High school students observe agriculture in motion
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RONAN — It’s not everyday that kids get out of the classroom and into the field, but the morning was a bright, beautiful exception.
On Oct. 13, Emory Willson and 13 Ronan High School students left their greenhouse class and went to Bev’s Bloomer’s blooming pumpkin patch.
“It was the coolest thing for the kids to be out and pick (the pumpkins,)” Bev Luedtke, owner of Bev’s Bloomers commented.
The teens hauled the orange, white, blue and even green pumpkins to a pick-up truck after picking them from the field.
In order for the green pumpkins to mature, students placed them on tables in the greenhouses. In a few weeks, the green pumpkins should ripen to orange just in time for Halloween and the harvest season.
The students are part of an agricultural class that focuses on plant science and green house management.
Part of their hands-on experience includes growing peas, tomatoes, cabbages, spinach and cauliflower in the Ronan High School greenhouse. Students started these plants as seeds at the beginning of the school year. As their own crops are still growing, last week’s pumpkin picking opportunity allowed students to observe the harvesting stage of raising a crop.
The idea for the field trip came from Lake County Community Development Corporation’s Farm to Institution program. Farm to Institution is designed to reconnect schools with the local food cycle.
There’s an educational component, explained Karl Sutton of LCCDC, to teach “food service people how to use seasonal foods and educate kids about fresh foods.”
LCCDC is educating students and school staffs on how to cook local, seasonal food — putting local products back on the table at school, while teaching classes about the entire food process.
The cycle — planting, raising, harvesting, processing and cooking the plants is not exactly visible to the average citizen, but that’s something folks at LCCDC are trying to change.
After the pumpkins ripen, agricultural students will venture out of school for another field trip to the kitchen at LCCDC.
With “Growth Through Agriculture” funding, LCCDC recently purchased the equipment necessary to peel and process squash. They also purchased an industrial food processor, in order to turn raw vegetables into pumpkin bars or pumpkin pie for local schoolchildren.
It’s important to get kids exposed to naturally, locally grown food as well as the entire process — from seedling to the dinner table, Sutton said.
“I think it’s fantastic,” he added. “I would love to get more kids in here.”
