For this reason, Gwinn Middle School and Gwinn High School students visited The North Farm along Rock River Road in Chatham Tuesday. Students got to see sustainable farming practices firsthand and apply what they learned by bringing back organic plant starts for their own school garden.

It’s valuable to get students acquainted with agriculture in this way, because “you see them wanting to go outside, wanting to eat fresh food, wanting to get their hands dirty,” Gwinn Middle School teacher Sarah Briggs said. “It’s totally different from the classroom, you get to see a different side of kids.”

The North Farm, which is part of Michigan State University’s Upper Peninsula Research and Extension Center, is “an incubator farm specializing in diversified organic vegetable production, research, education and outreach for northern latitude climate,” that provides a variety of tours, activities, workshops and other learning opportunities, according to the farm’s website.

Students rotated through a number of stations at the farm, which allowed them to see the organic greenhouse, explore the farm’s grounds and history, learn about animal husbandry and put produce to use in smoothies while learning about pollinators and other insects.

Lucy DeDecker, a North Farm volunteer, shows Gwinn Middle School students how to make a smoothie with ingredients such as spinach, honey, bananas during a field trip students took to the North Farm Tuesday. Gwinn middle and high school students did a number of activities at the farm, including visiting its organic greenhouse, exploring the farm’s grounds and learning about animal husbandry. Students also took organic plant starts from The North Farm to be planted in the schools’ garden. (Journal photo by Cecilia Brown)

Heading out to the farm is a valuable learning experience for many reasons, Briggs said, noting that “you just see a spark come out of them that you don’t necessarily in the classroom environment.”

At the smoothie-making station, students combined honey, spinach, bananas and more to make a healthy smoothie after they learned more about the relationship between plants and pollinators, such as bees.

“In this day and age, the bees need better taking care of by humans. So I love talking about pollinators to kids to get us back on track of protecting the bees and being on their side,” said Lucy DeDecker, a North Farm volunteer. “And if you add food in anything, it keeps everybody pretty well entertained.”

Seeing The North Farm’s agricultural practices firsthand also showed students that the farm’s operations “don’t use any chemicals — no pesticides, no fertilizers,” and allowed students to understand the value of this method, Briggs said.

The farm tour helped students connect what they have learned by working in the schools’ garden with larger agricultural operations and potential career opportunities, Briggs said, as she works with students in the schools’ garden on a regular basis.

“I do the high school and middle school garden for Gwinn,” she said. “And I bring my Resource English class out to the garden quite a bit, they help me plant it every year, they help me with harvesting, with cleaning it up and weeding and watering.”

Because the school garden’s plants originate from The North Farm, Briggs has had a long working relationship with North Farm Education Coordinator Abbey Palmer, who “invited us out here for this great opportunity,” Briggs said.

“This is the first year we’ve come out to the farm,” Briggs said. “Abbey has in the past supplied our school with (plant) starts and she’s helped us with getting our school garden together, but this is the first year we’ve been able to bring the kids out to the site, so we’re excited.”

Briggs and the students also got to bring the organic plant starts back to the school for their garden, which they planted in the days following the farm tour, she said. The food grown in the garden can be used for healthy snacks, in the school’s lunch program, or even donated to the community.

“It’s healthy organic produce for the school and the kids,” Briggs said, noting that because extra produce grown over the summer often gets donated, “it helps out the local community, so there are many positives.”

Cecilia Brown can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248.