Red Wiggler Community Farm

Before heading out to the fields, Kara led the group in a bit of yoga.  This eases up the muscles so you don’t get stiff. Then we did a field walk using the five senses (what was seen, what we smelled, what we heard, what was tasted as well as what was felt). We called this an observation walk.

As we started the walk through the fields, Kara asked that I pick some chives for the students to try. Some liked the chives, some didn’t. Kara then talked about some of the foods that the students might eat that have chives mixed into them (salsa, being an example). They also tried some mint from the pick your own. I picked some Lamb’s Ear branches, when the students felt it, I heard a lot of them commenting about how soft it was. Something I didn’t know was that Lamb’s Ear could be used like a band-aid.

When the students tried the mustard greens, it was the same case as the chives. All students tried them, though some liked them more than others. I heard some children commenting on how “spicy” they thought it was.

The next stop on the field walk was to see the chickens. We then talked about which chickens lay which eggs (as she showed them each egg, she said, (with the black hen–the Americana–they lay the bluish-greenish colored egg; the brown hen (Wellsummer) lays the dark brown eggs and the white (or Delaware) hen lays the light brown egg. The students were interested in knowing that not all chickens lay “white” eggs (or white chickens (hens) don’t lay white eggs). In terms of the yolk in these eggs, it’s more orange than yellow in color as well as being “fresher” eggs than the ones that people can purchase at the grocery store.

After seeing the chickens, the students drew pictures of what they observed during their walk through the fields. Just looking at the pictures that the students drew, I can tell a lot of them liked seeing the chickens most because that is what most of them drew.

Another thing the children observed growing were the potatoes. There are four types of potatoes growing, Red Norlans, Purple Viking, Yukon Gold, Magic Molly. Kara pulled up a plant just to show them where the leaves of the plant were growing out of the potato. Also talked about, was how the potatoes were harvested.

As the walk continued, the students noticed the solar house so Kara talked a bit about how it ended up at the farm and that it was part of the Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in 2005 built by the University of Maryland.

Then the students came back to the barn and Kara read them a story titled “And Then It’s Spring” about a boy and his dog who decide “they have had enough of that brown and want to plant a garden”. This story also talks about the steps needed to take in order to plant a garden as well as what a plant needs to grow (caring for it, sunlight and water).

Then we read a poem about planting a seed which needs water and sunlight to grow.

Then we helped the students plant a bean seed. First step, fill the newspaper pot with dirt, then put the bean seed in and push down (about a fingertip) into the dirt. Next the seed was watered. The pots were then collected by their teacher to put on a window sill in the classroom or to have the children take the plant home to plant it.

After the bean planting, another story was read, which was “Jack and the Beanstalk”. About halfway through the story, a bean is planted that eventually grows into a giant beanstalk. We read this story because the students planted a bean seed themselves. Like the bean in the story, the beans the kids planted were also sort of magical because they are purple beans that turn green when cooked!

One of the last activities we did with the children was having them match the food to the food group on the plate. Before the students placed the food into the correct food group on the plate, the student said what the food was, as well as what food group it belonged to.

Then the students matched the word (from the My Plate–fruit, vegetable, grain, dairy and protein) to the picture that went with that specific food group.

Then the students sang the food group song.

It goes like this…

(to the tune of jingle bells)

Five food groups, five food groups

Eat them everyday

Grains and Dairy and Protein

Fruits and Vegetables

Five food groups, five food groups

Eat them everyday

Help your body grow to be

Strong in every way!

To finish the day we did one last sun salutation to make sure everyone was well stretched after all that walking around the fields.

Red Wiggler is developing a new curriculum that incorporates MyPlate (the new nutrition pyramid) into connecting youth with the source of their food called Healthy Choices, Healthy Lives. Sam has been working to develop and implement this exciting new program!

We are excited to have Samantha Sheehan, our Education Assistant here at the farm, write a guest blog post:

Having the greenhouse/new building at the farm is nice, since we can start a lot of our own plants. Before our greenhouse, we had to go somewhere else to get them, since we didn’t have the space to start such plants from seed.

In the greenhouse, I’ve been assisting with the tranplanting of a vegetable called rainbow chard. The variety is called “rainbow” because of the colorful stem. Before you plant, you want to grab a section of the chard plants. Then you want to separate the plants that are multiple. After separating the plants, you want to take out any plants that are too small or the plants that have yellow leaves.

When planting the chard make sure there is only one plant in each cell. Also, you want to make sure the dirt is packed around the plant so the plant can stand up (if not enough dirt is around the plant the plant won’t stand up straight) . No roots want to be showing.  As you take it from the flat, make sure you take the plant carefully by the leaf not the stem (if the plant is taken from the flat by the stem the stem will break). While separating the chard plants, make sure each plant still has some roots attached. I thought the transplanting of the chard was relatively easy, the thing I found a little difficult was separating two plants so each plant still had some roots attached.

When the chard is harvested, the biggest leaves (six or eight, depending on the size) are picked then put into a bunch (with no big holes or some small holes).  After the bunch is picked, it is rubber banded, then the stems are cut. The bunches are then placed into a basket and brought down to the barn. After the bunches are brought to the barn they are misted with the hose then placed into a box. Once this happens, the boxes go into the refrigerator.

At times, after planting the chard, we’ve covered it using something called remay (or row cover). This helps keep the plants warm as well as keeping most bugs out.  Using remay doesn’t keep ALL bugs out, though it does help a bit in terms of bug holes in each leaf.