What’s Farm to Classroom Been Up To?

— from Madie Murray —

Farm to Classroom is experienced by all of our public school students from Kindergarten through grade 8. For those of you curious about what students do in these classes, here’s a brief summary of just a few of the exciting food-farm-garden projects they have experienced so far this year:

A big thumbs up for stone soup!

Mandy Randolph, Grades K through 6:
Each grade spends one hour a week in the classroom and school garden.
(This class was started for grades K-4 in 2009 and increased to include grade 5 and 6 in 2011. OIEF has provided the seed money for the first K-4 class and each time the classroom increased.)

• Students teamed up for a garden scavenger hunt to get reacquainted with the garden and find some exciting new plants that had grown over the summer.
• Kindergarten students dug up a bumper crop of potatoes from the school garden that will be used in a class cooking project. Check out a blog entry on November 4 called “The Great Potato Dig!” www.simplyorcas.com
• All grades had guided “edible garden tours” where they tasted more than 40 different plants growing in our school garden.
• Students helped remove the original garden fence so the old and new gardens became one…a big moment for our garden.
• Some grades had harvest days resulting in some delicious student-made “Stone Soup.” Each class added at least 10 ingredients from the school garden to create the soup. The only ingredient no sourced from the garden was salt.
• All grades have been busy harvesting and preparing the school garden for the coming winter. Lots of cutting, pulling, digging, turning soil and planting cover crops.
• Students harvested seeds from several plants for replanting next year. The new 3-bin composter was filled, tools were cleaned up and the tool shed was cleaned and organized by the students. Winter classes will include lots of indoor projects and lessons about food, farming and nutrition while the garden sleeps for the winter.

Students learn how to use the right tool for the right job from Smith & Speed.

Jennifer Pietsch, Grades 7 and 8:
The class for grades 7 and 8 are exploratory classes where they get to spend more time on their projects and take field trips to farms and other special Orcas locations
(This class was started for grades 7 and 8 in 2014 by popular demand from those students leaving Mandy’s classes, and OIEF once again provided the seed funding for these classes.)

• Students learned about how to use and preserve the harvest. Made tomatillo salsa and discussed the challenges and pitfalls of food preservation including food borne pathogens.
• Vegetable samplings and pizza making at Red Rabbit Farm.
• Completion of the construction of the new worm composter. Worm castings can be used by elementary Farm to Classroom for their planning projects. Also completed the vertical and horizontal composting set-ups that will be useful for comparisons on effectiveness (science projects.)
• Study of poultry – buying versus raising, what goes into production, associated costs, risks and rewards, along with hands-on demonstration of chicken processing.
• A discussion and demonstration of hand tools by a visit to Smith and Speed.
• A day trip to Meyers Creamery for goat dairy and cheese making, and Morningstar Farm for hands on lessons on sowing winter crops, garlic planting, harvesting and cooking fresh from the harvest is being planned for the next class.