Getting Their Fingers Dirty

By Raymond Nakamura

Last fall, I joined my three-year old daughter Risa and her preschool colleagues to pick pumpkins at UBC Farm—the only working farm in the City of Vancouver. A compact man with a goatee and a dark cap over his curly brown hair welcomed us one bright October morning.

Adam Hicks, the School Programs Coordinator, leads 750 to 1000 elementary school students on Farm Discovery Tours every year. His approach, he said, is to “present them with information, and allow them to make up their own minds and think for themselves, although my biases are likely clear.” For our urban preschoolers, perhaps the main attraction was the chance to get their fingers dirty, and to roam around open spaces without worrying about traffic.

The ten-hectare farm is part of the 24 hectares of land (about 30 Canadian football fields) used for research and teaching by Botany, Forest Sciences, the Botanical Gardens, and the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. We followed Adam along a dirt road, past the Harvest Hut. This is a hub of activity in the summer as the venue for Farm Markets on Saturdays, offering over 200 varieties of fruits and vegetables organically grown (but not certified) on the two-hectare Market Garden. Two third-year agriculture science students, Rosy Smit and Barb de Cook, germinated the idea of a Market Garden for a class project in 2001. With support from faculty, the idea took root and has grown ever since. Fewer university students are available over the summer, but more and more community volunteers participate every year. Some come to learn, others to socialize or relax.

Some teachers come year after year. In the fall, pumpkin harvesting is always a big attraction. In the spring, tours can include planting or harvesting a salad. Adam has a team of about a dozen volunteers to help him, mostly UBC students from various backgrounds. The young blonde woman helping that day was in Audiology (or so I heard).

Adam brought us to a strawberry patch, one of many projects that UBC students have developed. I guess strawberry fields are not forever, and most of the fruit had been picked. But he did find one with a little hole in it, perhaps chewed by a slug. He passed it around for all to look at, but after it got to my daughter, it disappeared. “Did you eat it?” I asked, but she just smiled. The children also enjoyed smelling (and in some cases tasting) the herbs in the herb garden. “The students improve their eating habits when they are educated properly,” said Kristin Harbut of Magnussen School “and proper education (in my mind) requires hands-on experiences.”

We learned about pumpkins in the greenhouse classroom and then explored the Community Garden. The entrance and tool shed are made from cob, an ancient building technique (using clay, sand and straw) that holds up surprisingly well, even in the Vancouver rain Adam showed the children the compost bins, let them play with worms, and shared some edible flowers. Risa seemed quite tickled with the idea of eating flowers. “Spicy,” she said.

The flowers came from a framed raised bed, longer than those for sleeping, but about as wide. They are used in the FarmWonders summer camp and the Intergenerational Landed Learning on the Farm program that runs during the school year. In that program, three classes of students in grades four to seven work in small groups with a Farm Friend, to plan what to plant, and to look after and harvest their crops on repeat visits. The raised beds result in warmer soil, so fruits and vegetables can be planted and harvested within the school year. “Our school-year program provides elementary children with an introduction to land values and sustainable agriculture practices,” said Co-Director of the program, Jolie Mayer-Smith.

Originally, the Farm Friends were all retired farmers, but as the program grew, committed volunteers of various backgrounds and ages have joined. Gordon Bell, a teacher who has participated three times with different grades, was impressed with how the hands-on program helped his students not only develop a deeper understanding of gardening and nature, but also improve their social and problem-solving skills. He was surprised at how much both the students and the Farm Friends seem to benefit from the intergenerational experience.

Adam led us through the grass toward the free-range chickens, raised on the farm for eggs. They use organic feed, including wireworms removed from the garden plots. Our kids trundled after Adam like a flock of free-range chicks in their bright yellow excursion pinnies. Risa loved roaming among the sixty or so chickens, who seemed remarkably relaxed about the invasion of squealing preschoolers. Photos cannot give you the sense of how they feel, how they smell, and how big they are. And kids see so many cartoon images of animals, I wonder how they process the real thing.

At last we reached the pumpkin patch, which seemed to stretch on forever. The pumpkins, already cut from the vines, sat like puppies at a pound, each waiting for a special keeper to claim them as their own. Risa went for the largest one she could find, bigger than her own torso. I discovered how spiky the stems were and had to use gloves to carry it to the car. At home, we scooped out the seeds and carved the pumpkin. We cleaned and toasted the seeds.

Our first taste of the Farm was one to savour. I hope UBC in its wisdom will keep it around for us to try again.

Editor’s Note: UBC Farm is under threat of development. Discover how you can help here:

Raymond Nakamura dads full-time and dabbles in writing, cartooning, and educational consulting when his daughter Risa naps. Together they planted some magic beans in the backyard and have been sneaking raspberries from neighbours down the lane