For the second year running, students from schools around Cranbrook participated in the Pizza Farm project. Earlier in the spring they were out at a farm near Wardner where the kids planted seeds and learned some things about farming.
READ MORE: The 2018 Pizza Farm
Fast forward to this week, and it’s time for harvest. Students from TM Roberts, McKim, Kootenay Orchards, Highlands Elementary, Kootenay Christian Academy and St. Mary’s spent half their day at the farm harvesting and half their day in Cranbrook at Auntie Barb’s Bakery and Canadian 2 For 1 Pizza, where multiple stations were set up.
All of this is an elaborate and engaging field-trip style program that show young students where their food comes from, from the ground, to the kitchen, to the table.
“The biggest thing was just to teach them where their food comes from right through to making it and eating it, that’s the whole idea of it,” said Tammy Morgan, a seed technician with Monsanto and organizer of the Pizza Farm. “It is shocking the number of kids that don’t actually know where their food’s from.”
At the farm the students threshed and grinded wheat, they crushed canola to make oil and meal, and they harvested peppers and tomatoes.
At Auntie Barb’s students were cutting, weighing and saucing the dough, before moving next door to Canada 2 For 1 to cover them with toppings, pop them in the oven and then, of course, eat them.
There was also a station where the students built a soil profile to then run water through, to see how water moves through different soil profiles. There was a station to plant garlic, even a station that had sheep and chickens to bring home the animal element of food preparation.
The Food Bank was also present, as the kids had planted potatoes and learned about food security, so they then harvested the potatoes to donate back to the Food Bank.
No great meal is complete without dessert, so naturally there was also a cookie making station set up for the kids to indulge on.
All in all this event has been extremely well received by the students and should continue to be an annual affair.
“The kids are great they made all kinds of thank you cards and they’re having a tonne of fun,” Morgan said.
paul.rodgers@cranbrooktownsman.com
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