A Farm Field Trip

Last week we visited a local organic farm and CSA, which also has a biodynamic seed operation. The kids had a great time (ok, I did too!) seeing what goes into the seed collection process. We often don't think much past going to the store, buying a pack of seeds, and ripping it open.

We first looked at biennial seeds, such as carrots. The kids never thought much about planting actual carrots back into the ground to get a flowing plant in the fall.

After that we helped harvest potatoes, some of which can be seed potatoes for next year. They had the most beautiful purple potatoes! Inside they were almost as purple as beets. Crazy! At our house we save the "too small" potatoes from the garden to plant again. I believe the potatoes in my garden are 3rd generation replants. :)

While harvesting potatoes, the kids found several "woolly bear" caterpillars.  Wyatt said this one liked his belly button. Silly boy.

Next we harvested bean seeds. It was fun collecting the pods into dry buckets. We were able to help them harvest the entire crop with all the little hands to help.

At the end the showed us the wet process of harvesting the tomato seeds. We found out that fermenting the tomato pulp is a very important part of the process, leading to good germination rates in the tomato seed. It was truly amazing!

We were so thankful to Nathan and Beth for showing us around (again). :)


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