Thursday, June 11, 2009

Great Kids' Farm




Our visit to Great Kids Farm covered tons of information...

Greg Strella the manager of the farm has a lot of knowledge about a variety of different aspects of farming. Great Kids Farm was started in November 2008 on a 33 acre piece of land owned by the Baltimore City Public Schools.


The school system has owned the land since 1953 when it was sold to the City for $5 by a black abolitionist under the stipulation that the land be used to educate young black men. The city built stone structures using stone quarried from the property to replace the old wooden buildings. After many years of successful use by the city, funding ran out and the property was shut down.


Today there are two full-time paid staff working there with a third person starting work next week. Great Kids Farm has 14 living systems on the farm including chickens (x between white rock and rhode island reds), goats (8 male Alpine/Nubians donated by Groff's Content Farm), wildlife, bees, fruits, and vegetables. Strella's aim is to be able to demonstrate as many things as possible on an urban farm. The goal is to show children and adults all the variety that is possible to accomplish in the city. Not all of the intended lessons will take place at the farm. They will have a mobile chicken coop that will be moved to various schools around the city. In addition, they will be installing greenhouses at some schools, and utilizing farm grown produce at student run cafe's in the city. Great Kids Farm is already selling produce through a CSA and to a couple local restaurants with more intended outlets in the future.


Learning about all that they have accomplished on this farm in only 8 months was impressive. I look forward to seeing how they progress in the future.




2 comments:

  1. I'm so excited to hear abou this Great Kids Farm! (Tons of great press about it). Would love information about how to get in contact with them to volunteer- it's hard to find their contact info, and I filled out a volunteer form at the Great Kids site, but I'm not sure how often they check that. Your site is really amazing! I'll be linking to it...

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  2. a large and beautiful farm very much enjoyed my family and all softball players who walked in the grange

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