This past Saturday I sent a text message to my nieces and nephew, Kate, 7, Leland, 6, and Kallie, 3.
“I would like to have a Clean Acres board meeting with the children today. Here’s the agenda:
- Review mission: Our passion is to help Central Illinois residents live healthier lives by providing chemical-free produce and promoting sustainable farming methods.
- What was your favorite activity last year?
- What do you want to plant this year?
- What other activities should we have for kids in the garden this year (i.e. plant another sunflower maze, add a teepee to play in, etc.).”
These three kiddos love coming to Clean Acres and helping to plant and harvest. Realizing that the answer to living a healthy lifestyle starts when you are young, we have always planned to include field days each growing season where families can visit the farm and connect to locally grown produce.
Considering Kate, Leland and Kallie’s excitement and willingness to “help” these past three years, we quickly realized that there needs to be a separate garden just for them. Accidental tramping on the produce to be sold at market led to a dedicated children’s area on the one-acre field, and thus, the first meeting of our children’s board to plan for this year’s growing season.
It was quite hilarious collaborating with them. I brought paper and colored pencils to take notes and so that they could draw their garden plans. Kate and Leland were so excited and very eager to give input. Kallie on the other hand, who is three, didn’t quite follow the meeting so well.
“What would you like to plant this year, Kallie?”, I asked.
Seeing the coloring pencils in front of her, she was so distracted that I don’t think she even heard my question. “Ooh! Look a purple one!”, was her response as she grabbed for a new color to draw her farm plan.
Refocusing the group, I asked, how do we accomplish our mission and help kids lead healthy lifestyles? Leland answered with, “plant more food, like salad, tomatoes and brussels sprouts.” Kate answered, “plant strawberries, pumpkins, apples and grapes”. After noting that we planted grapes and strawberries last year, Leland commented that we should plant at least 5 more of each.
When asked if we should grow flowers this year, Leland became very excited. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! And then we can put a sign up for how much!”
I told them we planned to plant pumpkins this year and we recounted that two years-ago our harvest was decimated by squash bugs, and so we didn’t plant any squash this past year. Leland noted that we will need to manage the bugs, and so we decided a pest management plan is a definite need for this year.
All three were in favor of planting another sunflower maze and adding a teepee to play in as a new feature.
Kate commented that we are doing a good thing on the farm, “cause you can learn so much stuff about fruits and vegetables.” She would also like to see field trips for kids. “Imagine if they came out to your farm and then you could learn so much and then we could eat lunch and get on the bus when the teacher says it’s time to go.”
The consensus was to grow some of their favorite vegetables and fruits and to have more activities for kids. We will keep you posted as the 2019 farm plan develops. Maybe we can add some of their grand ideas this year!
Clean Acres 