Grant cultivates Farm to School lessons for Dawes students

October 8, 2024

As soon as Dawes Middle School students Avery and Kade began walking down a gravel pathway at ShadowBrook Farm, they entered a world full of exploration and excitement.
 
Eighth graders in the school’s family and consumer sciences (FCS) class made two hours of discoveries on their trip to the 34-acre farm. Picking tomatoes fresh from the vine, feeding goats in a rustic barn and sampling fresh cheese from an onsite creamery were all on their educational maps.
 
Avery and Kade both said they enjoyed their experiences on the west edge of Lincoln. What were some of the things they found out while roaming across the farm?
 
“That when you’re making yogurt, sometimes you have to put other yogurt into the milk, because then the bacteria will multiply and make more yogurt,” Avery said. “It’s super cool.”
 
“I didn’t know how cheese was produced,” Kade said. “I learned that it’s hard to make cheddar.”
 
Lincoln Public Schools eighth graders at Dawes, Culler and Mickle all visited ShadowBrook Farm this month as part of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program. LPS received a grant called “Nourishing Northeast Lincoln” to use in FCS classes at the three middle schools.
 
Kate Stewart said she and other FCS teachers felt traveling to the farm would help students in many ways. They learned about food sources and preparation, how farmers care for animals and what the different steps are for raising produce. Many of them also walked on agricultural land for the first time, which expanded their educational horizons in many ways.
 
“As a teacher, I was just excited to give them this experience,” said Stewart, who has taught at Dawes for the past six years. “We have a lot of kids that probably have never been to a working farm, so just to see their faces, to see their excitement, it was amazing.”
 
Charuth Van Beuzekom and Kevin Loth have operated ShadowBrook Farm for more than 25 years. They began farming and growing vegetables along West Denton Road in 1997, and the family started milking dairy goats and making cheese in 2006. They and business partner Ian Richmond also raise hogs and chickens, grow many varieties of cut flowers and sell their products across the state.
 
Van Beuzekom guided students throughout the sunny morning. She gave them many details about the farming and milking processes that take place every day. Students learned that it takes ten hours to make cheddar cheese, listened to a presentation inside a goat milking facility and watched her explain the differences between sweet potatoes and pumpkins.
 
The group began the day by meeting dozens of goats being housed in outdoor pens and inside a barn. Kade and her classmates burst into smiles as the goats lined the fences to receive morning meals from them.
 
“I think feeding the goats was the best part,” Kade said. “I’ve never fed them before.”
 
Everyone walked along a large vegetable field before examining sweet potatoes, pepper-growing plants and yellow and red tomatoes. Loth gave them a series of facts about pigs while standing in a pasture, and Van Beuzekom showed students how goats are milked. Their final stop was inside the creamery, where topics such as pasteurization, fermentation and the production of whey were on the knowledge lineup.
 
Avery felt the outdoor adventure was full of thumbs-up moments. He and other Diamondbacks enjoyed food together at picnic tables outside the creamery after the tour. He said he wanted to have the farm’s cheese on all of his grilled cheese sandwiches from now on.
 
“It’s pretty cool,” Avery said. “You get to come here and learn some new stuff, have some nice snacks and meet new people. Really nice people.”
 
Stewart said it was important for students to know that their food comes from farms and gardens across the country. She said giving them a firsthand look at a farm will deepen their understanding about culinary topics in class.
 
“We’re excited to use some of this information in lessons, and use our school garden and use some of the produce we get from that to create some cool recipes and maybe take some produce home as well,” Stewart said.
 
Stewart said one of the goals is for students to feel confident about adding fresh ingredients such as tomatoes and sweet potatoes in dishes that they cook. She would like to use additional Farm to School Grant Program funds to teach them about preserving, canning and freeze-drying food. They can then transfer these skills to their kitchens at home and create meals for their families.
 
Kade said she was motivated to enroll in future FCS classes because of the field trip. Stewart said those types of reactions are why she was happy to see students make many positive discoveries on the farm.
 
“We gave the kids a really cool experience today,” Stewart said.
 
Do you have a story idea? Share it with the LPS Communications Team by filling out this form!

---