We have been more active with our homeschool group this year. Although most of the events are just social in nature, the group also likes to do community service activities. Last week DJ went to his first such event. A local non-profit farm grows food for local food banks like Northwest Harvest.  They use volunteers from groups like Girl Scouts and our homeschool group to plant the seeds and to assist with harvest. I found it amusing that our lead, Jim, explained that they only grow food that can be weeded mechanically because “no volunteer wants to pull weeds”!

 We started off emptying the van of pots & flats pre filled with potting soil. Because of our colder, unpredictable northwest weather, many farms plant starters in pots before transferring them to the field in early summer. The kids were ALL OVER this task!  Moving heavy materials with a purpose really makes young children feel important and valued.

 We started off planting petunia starts because Jim wanted to give the little kids a chance to work with something bigger and easier to handle to start with. He mentioned that these would be given to families receiving food and also as gifts for volunteers.

 Then Jim lined up the children and explained where the farm gets its potting soil.  They make their own. He said traditional potting soil would have coconut coir and peet moss as main ingredients but coir comes from the tropics and is expensive to transport and peet moss is a prehistoric growth that is not renewable and therefore not sustainable (who knew!).

So instead the farm uses locally sourced manure that has been digested in a massive vat in place of the peet moss. This is a by-product of animal farms so it is given to the nonprofit farm for free. In the same way, cedar bark is a by-product from lumber mills and that makes a great replacement for the coconut coir and again is free to the farm. The only thing they purchase is a little pumice stone to allow air into their potting soil.
 Next came the actual planting of seeds, which I didn’t get a picture of because it was very hands on work. But the learning continued because the first seeds we planted were kohlrobi which is a vegetable I had NEVER heard of before!  We also planted bell pepper seeds. As Jim was distributing the packs of seeds to be opened into various bowls, I noticed they were labeled with prices like $2.49 each and there were dozens of packs. Jim must have read my mind because he explained something else I didn’t know. Seed packs sold in retail stores have expiration dates on them, not because the seeds would no longer grow but because the manufacturer could no longer guarantee that they would ALL grow!  So what do the stores do with the “expired” seeds?  They destroy them, of course. Unless a nonprofit like our farm can connect with the stores and get them to donate the packs of seeds. Which is where the pepper seed packs came from and the farm did not pay a penny for them. And most, although not all, of the seeds will grow.

 At the end of the work period, the kids were done with being responsible. So one of the moms with an older son asked him to lead a game. Here they are playing Simon Says. In this pictured “Simon” has said to “do yoga”!

On the way home, I had a fascinating discussion with my son and it made it my favorite part of the day. He asked me, “when we come back, will we get the vegetables”?  I explained to him that the vegetables are grown for food banks to give to families and homeless people who can not afford to buy food themselves. He has recently noticed the all-too-common guy on the street corner with a cardboard sign, begging for money. When he heard that the seeds we planted would become food for the homeless his voice got really excited and he said, “So it’s like we just gave that guy on the corner something to eat!  How awesome!”  I love this kid.