Farm-to-Fork Garden

The Country Day Farm-to-Fork Garden is a thriving year-round outdoor classroom on 1/4 acre. We promote discovery, curiosity, new skills, scientific observation, mental wellness, good health, teamwork, and service. All grades, faculty, and staff interact in the garden space with adult leadership from our Garden Coordinator, Rory Tira, and the Farm-to-Fork teacher, Aleitha Burns. We grow native plants, cutting flowers, and food crops. Our food bounty is shared with students, faculty, staff, and families at the River City Food Bank. Highlights of the farm garden experience are featured below.

LOWER SCHOOL

Our youngest gardeners enjoy frequent classroom visits to help with farm chores, including soil prep, planting, watering, and help to harvest and pack for the food bank. The dynamic time spent “doing” also provides:

• seasonal tastes and snacks with foods both new and familiar

• pollinator and insect observations

• sensory exposure and discovery

• worm bin maintenance and play

• quiet nature walks and observations

• poetry and reading activities

• free time to explore as a child

MIDDLE SCHOOL

Middle School allows for specific educational time during the Farm to Fork elective offered quarterly, year-round. Classes receive an expanded knowledge of seasonal planting and organic growing for our region, as well as specialized skills such as pruning, irrigation, direct sowing, pest management, tool safety, and seed starting. For the “fork” portion of the classwork students enjoy seasonal recipe development, and cooking and prep skills through teamwork.

Our entire Middle School program allows time and space for:

• role modeling and mentoring with younger students 

• harvesting and packing for food bank donations

• free grazing for healthy snacks at break and lunch

• use of green space as a learning environment with academic classes

• recipe planning and cooking

HIGH SCHOOL

Our high school students have freedom of all day access to our garden space for socializing, lunch, rest, and quiet study. Every student has an open invitation to pick healthy seasonal snacks at break and lunch. We also engage these students through:

• partnership projects with Environmentalist Club

• available to earn service hours (on a flexible and custom-made schedule) as a high school farm hand

• outdoor setting for class and club meetings and discussions