New Leaf Organics
One Farming Mama
The glory -filled days appear to have left us for a little while, as I had secretly hoped. Forty degrees and raining, a little less inspiring to get out and seize the day, I admit. Yesterday, however, I was in awe of the energy that took over the farm for a few hours. We had a visiting 2nd grade class come over to learn about the farm and how we grow plants. They have a school garden program that is a key part of their years’ curriculum and they were each in charge of studying 2 plants as part of that. They learn about their plant, ask questions about it, draw it during its different life stages, write poems, and then finally pot up their plants and present and sell them to the public at a school market day. These kids are awesome; enthusiastic, funny, and filled with energy. They were given a couple jobs to help with while visiting. Obviously when I was choosing these jobs I was trying to envision something that could work for 20 2nd graders in a greenhouse environment. It is always great to see how things play out. When faced with 2, 4 yard each piles of topsoil and compost destined for our newest greenhouse beds, they immediately formed a bucket brigade and got it done! All you could hear for an hour or so was calls of “Another load here” over and over. Covered in dirt and warmed right up, they were ready for their snack.
This visit was timed really well. Earlier in the week I attended “Stone Soup,” a food summit for Addison County. It was a gathering of farmers, educators, students, and food activists to focus on ways to better integrate local foods into schools, inspire more kids to get into farming, create mentoring between farmers and students, and overall just move Addison County schools forward towards food sustainability and a strong local food system. Following that with a hands on visit from kids to the farm really reminds me of how important and fun it can be to bring kids out to the farm. Truthfully, maybe it is more fun for me and the folks that work here to get a burst of 2nd grade energy when we are just at the beginning of our season.
