Giant beans and other magical things at the FP Farm

By Marianne Lincoln

This is a story about giant beans. Unfortunately, they’re not magic beans; it might be handy if they were. At 11 inches, they are pretty impressive for green beans. They’re even being eaten as a food of choice by geese. No, not golden geese, Canadian geese. The beanstalks, although not leading to a castle in the clouds occupied by a giant are at least 12 feet high, pretty impressive. It was Frank that gave me the beans, not Jack, Dr. Frank Hewins, the Superintendent of the Franklin Pierce School District.

Dr. Hewins shows off giant beans from the district garden

Dr. Hewins held up the beans at the school board meeting on Tuesday. He spoke of the vegetables and fruits growing at The Farm owned by the district at 95^th and Waller Road. Over the past couple years, the district has revived the program at The Farm. Long
ago, it was the home of the district’s animal husbandry program; now, the Farm focuses on growing fruits, vegetables and some lovely flowers as well.Today, Willie Painter took me to The Farm for a tour with Sly Boskovich. Ms. Boskovich is the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Director for the Franklin Pierce School District at The Farm. She has been with the district over 20 years. The Farm is officially called the Natural Science Resource Center. It is the place for young people to get hands on education in science and agriculture.

Arriving at the farm, the first thing you will notice is that it is indeed a farm, complete with a farm-house, barns and fruit trees. The caretaker occupies the house. There is also another building which houses classroom for the New Pathways alternative high school program.

Next to the classrooms are two picnic tables, built by a boy scout project. There are also 4 new sheds there, built at the Pierce County Skills Center for the farm. Farther west there is a newly poured concrete pad. Within
the school year, ADA accessible raised garden beds will be installed for students and community members to use.

In the shade of an adjacent tree, were the Canadian geese. It was a day with temperatures over 80 degrees, even the geese were seeking the shade. I walked up to take a photo and they barely moved.

The garage recently received a new roof. The main barn will be the next to get a roof. The buildings suffered a little from several years when the farm was not in use. In the two years since this program started, the district has gotten authorization to use produce from the site in its child nutrition program. Last year over 3,000 pounds of produce was taken for use in school lunches.

There a several new fruit trees, apples, cherries and pears. Sly noted the fruit within reach of those geese is at risk. We tried a couple different apples. The pink lady variety was particularly tasty. Sly said they are hoping to use one of the old animal barns and convert it to a place to produce cider.

As we walked out toward the beans, Willie, on lark, chased off the geese. They flew north over the neighbors house. The bean plants, which are almost 12 feet high, have had the first three and a half feet cleaned off by the geese. The District is trying several strategies to keep the geese away.We each tried a green bean, it was practically a lunch by itself.

There are rows of raised garden beds with potatoes, Yukon gold, russet and German butterball. The peas are now mostly finished producing; the pumpkins have just started to blossom.

On the site there are also a couple large greenhouses. It’s a little warm inside them this time of year, there were dried peppers inside basking in the sun. In the winter, they are used to give new plants a head start on Spring.

The vision for The Farm is to share knowledge of the harvesting process with kids and parents that may not have much exposure to growing produce. Sly said it would be nice to have students and older adult volunteers working together to take care of the crops. Ms. Boskovich is committed to seeing the
agriculture program expand. Since it is a science resource center, there are many other skills and applied knowledge that can be conferred on students in the program.

In the various planter boxes, students have tried out different ways to grow the same plants. They have tested the use of different fertilizers, worms, lady bugs and measured the results from the changes. Sly noted they can experiment any way they want to test the effects on the growing process.

Ms. Boskovich hopes to have a class for parents to teach them that growing vegetables in small containers is not only feasible, but economical – whether residing in a single family home or an apartment. This would involve growing their own bowl of salad products like leafy lettuce, radishes and other greens.

They are considering adding rain barrels and planting dahlias in front near the street to brighten up the street appearance.

There is an area for composting and place for receiving posts from Pierce County who delivers the downed street signs posts for them to use in making new planter boxes. They are working on an area that will become a “kinder-garden” for the very young kids to explore.

With an almost 10 acres site, they are also considering using part of the back field to grow grass as turf. This product can be used to repair and replace spots in the district where new grass is needed.

This past year, the farm received a grant from Les Dames d’Escoffier for their composting project.

One of their biggest challenges is that there are only two summer class sessions. There is another 4 weeks in August when there are no students present to tend the crops. Keeping a sustainable workforce in place has been difficult. Sly would like to see local residents take an interest in volunteering at the site.

The Farm is a work in progress. The district is purposefully taking incremental steps as they search for the right combination of products and processes to teach. The site is a district wide resource which will grow each year with produce and new programs. For the moment, the extra apple on Willie’s dash was a good indication of how much The Farm is appreciated.