A Lesson in Diversity

We enjoyed a morning program at a local farm who's focus is on sustainable farming and the environment. They focus a lot on diversity within the farming and agricultural community, as well as sustainable alternatives (such as straw bale houses). We began with a game sorting through everyday products into two piles; from a chicken, not from a chicken. Some of the things were obvious; eggs, chicken noodle soup, down, and others were more challenging; noodles, cookies, bread. The game tried to demonstrate the huge infiltration of farm goods into our daily lives.

We then moved along to the highlight for my kids, the animals. We wondered over to see the chickens, donkeys, goats and sheep, each with a question in hand. The kids had to observe the animals to answer their question. Ben had to find out how chickens drink. Something I didn't know, they fill their mouth with water and then throw their head back to get it down their throat. It turns out chickens don't have tongues.

Aria was thrilled to brush the donkey, Elias loved feeding them carrots and Ben was over the moon to be collecting warm eggs. Needless to say the entire talk on the way home was how we could live on a farm.

The second half of the program focused on diversity in nature, observing how this occurs naturally and ideally we should take a lesson from when farming. The kids made sprouting necklaces. They filled a small baggie with a piece of sheep's wool which they wet, add some different types of beans and added a string so they could carry it around their neck away from the sun until it began to sprout at which time they would plant them. Afterwards we walked through the woods to collect different leaves and observe diversity in nature.

It was an interesting farm equipped with solar showers and composting toilets, it generated lots of talk at the dinner table. I did feel as though the program was a little simplistic in what it hoped to teach the children, and that they really could have handled some meatier information about ecological impact and the difference environmentally between mono crops and diverse farming.

A place fond to my heart from when we lived in New Brunswick was on my mind while visiting here.