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Farmer David Sedgeman shows visiting children how to sow wheat seeds. Each school was given a metre sqare plot on which to grow enough wheat seed to make one loaf of bread next year.
Old and new cultivating machinery for planting wheat at Staple Farm
A spectacular display
of harvesting
machinery old and new was watched by 800 children.
Taste
the Harvest!
September 2010
September 2010
Children get their daily bread, from seed to loaf.....
The two day Taste the
Harvest event, held at Staple Farm, near Taunton this week
was a spectacular success!
800 children from 25 school
around Taunton and Bridgwater in Somerset enjoyed finding out all about
how their food is grown, harvested and turned into lunch!
They
were taken through the history of farming this century from heavy
horses, to modern harvesting equipment and shown how crops are
sown, nurtured, and gathered in. The event
culminated
in an extraordinary display of harvesting using a 1940's binder, a
1960's combine harvester, and a contemporary combine. Each school also
sowed enough grain in a plot donated to them, to grow their own loaf of
bread next year. Teachers overwhelmingly declared Taste the
Harvest a wonderfully worthwhile hands on opportunity for the children
with excellent links to the curriculum.
Brain child of two local
farmers, Mark Pope and Rob Walrond, it was a huge voluntary effort by
hundreds of members of the farming and local community with sponsorship
from many local organisations and companies inlcuding the Blackdown
Hills AONB Sustainable Development Fund and Making It Local.
'It was the most
invigorating experience and will have gone a long way to helping many
more children understand the whole chain from sowing the seed to
turning it into bread. We had fantastic support from the
agricultural community and helpers it was a great
achievement!'
Enthuses, organiser Mark Pope, on whose farm the event was held.
Click here to see the wheat planted!
Taste the Harvest 2007 saw children enjoying making their lunch and seeing where their daily bread comes from
Taste the Harvest 2004 saw children enjoy themselves making biscuits
If you would like to visit Staple Farm with your school, please contact Mark Pope:
- Telephone 01823 480282
- E-mail markpope@staplefarm.co.uk
Useful Links
FACE - Farming and Countryside Education
www.face-online.org.uk
School children inspect the freshly harvested grain.
Handwashing before lunch
"This was an excellent day - we all enjoyed it and learnt a great deal . We have used the day across the curriculum as well as plans to use the day as a theme for our harvest service." (Teacher's feedback)
Bob the baker with childrens' bread rolls ready for lunch
"Thank you so much for letting us enjoy ourselves while we were at your farm. Not 1 bit was boring! I loved the combine harvester. I have never had so much fun at a farm before. When we made the bread I was so excited I made a happy face!'"