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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 14, 2018)
Wednesday, March 14, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 15 Farming at Sisters High School Correspondent One of the benefits of hav- ing a state-of-the-art com- munity-built greenhouse so handy at Sisters High School is the doors of opportunity it opens for students. Recently, with the help of Audrey Tehan of the Seed to Table project, 14 students from Glen Herron’s biology class got into farming in a big way. According to Tehan, “The main goal of the class is to foster a deep understanding and curiosity about our agri- culture systems. It is a vast topic of biology, socioeco- nomics, chemistry, govern- ment systems, culture, math and sooo much more. It is the perfect class to be offering juniors and seniors so they can really bring together a lot of classes they have.” Tehan’s experience with introducing students to farm- ing will eventually fill a book: “Food is what allows us to thrive and be successful in our daily lives and these agricultural systems are often overlooked,” she notes. “If we did not have many of the technologies and efficiencies involved with modern agri- culture most of us would still be working on our family farms trying to feed ourselves and our community. “However, this modern agriculture system has left us detached from our food. The greenhouse class connects a lot of dots for students. For our first day of class I asked students where they thought garlic was from — there were so many wonder- ing faces from high school seniors, when one tentatively asked, ‘it’s grown on a tree right? Noooo wait, a bush? Or maybe like an onion?’ “The correct answer is that garlic is grown like an onion, it is the bulb of a plant that must be dug up. Our food system is critical to our health and livelihood, although we take it for granted every sin- gle day — and are fortunate to be able to do so.” Chapter one of organic gardening opened up for SHS senior Meredith Mandel of Glen Herron’s biology class, as she and her partner, Mia Burton began planting spin- ach and other veggies. “I’ve only been in the greenhouse for a couple of weeks,” she said, “and last week was the third time we’ve actually got our hands dirty, but I can tell it’s going to be a great class. “I think it’s really impor- tant to learn about how to grow food, even of you don’t choose to become a farmer, it can still be applied to every- day life. It’s important that there are classes like this to reach out to students, because the average age of farm- ers is 56, so we need more people to get interested in agriculture.” “Learning about hydro- ponics has allowed me to learn about all the different nutrients that go into grow- ing flowers and produce in a controlled environment,” said senior Austin Morss. “Hydroponics may play a role in my future because I’m interested in the business side of agriculture as a career.” Senior Jared May was introduced to the science of hydroponics and found these new doors before him com- pelling, especially for future educational projects. “In the greenhouse/ organic farming class at Sisters High School we are PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON Mia Burton, Audrey Tehan, Glen Herron and Meredith Mandal discussing techniques of seed-planting. learning all about organic farming methods both tradi- tional and modern,” he said. “Currently, the most popular method of organic farming is to use chemical-free fertil- izers, composts, manures, or bonemeal to keep soil nutri- ent rich and safe. These nutri- ents are then either tilled into soil in the ground or mixed with soil and put into pots for a greenhouse. But we are also learning about a newer more productive method, the method of hydroponics. “Hydroponics consists of plants grown in a nutrient deficient growing medium such as perlite (lava rock that has been heated at high tem- peratures), coconut fibers, rock moss, etc. In the Sisters EXTREME CLEAN INC By Jim Anderson High School greenhouse we use rock moss. 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