Note from the Executive DirectorHappy Winter! I heard the most inspiring news today from a teacher-farmer here in Massachusetts – they have planted their fi rst seeds of the season on his farm! For those of us on the east coast, that kind of news can almost keep you warm on these 20 degree days.

The Farm-Based Education Association will be three years old in May and there is plenty to celebrate. So many things have evolved in the fi eld of farm-based education and the work we all do has never been more important. As we brace ourselves against the current economic winds, work-ing, productive farms that sustain and nurture people with their food and public programming will continue to be a critical resource for individuals, families, and communities.

Speaking of a critical resource, this year’s NOFA Winter Con-ference (Northeast Organic Farmers Association) had 300 more attendees than it did last year. Over lunch and some really delicious chocolate, a seasoned teacher-farmer from the Berkshires (and frequent Winter Conference attendee), noted that the crowd at this annual event has never been younger. The increase in attendance seemed to be made up of young people—many fresh out of college. These young adults were looking for a different way to live successfully, mindfully, and responsibly—a better path than the bumpy road of our country’s ailing corporate culture. And here they were exploring farming and farm-based programming!

I hope we will see you at one of our events this year—see the back page for details. Also, keep your eyes open for some exciting new features on our website this spring –think farm-based education 2.0!

Brooke RedmondExecutive Director

P.S. The November Conference announcements and brochures will all be online – we will not be mailing any conference materials. If you don’t occasionally receive e-mail announcements from us and would like to, please send your e-mail address to info@farmbasededucation.org.

The mission of the Farm-Based Education Association is to inspire, nurture and promote farm-based education.

W I N T E R / S P R I N G 20 0 9

Teaching about Living Systems on the Farm: Remembering What We Already Know by Linda Booth Sweeney

These days, children tend to learn about nature far from nature. In classrooms and labs,

they try to understand the nutrient cycle and other living systems that comprise our world.

When children meet farmers and are immersed in the real work and cycles of life on a

farm, farms can become classrooms where students can see and touch systems and come to

understand the interconnected and interdependent nature of all living things. When farmers

become educators, they can share their understanding gained from experience, that nothing

stands in isolation, that connections in nature, people, problems and events bind us all.

continued on p. 4

On a recent trip with a group of third graders to Gaining Ground, a non-profi t farm in

Concord, Massachusetts, I found myself spellbound by the outhouse. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. The outhouse had been lovingly painted in a riot of colors, and carved in a gingerbread theme. It was at once whimsical and functional, and clearly a valued structure on the farm. The farmer, Verena Wieloch, talked about the structure to students, who had cautiously gathered around it, giggling, wincing, and pinching their noses in anticipation of foul odors.

“Is this where we go to the bathroom?” said a boy, squeamishly. Verena smiled. She had a secret to share. This was no ordinary bathroom. This was a com-posting toilet. “After you use the out-house, the waste is composted, or bro-ken down into a fertile soil that is full of rich nutrients, like nitrogen, for the soil. The farmers here put that compost on the herb and vegetable gardens.” Verena stopped before detailing what that meant: We then eat the herbs and veggies that grow in the compost from the outhouse. After digesting our food, we can return to the outhouse and the cycling of nutrients continues.

Verena’s point that day was that in nature, there is no such thing as waste. One species’ waste is another’s food. This is the “waste = food” living sys-tem. At this farm, the outhouse-to-gar-den practice of turning our waste into food for herbs and vegetables reveals how if we understand living systems, we can work with them, rather than disrupt them. Our farms can thrive when they mimic the ways of nature and in doing so, foster respect for land and nature, an essential element to understanding and meeting today’s environmental challenges.

Developing Systems Intelligence on the Farm The idea that waste = food, or closed loops of nutrient recycling, is not new. What is new is the increasing interest among educators and school admin-istrators to teach students to think about systems, to see and understand the interconnections and dynamics of the natural and social systems around them. Students who understand the principle of waste = food, may then be challenged to look for examples in their everyday lives where waste from one system can become food for another. What about cafeteria waste? Can that become “food” for the school garden?

page 2 WINTER/SPRING 2009

Special Adults, Greener Earth: Helping the Autistic Population, the Environment, and the Communityby Linda H. Davis

In Massachusetts, and throughout the United States, a care movement is quietly taking place. As parents

search for meaningful lives for their adult autistic children, more of them are looking back to the past for the answer, to farming.

The SAGE Crossing Foundation, based in Harvard – SAGE is an acronym for “Special Adults, Greener Earth” – is one of at least two Boston-area groups who have formed 501(c)(3) non-profi ts to create farmsteads for autistic adults. These groups have been inspired by Bittersweet Farms, in Whitehouse, Ohio, the country’s fi rst farmstead devoted exclusively to the care of autistic adults. Though Bit-tersweet is going strong after 25 years, and people come from all over the world to study its model, the thera-peutic farmstead is still not widely used in this country. Autistic adults tend to live with their families or in group homes, commuting from there to work or to day programs.

So why do anything different? Because autistic people have unique needs. They are often oblivious to danger. Even as adults, they may have to be reminded to look both ways before crossing a street. Many of them cannot take public transportation alone, or work unsupervised. They can be profoundly sensitive to light and sound and crowds. They are, in effect, social misfi ts. They can be so primitive, so limited in their ability to talk and understand language; and so impris-oned by their odd behaviors, that they simply cannot function well in society. And society’s patience is itself limited.

