One of our projects this spring at The Farm will helping with the construction of a new outdoor cob kitchen. Our first step was to demolish the old crumbling cob ovens. While we hammered away, we discussed the importance of using recyclable materials. The old cob was able to return to the earth, while new clay would be harvested to create cob for the new oven with minimal impact to the environment.
We discovered that the oven also hosted a variety of insects within its foundation. We made guesses for why there were so many wood louse and centipedes living in the rubble. We came to the conclusion that, since these organisms are detritivores, they were likely feeding on the organic material in the cob that was used to construct the oven.
Other students involved themselves in animal care tasks. The straw in the goat and chicken pens need to be regularly replaced and our students took it upon themselves to make sure the animals had a clean, healthy living space. We took this opportunity to discuss what animals on the farm need to live a happy life so they can provide us with the food products we get to enjoy.
We finished the day with a farm explore and found that the chickens have been laying increasing amounts of eggs compared to the winter season. We filled our basket and prepared the eggs for sale at the farm’s market.
-Daniel