On Monday 16th October, a class of children from Richard Taylor Primary School in North Yorkshire, visited White Quarry Farm in partnership with LEAF education to explore where our food comes from and how farmers manage their land. When the children arrived at the farm, they split into three groups to carry out the activities in a carousel style. For the first activity, the children changed into their wellies and headed out for a farm tour, led by farmer Tango. This involved looking at sugar beet, wheat stored in the grain store, grinding wheat into flour, getting eggs from the chickens, and seeing other animals on the farm. The children saw the rapeseed fields which were being harvested and they handled rapeseed samples.
Next up, the children picked apples from the orchard and pressed them to make their own apple juice with farmer Sam. They explored food miles, sustainability, and soil quality by burying PANTS in the kitchen garden to tie in with decomposing and composting.
For the final activity, the children took part in cooking in the farm classroom with their PhunkyFoods coordinators, Beth and Hannah. They made apple muffins using the ingredients grown on the farm that they had seen on the tour, and we have to say they looked delicious! They discussed food safety and hygiene and practiced skills such as weighing, measuring and mixing. The food prep activity was linked with knowing the origins of our ingredients, food miles and sustainability, before heading back to school.
Farm visits are an exciting opportunity for school children to see first-hand how food is grown and reared as well as showing how farmers manage their land sustainably to encourage wildlife and protect the environment. Being in the countryside can have benefits on physical and mental well-being as well as showing the children possible career opportunities in the food and farming industry.
Many thanks to Beth, Hannah, Tango, Sam and the team at LEAF education for arranging the day and providing well planned outdoor learning activities.
