California farm-to-cafeteria program teaches students how to farm

Back in 1898, when the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus bought 40 acres from an Atherton family and started a boarding school, its nuns grew food for themselves and their students using a full range of farm animals including cattle.

All that school-based agriculture disappeared after World War II, but today some of it has returned -- except for the cattle.

"Cattle are just too dangerous," Steward Slafter said Monday morning. "Some of those cows weigh 1,400 pounds. If one of them bumped into someone accidently, they could be killed."

So, no red beef from Sacred Heart's Farm to Cafeteria program, which Slafter runs. But there is a plentiful supply of produce grown in the 10,000-square-foot garden, as well as goats, ducks, chickens and rabbits for cheese, milk, eggs and fresh meat.

Slafter said there used to be extra virgin olive oil from a stand of olive trees on Elena Avenue, but the trees were beset with olive flies and so far no means of fighting them off has been found. He is trying a third technique this year after two failures, but won't know until August whether it will work.

Monday was the first day of a five-week summer course Slafter teaches, with 12 students registered. For three hours a day Mondays through Fridays the students will learn how to farm, from sowing seeds to feeding animals to slaughtering animals.

Some of the food they produce will go to the school cafeteria and some will be sold at farmers markets on the now 63-acre campus that usually take place during other events such as football games or water polo matches. Parents of the students tend to be regular customers, Slafter noted.

During the school year, Slafter usually has about 20 students in his class and get visits from classes of younger pupils who come to meet -- and pet -- the goats, rabbits and chickens.

Park in the lot close to the school's swimming pool and if the wind is right the scent in the air is of chlorine. But if the wind shifts, the scent can turn into that of seven nanny goats, maybe a couple dozen baby goats, 20 ducks, 40 chickens, 40 rabbits and the one miniature horse that is a temporary boarder.

It is a working farm, after all, and smells like it.

On Monday, the high school students in Slafter's class helped move the school's herd of nanny goats into an area enclosed by a portable fence so they could chomp on some overgrown grass.

"Thanks for helping with the goats," Slafter told the students. "Now they know you're the boss."

The school farm does not always keep a billy goat -- grown male goats -- Slafter said, because they become "vicious territorial savages" when it's rutting time. His ideal herd would be eight nannies and one billy.