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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories Trying to get a handle on panhandling Calendar: Saturday, Sept. 13 So THIS is where food comes from Police Reports Garden serves up a feast fit for monarchs Education So THIS is where food comes from Longtime dean honored as fine leader, friend Signups underway for classes for older adults They're back (and they've brought friends) Free TED talk simulcast in Ashland Environment Garden serves up a feast fit for monarchs Only voters can make a tree tops in town Getting away from — and back into — it all Definition of 'water year' is fluid Excitement electric at first alternative fuel vehicle show Business Fretwell Music Ashlander creates new product intended to solve old problem App that promotes walking tested here Electric innovators incubate creativity Loving the leather at Village Shoes Politics and elections Mark L. 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Police Reports ... Calendar: Friday, Sept. 12 ... SISKIYOU SCHOOL, ASHLAND So THIS is where food comes from Farm to School program on a mission to connect kids with healthy food By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Sep. 12, 2014 @ 2:50 pm By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Sep. 12, 2014 @ 2:50 pm » RELATED CONTENT • Get a taste of farm life at camp • Siskiyou Challenge on Saturday • Hamfist concert at Stillwater to benefit Rogue Valley Far... » Social News CENTRAL POINT — Slicing an onion the right way requires concentration, a fair amount of hand-eye coordination and a sharp knife. It also helps to have fingers, which is why the boy rocking the ball cap, turned backward, and jean shorts must be addressed. “One time on TV,” he says, “I saw this guy with two knives and he was doing it with both hands, like this.” He then demonstrates this technique using his hands as knives, karate chopping at the cutting board like an air drummer gone mad. The instructor, wearing a Rogue Valley Farm to School apron, lets him down gently. “Uh huh,” she says, “but we’re not that guy, right?” No, they’re not that guy, but a few minutes later, after some instruction on the proper way to handle a chopping knife, the students from the Siskiyou School in Ashland had worked their way through about half a dozen onions (and zero fingers), and were nearly finished preparing a homemade pizza. The food preparation instruction was one of four stations that students cycled through Thursday during a field trip to Historic Hanley Farm just outside Jacksonville, where about 20 students also learned how to identify insects that could harm a garden, studied the farm animal hierarchy and practiced collecting seeds for future planting. “We really emphasize a focus on seasonality and learning about the seasons and how that impacts agriculture in our valley,” said Farm to School program director Melina Barker, who led the students through one of the stations Thursday. “They have a lot of fun and our hope is that we’re giving them some life skills that they might not otherwise get — some really basic connection with where their food comes from, how to produce food and how to take whole foods from the garden or farm and prepare a meal in a really simple way.” The farm-to-school movement, whose mission Barker effectively summarized, is national, nonprofit and relies heavily on sharing between organizations and donations. Barker says RVFTS does not receiving funding from a national source, which is part of the reason why fundraisers such as next Saturday’s Siskiyou Challenge, a six-leg, multi-sport relay race that begins and ends at ScienceWorks Hands-On Museum in Ashland, are so important. Besides its field trips to five area farms, Farm to School also works to help schools establish and sustain garden projects and connects local growers to schools in order to increase the amount of locally grown food that’s passed out in school cafeterias. That’s more complicated than it may sound and involves keeping up on what produce is available and when, then figuring out ordering, receiving, storage and distribution that’s in sync with school menus. So Barker, one of eight RVFTS staffers listed on its web site, is too busy to hunt for seeds and catch bugs with the kids as much as she would like. “Unfortunately, I don’t make it out to the farm quite as much as I used to,” she said. “I love to be here.” It’s easy to see why the students love it, too. On Thursday, Heidi Martin’s third-grade class spent about four hours on Hanley’s 37-acre grounds, snatching insects, squishing tomatoes into paste and petting goats. During a lunch break, 8-year-old student Keva Cobb ate with her mom under a tree and explained what the bug-catching was all about. “It was kind of hard because there are a lot of bugs and there are some that you really can’t catch,” she said, “like the bees, because they have to pollinate and stuff. It’s also hard because a lot of them are jumping around and flying.” Cobb was able to capture one baby grasshopper, however, which she identified on a chart then released (students are instructed to take insects that could harm the plants far away before letting them go). She isn’t squeamish with bugs, but everyone has their limits. “I’m okay,” she said, “but there was one scary part, when I tried to let it go and he kind of jumped up in my face.” Rogue Kirkwood, another 8-year-old, had yet to put his bug-catching skills to the test at lunch time, but enjoyed the pizza-making station. “It was really fun,” he said. “We had a lot of experiences with cooking and my dad cooks a lot. I really like cooking and sometimes I make dinner for my sister and my dad. … I also did the tomato picking. We were just going around, seeing if we could find any tomatoes, ripe ones. We found about 10, 20 of them.” Martin said it’s important that her students learn where their food comes from. “A lot of the experience is woven into the curriculum, which includes harvesting and learning about the life cycle of the plant and actually taking the food that’s harvested and then transforming it, through cooking, into something the children can enjoy. “It’s very enriching. They love to get to roll up their sleeves and get their hands in it — look for the bugs and find vegetables. I think they enjoy every aspect of it.” Though the Siskiyou Challenge has little to do with making healthy choices at the lunch table, the funds it raises, while still on the modest end, provide crucial financial support for RVFTS. The brainchild of local doctor Deborah Gordon, the Challenge is part of the Rogue Valley Race Group’s multi-sport series, so competitive racers can accumulate points for that series by finishing. It’s not a walk in the park. In order to complete the entire relay race teams must bike, kayak and run their way through and around Ashland. The course includes a three-kilometer single paddle kayak leg across Emigrant Lake, a 13-kilometer mountain bike ride and wraps up with a six-kilometer run from the reservoir to the finish line behind ScienceWorks at 1500 E. Main St. The Challenge also has something for youngsters (or those who are not up for the relay race), a one-mile fun run, as well as a harvest fest on the Science Works grounds. Those who would like to participate can visit siskiyouchallenge.org for more information, including registration forms and race maps. This will be the fifth Siskiyou Challenge. The first drew 53 teams and 192 participants. Last year, 350 competed, which raised for Farm to School about $15,000, according to RVFTS executive director Tracy Harding. She’d like to get that number up to $20,000. For Harding, who has helped organize the four previous Challenge runs and became RVFTS’s first full-time staff member in 2012, it’s a labor of love. A longtime advocate of sustainable agriculture and healthy eating, she was trying to change the way people look at food long before obesity became a national epidemic. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study conducted in 2009-10, 18 percent of children in the U.S. ages 6 to 11 and 18.4 percent of 12-to-19-year olds are obese. Harding says field trips like the one RVFTS organized Thursday can make a big difference. In fact, she’s seen that happen right before her eyes. “It’s not uncommon for (students) to arrive and be annoyed that they’re outside and they’re going to get dirty,” she said. “But it takes so little to get them turned around and excited. And then by the time they’re ready to leave, the kids that said they didn't want to eat vegetables when they got there, they’re the ones that want more.” Joe Zavala can be reached at 541-776-4469 or [email protected].   By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Sep. 12, 2014 @ 2:50 pm » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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