By Taylor Connelly

Ohio University welcomed first grade students from Amesville Elementary, Morrison-Gordon Elementary and East Elementary to the Ohio Student Farm on Oct. 9, 11 and 13. Located on 338 W. State St., the student farm is a hidden gem on OU’s campus. 

The Environmental & Plant Biology department use the farm for classes and clubs and it is also a place where students can fulfill community service hours. The farm includes student gardens, a tunnel for year-round growing, and various field plots. The student farm sells its crops to local businesses around Athens and to OU Culinary Services.  

The field trip was planned through the combined efforts of Community Food Initiatives, or CFI’s, director of garden education, Molly Gassaway, and the Ohio Student Farm Coordinator David Rosenthal. The trip was a part of CFI’s Sprouts program, a school garden program designed for first grade students to engage in hands-on lessons and to gain a deeper understanding of the environment. Volunteers from OU, AmeriCorps and CFI helped run the field trip.  

From the moment the kids stepped off the buses they were greeted by smiling faces and the overwhelming excitement of a new place. Volunteers explained the rules of the farm, the most important being: “do not put anything in your mouth without asking.” The volunteers gave the students paper bags labeled with their names; throughout the adventure the first graders used them to collect vegetables and herbs to take home. 

The students were split into four separate groups and rotated between stations. The first station took the students on a sensory exploration: the kids were allowed to pick their own herbs, smell, and even taste them. Led by farm manager Anthony Noble, the students were introduced to lemon balm, dill weed, and garlic chives. Emboldened by this, students then turned to discover what other plants they could put in their mouth. The volunteers had their hands full stopping kids from trying to eat leaves off the trees.

The first graders were then led into the circle garden, the second station. Surrounded by tall bamboo and guarded by a whimsical circle-shaped door, the circle garden evokes a childlike wonder, no matter how old you are. Inside the circle garden the students discovered the wonders of compost. Former student farm Director and now retiree Arthur Trese taught the students the importance of compost and all the creepy critters that find a home in it. The first graders wasted no time getting their hands dirty and took great pleasure in digging through the compost to find hidden treasure. Armed with plastic petri dishes, the students made a competition of who could collect and flaunt the most “rollie pollies” at a time.  

At the third station, students explored the open fields of the farm. Here Rosenthal taught them about the expert techniques of harvesting beans and carrots. Every student was ecstatic to learn that after pulling the carrots from the ground they were allowed to take them home. Perhaps the most exciting part of the exercise was the fact that each carrot was undeniably unique. Skinny or fat, short or tall, one stem or maybe three, no two carrots looked the same.

The final station was nothing short of a treasure hunt. Moving further into the open fields, the first graders were led to a small plot of land. At first glance it looked like loose dirt surrounded by shrubbery, but just beneath the surface sat dozens of awaiting potatoes. Carefully buried by volunteers, the spuds allowed the students to experience harvesting their own crop. Led by CFI director of outreach, Susie Huser, the kids were lined up and equipped with spades and trowels. Within seconds of hearing the word ‘go’ students were excitedly showing off what they had uncovered from the dirt. Each student held their potato with the utmost care as they shared their findings with the kids around them.

With their cheeks bright from the sun and their paper bags full of freshly picked herbs and vegetables, the students cheerfully filed back onto the buses. Both CFI and the Ohio Student Farm hope to make the Sprouts field trip a more regular event for the Athens community. Experiential learning programs like this one help give students experiences that allow them to learn and grow outside of the classroom.