This past Tuesday, on a steamy June morning, forty-five 2nd graders, their teachers, and their chaperons, boarded a bus in Brooklyn bound for the North Fork of Long Island. For the past five months, these 2nd graders have been learning all about plants, produce, and the fascinating and evolving relationship between humans and their food. They have visited supermarkets and Greenmarkets, the New York Botanical Gardens and the flower beds in their neighborhood park. They have even had an opportunity to harvest radishes and lettuce at a nearby urban farm. But on Tuesday, thanks to Into the Outside's ongoing collaboration with FreshDirect, the students had an opportunity to visit two much larger Long Island farms - Satur Farms and Catapano Dairy Farm. This trip culminated the semester-long investigation that asked the especially important question: how do plants, people, and animals depend on each other in a community?
Our first stop was Satur Farms, a beautiful property owned by Paulette Satur and Eberhard Muller. Because Satur is a working vegetable farm there was a lot for the students to take in: complex irrigation systems, teams of workers, big machinery, and thousands of vegetable beds at various stages of growth. But the most memorable experience at Satur for many of the students was also the most intimate: the opportunity to get right down in the dirt and pull up some fresh carrots! Back on the bus, some of the students, bunches in hand, asked me if I knew any good carrot recipes. One told me he was going to give the food to Grandma and ask her to make a carrot cake.
After a picnic lunch, we stopped at Catapano Dairy Farm, a family-operated goat dairy that was an instant magnet. With 88 goats that the students were allowed to feed, milk, and gawk at, Karen Catapano graciously led the group around the grounds. I was delighted to see how fearlessly the students were willing to milk a goat! Catapano really provided a nice counterpoint to Satur. Visiting both in the same day helped the students expand their conceptions of farms and food, and think deeper about how we all - plants, animals, and humans - depend on and relate to each other.
This trip demonstrates the power that a partnership can have when all parties are dedicated to a common goal. Between FreshDirect's incredibly supportive team, their gracious contacts at Satur and Catapano, a group of passionate educators, and caring family members, the students were exposed to a world of farming that they had never seen before. The day contained so many revelatory, once-in-a-lifetime experiences - 'Today, I milked a goat!' or 'Today, I harvested brand-new carrots!' - that these second graders are sure to remember for years to come.
Comments