Adopt a local farmer!

by Ann Boon

Something new is growing at our school and it’s all about real life farmers meeting children and showing them how to produce their own fresh, food – isn’t that what Food Connect is all about? Thanks to the bright idea of Suzi Robertson, the Carina City Cousin, and the enthusiasm of Food Connect and our school, Seven Hills State School, we have just kick-started ‘Adopt a Farmer’. Our Adopt a Farmer program will involve a process of establishing & maintaining a meaningful relationship with the natural world through the connection with local farmers, connection with the school’s food production areas and the relationship with Food Connect.

Last Thursday, Birkdale organic veggie farmers Franco Cencig and Michael Pettitt visited the school for the first time to meet the kids and have a tour of the grounds which include a Nature Trail of remnant vegetation and a slightly neglected veggie patch and orchard. Then they spoke to all the Grade Ones and Twos (about 120 kids) about being a farmer and then gave them a short demo of how to start a garden of food they can eat in the classroom by growing sprouts. But not before Michael had the kids enthralled by juggling some apples. As one of the other parents at school (and fellow Food Connector Kate Flamsteed) wrote; “It’s hard to imagine you get two farmers and put them in front of a bunch of kids and it just works. Just like that! They were both so natural and so easy and the kids were so engaged. I think Michael is a born teacher, but they both had a great affinity with the kids. I’m sorry I missed the juggling!!”

Thanks to the passion of the farmers, everyone at our school is buzzing – the Principal, the teachers, the parents and the kids – they all loved it! Franco said afterwards, “I never thought I’d be this popular at my age”. The school is full of smiles, sunflowers and a few budding farmers! And I’m blown away by how it has affected my own family already. Nina, my little one has been eating sprouts all morning because she saw Michael talking about them and eating them. And Ella, my elder daughter, actually started off a fresh batch of sprouts because she had watched Michael explain how to do it. That is GOLD! She told me she wants to be a farmer when she grows up and she wants Franco and Michael either to live with us or live next door. This is a child who doesn’t like dirt!

In the coming weeks Franco and Michael will help the children improve the soil in the vegetable beds and plant autumn and winter vegetable crops. We’ll probably plant some sunflowers too to replicate those grown on the Birkdale farm which Franco brought to school in abundance to brighten up the classrooms. With Franco and Michael’s advice and help, the school’s P&C will also commit a day to building a 3 bin compost heap in the orchard and the children will get a worm farm started so they can add lots of good, homegrown, organic matter to the soil to make it more productive. This is just the beginning of what we all hope will be a long and fruitful relationship and we’re making it official on Parade in a few weeks when the children will hold an Adoption ceremony in front of the whole school. We can’t wait to see our farmers again and until then, the seeds of their visit have been sown and are being well tended.

Update Dec 2009

I’d like to warmly thank everyone at Food Connect for your strong commitment and generous support of the Adopt a Farmer program this year.  It has been utterly wonderful to get to spend that much time in the company of Franco & Michael!

We’ve just had the most beautiful morning with the children, farmers, teachers and parents to celebrate a great first year in the gardens and to show each other how much we’ve all appreciated everyone’s contribution. Franco and Michael were quite overwhelmed by the morning’s ceremony and all the expressions of thanks (both verbal and tangible) and I think they were both a bit teary too!  We’ve put together a folder of what’s happened this year, all the newsletter articles, some photos and examples of the kids’ work.

I would like to thank all the people behind the scenes who’ve contributed to Adopt a Farmer and made it work – it has certainly been a great team effort.

Thanks again & kindest regards,
Ann Boon

Special thanks to:

School – Michelle Morrissey, our Principal, has been incredible and made my job organising Adopt a Farmer such a breeze – she has been supportive and visionary for day one and continues to be so … watch this space for what the program can become!
Food Connect – they worked with us on the initial ideas and planning for Adopt a Farmer and introduced us to Franco & Michael.  They have also provided constant support, advice and encouragement.
Teachers of Prep-2 – for letting us come into their classrooms and disrupt their normal classes, and for then sending the children back often covered in dirt, or worse, chicken manure!  Also for ideas for classroom follow up like cooking and homework and diary writing  etc etc …
Suzi Robertson – for coming up with the idea and handing it to me on a platter.  Suzi, you have given me such a gift in offering me the chance to take up this Adopt a Farmer idea and run with it.
Community Care – for sending garden news out to the class lists and being excited, enthusiastic and supportive right from the word go.
Kate Flamsteed – for always being there .. she came with me on the initial farm visits, she always makes cake after gardening days and brings a thermos – she always provides unflinching support and to top it off – she entered a cake (under Franco’s name) in the Brisbane Organic Growers Annual Fair and it won first prize!
Melanie Crook – for coming in every farming day and working tirelessly with all the kids – she has been an amazing support, she’s always there to help and does the hard yards of keeping the kids in line when they’re wandering off or not paying attention.
Sandy Pruss – for tidying up the garden room and putting it in order.  Also for planting all the veggies between the prep rooms . . and for ideas for follow up in the classroom.
Kevin Bailey – for always watering!  For helping out with any thing we needed for the weekly gardening sessions – and for doing the garden room with Sandy.
Carolyn Keane – for enthusiasm and especially for soldiering on getting rid of those cobblers pegs in the orchard.
Christie Campbell – for watering every week with the preps. Those unsung jobs like watering are so important and require regular commitment.
Mark Krebs – for making the no dig garden behind the prep rooms and for the idea to get the school community behind mulching the orchard before summer
Other parents – there have been a number of other parents who have also come in to help out in the gardens with the children. All the kids – without them there wouldn’t be an Adopt a Farmer program, and they have really enjoyed it.  Franco said to me today that at the beginning of the year, hardly anyone would try to the sugar cane or the vegies, and today nearly everyone did.
My family – for putting up with manures, mushroom compost and hay in the back of the car!
And of course, to Franco & Michael – FOR EVERYTHING!  Words cannot quite do justice to what they have given us.  They are generous of heart, funny, kind, amazing with the kids and fine human beings. But you already know that.

Update April 2010
On the last Wednesday of Term 1, we kicked off the Adopt a Farmer program for the year with a flourish, a lot of weeding, mulching and then a beautiful morning tea provided by the prep families. In their usual style, Franco & Michael arrived before school with a van spilling over with mulch. They were greeted by children excited to see them and enthusiastically telling them they were going to be working in the gardens!!!!

We cleared out last year’s weeds and overgrown crops from the four veggie boxes near the adventure playground, and with much delight we harvested some healthy sweet potatoes and a few baby white potatoes left over from last year. We dug in mushroom compost and added mineral rock, dolomite and blood and bone, then mulched. Those beds will be bursting with life once we plant in term 2.

We also started weeding the orchard which is a HUGE job involving a LOT of farmers friends (cobblers pegs) but there were some prizes. A selection of beautiful watermelons left over from last year’s planting, some incredible fungi that’s been enjoying the wet conditions, plenty of good bugs which fascinated the children and a little green frog which is an indicator of a healthy, chemical free environment.

Then after all the hard work, the preps arrived with picnic rugs and a magnificent morning tea of fresh fruit, dips, quiches and cakes – yum. And as a special touch for the farmers, we made them a warm basil foot soak to soothe their hard working bare feet.

Thank you Food Connect for introducing us to Franco & Michael – two wonderful human beings who are bringing humour, wisdom and a connection to the earth to our kids. And of course a BIG thank you to Franco & Michael themselves for all their time, expertise and generosity.

Seven Hills loves the farmers!
Ann Boon – Adopt a Farmer Coordinator