FEAST’s Fall Harvest: Community Dinner, Partners with FoodMasters & Pizza Nights!

FEAST students gather with FoodMasters to build cobh oven at the school garden last Sunday

By Margie Doyle

Fundraising dinner this Sept. 30 at the Odd Fellows Hall

Farm Education and Sustainability for Teens (FEAST) has completed another summer of in-field studies at local farms. The seven students are:

• Bailey Johnson
• Max Blackadar
• Hailey Thomas
• Maggie Thomas
• Clover Rose
• Dylan Thompson
• Melanie Flint
  (Student Nick Toscano started the course in the summer but got a job and could not continue).

Learner Limbach, Director of FEAST and of FoodMasters, sustainable food production group, invites the community attend the community dinner on Sunday, Sept. 30, “to celebrate the success of the programs this year and ask for your help in making next year even better.

“With your support we can achieve our goals and have the ability to inspire the young people of our community so that they may continue to steward the bounty of the islands and beyond. We need your help to keep it growing,” says Limbach.

Since joining the summer class last spring, the FEAST teen-agers visited and worked at:

• John Steward’s Maplerock Farm,
• Coffelt/SJ Preservation Trust Farm, where the students learned about beekeeping and chicken slaughtering.
• Taproot Farm, owned by Sara Ross, where the students harvested potatoes
• George Orser’s Orcas Farm
• Buck Bay Shellfish Farm with Mark Sawyer and Terry Hermanson
• Blue Moon Farm on Waldron, where the students had an overnight trip and learned about wild edible plants, archeological sites and shellfish and seaweed harvesting with Ryan Drum.

Interspersed with these field trips, the FEAST students worked in “Liberty Garden,” the plot between North Beach Road and Prune Alley in Eastsound. They cultivated lettuce, among other crops, and when harvest time came, they took the lettuce to the community Food Bank; they are expecting a fall crop of chard and kale for school cafeteria or Food Bank use. They also learned to prune, trellis and tie up tomatoes from Geddes Martin from Ship Bay restaurant, and  made their own pizzas from the product.

Their coursework for academic credit with the Orcas Island School District was supervised by Career and Tech Education Director Kari Schuh. The students completed 90 hours of study over the summer.

Limbach was impressed by the work ethic of his students: “At every farm we did some project and the kids got their tasks and just cranked it out. They don’t get distracted, and they get it done. It’s amazing what a group of seven can do. They  really impressed me:  knowing how to prepare a bed; handle starts to put in ground so roots can go down easily; water the beds; the right way to handle tools. The kids were right in there. Some were more experienced and refined their skills; they all picked up new skills.”

Limbach emphasizes the practical. “I  don’t have to have the best growing conditions or be on best agricultural land — southern exposure or deep soil. We work on taking care of the soil and nutrients carefully; we have to be more creative.  We grow crops in a way that accommodates rain or cooler temperatures, and don’t count on it being a hot summer,” said Limbach. “We expect cool Junes, plan on it being cool and wet and choose crops for that.”

After directing the school-accredited high school FEAST program this summer, Limbach is looking ahead to the season’s culminating dinner of local foods to be served on Sept. 30, with assistance from FoodMasters, and plans for next year.The Foodmasters/FEAST Fall Harvest Fundraiser  will start at the Odd Fellows Hall at 5 p.m. with a social hour. The premiere showing of a short film about FEAST’s 2012 season will be shown with dinner, which is $25 per adult and $10 for children.

Entertainment also includes live music, a slide show of FEAST and FoodMasters projects and a live auction with items such as FoodMaster classes, prepared dinners and farm CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture memberships for weekly boxes of seasonal produce). Tickets may be purchased and auction items donated at the Saturday Market in Eastsound, or by contacting Limbach at foodmasters.orcas@gmail.com or call 360-376-4048.

Limbach’s goals as director of the FEAST program have been to continue its direction and “bring it to the next level,” which he sees as an organic partnership with the FoodMasters group.  In addition, he’d like to explore the availability of FEAST programs to other islands, and to its association with the Farm to Cafeteria program, and in the public school as some kind of elective class or club during the school year.

Food Masters was launched in November of 2010 and has since organized many well-attended workshops and work parties, helping islanders learn skills needed to grow, harvest, and preserve their own food.