Cynthia Pierce with one of nineteen 4th grade classes that participated in Farm To Table on September 23, 2015.
Student using a lighted smoker carefully guided by Cynthia Pierce.
Tony Abbruzzi captivates students’ attention with honey bee flight facts.
If you’ve never taken the opportunity to work at the annual Farm to Table event, you should consider doing it. It’s work, but it’s fun, and you’ll learn a thing or two. But mostly, you’ll enjoy sharing your love of beekeeping with young members of our community.
This annual event is offered by the Chamber’s Agri-Business Committee and provides about 800 area 4th-graders the chance to learn about agriculture in our community. The program, provided at no charge, educates students about where their food comes from and what is involved in food production before it reaches the dining room table. Several different areas of farming are represented including dairy, poultry, farm technology, beekeeping, forestry products, beef cattle, field crops, soil and water conservation, and plant science.
Our club was well represented at this years’s 2-day event held on September 22nd & 23rd at Cedarock Historical Farm. Over two days, volunteers from our club talked about honey bees’ role in agriculture as pollinators of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. The kids asked great questions [What does mate mean? Why does smoke calm them down — shouldn’t it make them panic? What do drones do?], and they got to practice being still instead of panicky around free-ranging bees, as some bees escaped the observation hive. Mike Ross, Randy Stinson, Corey Gillespie, Charles Black, Wayne and Janice Foulks, Geoff and Linda Leister, Tony Abbruzzi, and Cynthia Pierce represented beekeeping this year. Thanks to all. (Submitted by Cynthia & Geoff)