Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Agronomic: potatoes
- Fruits: melons, apples, berries (other), berries (blueberries), cherries, pears, berries (strawberries)
- Vegetables: sweet potatoes, asparagus, beans, beets, broccoli, cabbages, carrots, cauliflower, cucurbits, eggplant, garlic, greens (leafy), onions, peas (culinary), peppers, radishes (culinary), sweet corn, tomatoes, turnips, brussel sprouts
Practices
- Education and Training: youth education
- Farm Business Management: community-supported agriculture, marketing management, value added
- Production Systems: organic agriculture
- Sustainable Communities: ethnic differences/cultural and demographic change, leadership development, local and regional food systems, urban agriculture, urban/rural integration
Proposal abstract:
I am an agriculture teacher at Freeport High School, and I would like to start a student vegetable farm at our school. The farm would serve as space where students will be educated about sustainable vegetable production as well as sustainable marketing options for small farm businesses. This farm will give my urban students the opportunity to have an SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) which is critical to the success of an Illinois Agricultural Education program. Because such a small fraction of my students have access to farm experiences, many cannot keep financial records for an SAE. The student farm will provide this opportunity for them.
Students will learn to grow vegetable produce and they will learn to market their produce through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) market. Potential CSA members will include employees of Freeport School District and community members. The profit of the farm will be put back into the high school agriculture department to help fund student leadership, educational, and agricultural experiences.
It is my goal that an on-site working farm combined with a classroom curriculum will feed our future food producers and consumers with skills necessary to sustain agriculture.