High school students see the ‘fruits’ of their labor

Floyd County High School’s farm endeavors took a giant leap this summer, and for the students involved and even teachers it was an eye-opening experience.

“Most of the kids my age don’t know where their food is coming from,” said Jonah Cooke, a FCHS sophomore, one of the students who worked in the gardens. “I was here to find out. I wanted to know so I could eventually teach my children.”

“The garden is the ‘grocery store’,” added sophomore Madison Smith.

“People think there is an unlimited supply (of food),” continued junior Reuben Slusher. “This is the way the earth operates.”

Over the summer, a total of 8 students and 2 teachers put in some sweat equity, but they found the work was very rewarding. Smith said the group spent much of their time building infrastructure – from a shade house for apple trees they had grafted, with the help of local Extension agent Jon Vest, to an irrigation system for the market garden, located on the front lawn of the high school. Harvesting and a variety of gardening chores kept them busy at other times.

Between the market garden, school farm, greenhouse and raised beds, you could find everything from squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers to potatoes, kale, onions and lettuce.

The students also picked up marketing and general business skills, as they helped to distribute vegetables for wholesale distribution through Good Food Good People and retail sales through the school’s virtual “farmstand”. They got the satisfaction of knowing, too, they are helping to supply food to their high school.

Chris Burnette, a 2015 FCHS grad who will be studying business administration in college beginning this fall, grew up on a beef cattle farm. The gardening experience was a new one for him. “Here you’ve learned so much about what you can do with plants and local community.”

Slusher, whose family farming history goes back 6 generations in Floyd County, said he has enjoyed learning about the hydroponic system, which was started in the ag classroom and has now been moved to the school greenhouse. The system, which is used for lettuce and kale, supports vegetables throughout the year. Knowledge of the hydroponic system is good to have, Slusher said, “since a lot of farmland is being eroded across the world.”

Joe Tesauro, who is an ag and horticulture teacher at the high school, led the summer project, and Jason Burgard, a math/business teacher, assisted. The students who were employed in the summer farm program were paid with funding provided by a Virginia Tech grant – Innovation in Agricultural Education, through the Virginia Association of Agricultural Educators.

Raised beds with carrots, beets, eggplant, spinach, and scallions have been placed near the greenhouse and across from the high school cafeteria. The vegetables from the “salad bar garden” will be used to supply the salad bar at the cafeteria during the coming year. Smith said the students will be planting 4 trays of lettuce each week through the fall to meet needs.

Tesauro, who oversees the school farm program, said culinary students at FCHS will also use the farm’s vegetables in their cooking lessons.

The school farm program is also now collaborating with Plenty! and has planted a 50-foot bed of beets to donate to the organization, which grows and shares food with others in Floyd County. The school program will be selling tomatoes, potatoes and other vegetables for New River Community Action’s backpack program.

In the market garden, space was made for two experimental beds. “With Burgard’s background, we got to play around with marketing,” Tesauro said, adding the gardeners discovered there could possibly be a niche in Floyd County for edamame, a bean used in oriental dishes.

Only 6 schools in Virginia received the grant, and Tesauro said Floyd County High School’s farm program is being viewed as a model for other schools.

More work is still to be done on the infrastructure at the school farm, Tesauro said, but the possibilities are growing. The farm now has 3 cows. Also, Tesauro, who has honeybees at his farm, is sharing expertise in that area, and a 10 frame hive has been set up on the school farm. Next year, he is hoping to expand it.

Since the farm is located several miles away from the high school, visits there are field trips. Now FCHS also has the convenience of having a market garden and greenhouse on the school campus.

A weather station has been donated to the school program, and with it teachers and students in the farm program can keep up with rainfall and adjust irrigation needs in the market garden.

Vegetables and apple trees are not the only things being grown, Smith explained. Students recently planted 300 chrysanthemums, which will be sold.