Down on the farm

Outside of picture books, most kids are more familiar with objects of the city like soccer fields, garbage trucks and dogs on leashes than they are with fields of crops, tractors and hens pecking in the yard. But that’s exactly why, says David Rudin, it’s so fun — and educational — to get those kids onto a real working farm, to get
their hands dirty with the living earth.

“They’re amazed that most pigs aren’t pink and that all eggs aren’t white,” says Rudin, the education coordinator at Venetucci Farm in Southern Colorado Springs. Operated by the Pikes Peak Community Foundation, Venetucci is dedicated to sustainable, chemical-free farming, and with its leased lands totals more than 400 acres, making it one of the largest urban farms in the country.

The farm’s mission is also to serve as a classroom where children can reconnect with their food and learn to appreciate the land and the life it supports, offering farm tours and classes about farm animals, bugs, seeds or soil.

During a recent “The Living Soil” field trip with second grade students from Chamberlin Academy, Rudin, a licensed elementary teacher himself, explained the allure of the farm for youngsters.

“Kids are drawn to first-hand, direct experiences of their world, and I try and make this the basis of all our education programs,” he says, hoping to introduce the point that “eggs don’t come from cartons in the grocery store and meat doesn’t come on styrofoam trays covered in plastic.”

Programs are naturally age-appropriate: While high school students may come to the farm to learn about preserving biodiversity or sustainable environmentalism, these second graders rooted around in the dirt and learned about compost. They harvested ripe crops, added dead organic material to a compost heap, then sorted the sticks, stones and worms — “Eww, worms!” they giggle — from fully composted soil.

“Everyone on the farm has a job, not just me,” Rudin says to the children, explaining the integral role of bacteria, worms, bugs and farm cats in the cycle of food, and therefore, in the cycle of life.

“At their age, expanding the possibilities and helping them start to make connections is vital. I also think that since what they learned had a tactile component, they literally learned by doing, that it will stay with them,” he says. “Kids visiting farms are beginning the process of understanding where their food comes from. The process won’t be completed with a single trip, but it helps kids make connections and think more deeply about food and food choices.”

For more information about Venetucci Farm and its educational opportunities, visit www.venetuccifarm.org. *