret meaning from the point of view of the people I met, not just from my own neurotypical point of view. There are still too many people who make important life decisions FOR autistic children and adults based on limited understandings and prejudicial attitude. Too many professionals have not really known, loved, or spent personal time with an autistic person; but rather base their authority on their professional training alone. Non-autistic people need to know and be helped to understand that our life experiences cannot be used to judge or value the behavior, appearance or needs of an autistic person.
 
We non-autistic people MUST listen and learn from those who are autistic. We must do what we can to support self-advocacy and dispel the myths about autism in the public and professional communities. The autistic community must remain vigilant in its outreach, community education, and demand for inclusion in public policy decisions. Awareness of what it means to be autistic is still lacking for the world at large. Acceptance of autism as a natural condition in the human experience is necessary for real dialogue to occur. That is my hope.

- Carol Quirk, Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education

 thOn April 2, in honor of World Autism Day,  the Comprehensive Autism and related Disabilities Education and Training (CADET) Academy released a livestream of a virtual discussion panel about inclusion in the workplace for autistic people. One of the panelists was Dr. Stephen Shore, a professor at Adelphi University in New York who is on the autism spectrum. Dr. Shore is somebody I’ve learned from through his autobiography Beyond the Wall and through Living Along the Autism Spectrum, a DVD documentary that involves a dialogue between Dr. Shore and another expert on autism who is the father of a son on the spectrum.

The April 2 discussion provided a lot of useful information on inclusion and helping those on the spectrum develop interests which might potentially lead to a career.  Dr. Shore said that when he was very little, around 18 months old, he began showing many of the symptoms of autism. It took his parents about a year to find a doctor who could diagnose him. When they found someone, the doctor said, “We’ve never seen such a sick child,” and they recommended institutionalization. But fortunately, his parents advocated on his behalf, and they convinced the school to enroll him after about a year. During this year, his parents implemented what most people today would call an intensive home-based early intervention program. This program paid off, and his speech began to return at age four. He says the reason the program was successful was because his parents stopped trying to get him to imitate them, and instead imitated him. Doing this helped him become aware of them in his environment. He said that a prerequisite to doing successful work with an autistic person is developing a trusting relationship with them, and meeting them where they are.

Dr. Shore said that introducing children to household chores at a young age can prepare them for having a job when they get to be adults, because doing chores is similar to employment in that it has to be done on a regular basis every day whether you want to or not, and that you have to achieve a certain proficiency with your chores the way you do with employment.

When he was in his late childhood and early teens, Dr. Shore did a paper route, dropping off newspapers at people’s doorsteps. That was another way he was exposed to employment early on. He also taught himself how to take bicycles apart and put them back together again. This allowed him to ask the people he met on his paper routes if he could fix their bikes for them. That was another way he was able to earn money.

He also spoke about some of the challenges he experienced in terms of employment. He used to work at a restaurant cleaning tables, but it was a very bad job for him, and a bad fit for him. There was too much noise for him, and it was a sensory overload for him. It led him to realize that he needed to find a job that was 1. not only something he was good at, but also 2. something that he enjoyed and that allowed him to use his strengths.

Dr. Shore said that he eventually got to the point where he was able to build his own bicycle entirely from the ground up. After this happened, he started biking to all the bike shops in the area to show off his bike to the manager, and talk to them about bikes, and after a period of time, he would ask them for a job. It took him 12 tries, but on the 13th time, he finally found a manager who would hire him. He said that looking back on this experience, what’s important for job-seeking autistic people to do is to find a way to actually show your prospective employers the work you’ve done in the domain you’re interviewing for, to lay it out for them to see for themselves. That allows you to sidestep all the parts of a formal interview process that are difficult for people on the autism spectrum.

So, he said, one of his suggestions is for people supporting an autistic individual to learn the strengths and abilities of the individual, usually by observing them.

Dr. Shore said grade school was hard for him. He was bullied often, and his teachers didn’t understand him. He spent most of his time in grade school reading books about topics that interested him, like astronomy, aviation, volcanoes, earthquakes, weather, etc. He said his obsession with science books meant his teachers didn’t know how to reach him, but at the same time, they mostly left him alone to continue reading because he wasn’t a behavior problem. Back then, not much was known about autism.

He said middle school and high school were actually easier for him than elementary school, because it allowed him to focus on his interest in music. He joined the band. Being in the band was a structured activity for him. He learned how to play almost all the instruments in the band. So when he went to college, he discovered that one of the requirements for music education was that you had to learn how to play all the instruments. Since he already knew most of them, that seemed to be a good career fit for him. He was able to help pay his tuition by doing bicycle repair.

So in short, he was able to succeed by finding his abilities and areas of interest and focusing on them. He said that same lesson can be applied to all people on the autism spectrum, no matter where they fall on the spectrum.

I hope some of this is helpful to other people on the autism spectrum, whether they’re employed or not. It was definitely helpful to me. I learned a lot from this panel.

​-Chris Tidmarsh