Monday, June 8, 2009

Fresh Start, or Great Kids Farm is a day dreamy example of successful farming on a local level. Greg Strella is casual but still approachable when explaining the many ongoing projects at the farm: the maintenance of a handful of acres of greens, beans, turnips and soon corn, a weekly collection of micro-greens, beehives, goats, chickens, hosting workshops with students as well as community members as well as an evening with Will Allen, a small CSA and growing food for:
























this guy. (Tony Geraci)


What is most important about Great Kids Farm (in addition to the very impressive agricultural success the farm has experienced this year) is what the Farm symbolizes.


Though Great Kids aims to be exciting to students, seeing goats and chickens is always pretty neat...at any age. The farm's layout (with the chickens immediately seen upon driving toward the fields) highlights the stuff kids will think is cool, as well as promotes accessibility of the farm. With the exception of what keeps the animals herded, there aren't many fences at Great Kids, just trails and trees. Greg mentioned today, that most people in agriculture, at least the people he's met, have been relatively open about learning how to grow. Great Kids farms exemplifies a movement of open, exciting, and intelligent agriculture.


Tony Gerachi's plans to incorporate good food into the school system are introducing new standards of health to students across the city. By incorporating Great Kids, it not only creates a respectable stable location for farm learning, but makes farming seem meaningful. Additionally, Great Kids works with many other local (Parks and People, Roy Skeen) as well as nationally known organizations (Will Allen and Growing Power), but the whole operation remains approachable and open.


Really, Greg Strella seems like a nice guy. He makes me want to do what he is doing. Working there today, I felt far away from my normal life (which is sometimes just as consumed with shoveling and growing plants). Great Kids, though a tangible example of agriculture in the city, felt far away. The layer of sweat, mushroom and manure coating my face felt pretty alright to me.




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