A group of local students completed a harvest of items they planted in the spring during the finale of the Swift Current Food Farm project on September 21.
Last Thursday’s harvest opportunity provided elementary aged students a chance to see the full cycle of farming, as the students were involved in planting vegetables in the spring and then seeing the fruits of their labour during a harvest. The project, delivered through Agriculture in the Classroom SK, utilized a demonstration plot beside the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Swift Current Research and Development Centre.
The half-day sessions allowed the students to have a hands-on opportunity to help with harvesting some of the vegetables while also inspecting some of the crops seeded at the plot.
“Especially the potatoes, I think is one of the most exciting things is getting to see what’s under the ground and learning how these things are started off as seeds or small plants and turn into something that actually produces the food that they see in the grocery store,” explained Kirsten Falzarano, a Program Coordinator for Agriculture in the Classroom.
Swift Current’s project grew the ingredients found in a Canadian breakfast, including wheat and mustard, tomatoes which are turned into ketchup, potatoes for hash browns, plus they saw a demonstration of applies being pressed into juice.
“The hope is now when the kids drive through the fields in the summer they can say ‘hey mom and dad, that’s wheat or that’s canola growing there. And we use that everyday,’” Falzarano said.
There were approximately 180 students attending the Food Farm wrap up day from Gull Lake, Success, Waldeck, and Swift Current schools Ecole Centennial, O.M. Irwin, and Fairview.
The students in the spring were in Grade 3 when their science curriculum introduced plants, and those same students returned as Grade 4 when new science and social studies curriculum topics include communities and the importance of agriculture in Saskatchewan.
“It’s one thing to say that agriculture is part of Saskatchewan, but it really is Saskatchewan…so they should all appreciate the value of Saskatchewan to the rest of the world,” she added.
