Farm ideas, a strawbale house and seed saving skills ...
This weeks workshop 5 was all about farming ... ideas about what we could grow ... a popcorn farm? a berry farm and smoothie bar :) and a nut butter farm ...
We talked about the differences between intensive and small scale farming, conventional versus organic methods and food forests and permaculture principles.
The pros and cons of conventional monoculture and more diverse polyculture and companion planting.
The students talked about our experiences on the field trips in workshop 4, the pizza oven at Willa's house was a popular idea ... we could use our school veges and herbs to make pizza with.
On the green building trail ... we were lucky to visit another stunning straw bale house in Carterton. The students all wanted to live in this house as it was so warm and cosy with underfloor heating . All the walls curved and window seats and deep sills showed off the deep bale walls.
The house had a roof made of structurally insulated panels combining high tech engineering with low tech mud and straw. Many thanks to Esther for opening her home to us!
For the second half of the workshop ... students could choose from three different activities.
- Seed Collecting skills
The students created seed packets that could be sold at a farmers market or school market.
2. Make popcorn from...popcorn!
The students were very excited to learn where popcorn comes from and we made some popcorn from some kernels Theo had grown in his garden at home. They were excited by the thought of having a school popcorn farm.
3. Make a 3d model of a topographical map
Next week the surveyor is coming in so this activities was created to teach the students about topography and how to create a topographic map. They had to build a 3D model from a map they were given.