Rural settings offer a safer, quieter environment and allow many natu-ral opportunities for exercise, which calms the nervous system. Farm work is purposeful. It shows meaning-ful results — the egg gathered from the chicken ends up on your plate at breakfast. It provides the chance to work as part of a community – something crucial to the person who essentially lives in his or her own world. Farming involves a variety of tasks, but within the framework of a predictable routine. This too is vital

to the autistic person, who otherwise often spends his or her days in a shel-tered workshop where performing the same, repetitious task reinforces his or her isolation. Farms, in fact, provide almost limitless opportunities to adapt the environment to the needs of an autistic individual.

The daily contact with animals is also highly therapeutic to people with autism. This is something that the horse community, and others who work with animals, have long under-stood. At Drumlin Farm in Lincoln, MA, a working farm and wildlife sanctuary with miles of walking trails, special needs groups are also served. Sally Farrow, a teacher-naturalist at Drumlin, notes that the benefi ts of farms to the autistic population are not always immediately evident, but are a wonderful learning environment. Sometimes, an autistic person’s fi rst encounter with a barn stops him: it’s dark inside, full of strange smells and sounds. But when the experience is repeated, the person with autism becomes comfortable. And animals “seem to sense that autistic people are different. An animal that would ordinarily pull back will just stay put.”

“For this unique population”, says Sally, “who don’t understand social subtleties, and can’t read signals, animals become an ‘intermediary’, a bridge to the human world”.

The presence of animals can work effects greater than any medication.

Boo McDaniel, who has been operat-ing the Pony Farm and Horse Power in Temple, New Hampshire for 37

years, recently described a photograph she took of a “very involved” (a term used to describe the level of one’s disability) autistic girl, who is prone to eating dirt, in a rare moment of calm as a rabbit lay against her face. The rabbit’s soothing effect on this girl “as-tonished everyone” at the Pony Farm.

Amanda Hogan is the Executive Director of the 200-year-old Windrush Farm, a therapeutic equitation facility in Boxford, Massachusetts, which serves not only the autistic popula-tion but veterans of the Vietnam and Persian Gulf Wars suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. She talked about the transformation of autistic riders on night rides – something that terrifi es the other disabled equestri-ans. When the light fades, and the riding days get shorter, riders are ush-ered into a fl uorescent-lighted arena

A SAGE Foundation student feeds an eager goat

”“Farm work is purposeful. It shows meaningful results — the egg

gathered from the chicken ends up on your plate at breakfast.

WINTER/SPRING 2009 page 3

LEARN MORE at: www.farmtoschool.org Learn more about the National Farm to School Network, establish contacts in your state and/or region, or learn about current and forthcoming legislation. Or contact Dana Hudson, dhudson@shelburnefarms.org

Bringing Local Farm Food to the Mouths of Our Youth: Building the National Farm to School Network by Dana Hudson

What better way to increase farm-based education and consumption of local farm

fresh foods than to get these foods into school cafeterias? Not only does it advance the local food movement and the connection to local farms, it also has long-term health benefi ts for our children. This great idea has really caught on around the country, and Farm to School projects and activi-ties are rapidly growing in number and size. There are now over 2,000 projects in 40 states, serving youth in urban, suburban and rural com-munities. Moreover, with the develop-ment of the National Farm to School Network, these communities are now speaking with a unifi ed voice.

But it’s no easy task! Farm to School projects are trying to address the many complexities of our food distribution infrastructure as well as the complexi-ties of personal taste. Growing, mov-ing, processing, preparing, serving, and

eating food all have to be considered in a comprehensive program. And we’ve learned that educating students with and about local foods is impor-tant for them to accept new fl avors. Schools are taking kids to the farms, cooking with them in the classroom, growing school gardens, and even cooking and serving food alongside school food service personnel to increase the chances of successful integration of local foods.

Many states are identifying the ben-efi ts of Farm to School programs; 18 have passed legislation to support it. Some laws establish state positions to coordinate Farm to School efforts, others develop incentive programs or mandates. These states include Cali-fornia, Colorado, Connecticut, Dela-ware, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylva-nia, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

National legislation is also starting to refl ect the grassroots Farm to School movement. The recent Farm Bill has a grant program for community food projects and clarifying language for giving geographic preference to local farms who bid on school contracts. The Farm Bill also expanded funding for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Pro-gram that many states are using to get local foods in schools. Efforts are un-derway to include expanded programs for school gardens and Farm to School in the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act that is up for renewal in 2009.

Dana Hudson Northeast Regional Lead of the National Farm to School Network and founding board member of the FBEA.

– but not for long. Weather permit-ting, Amanda gets the riders and staff outside the barn as much as possible. The effect is magical. The riders relax. Their jabbering stops. One evening, as they rode outside near the arena, there was a big, collective sigh. Everyone watched as the moon rose. Another time, a hawk fl ew across the night sky. (Some of the autistic riders even noticed the hawk.) As they rode into the woods, everybody became quiet. You could hear the horses’ hooves rustling the leaves.

To ride in the dark, Amanda explained, you have to trust your horse, and listen. Amanda has found that the concentration autistic riders achieve during these night rides stays with them after they return to the artifi cial light of the arena. It even remains with them when they leave Windrush, and return home in a calmer state. So do staff – no small consideration in a care system where the pay is low, and the burnout rate is high.

As parent-founded groups such as SAGE struggle to educate the public

about the needs of autistic people, who are entering adulthood in alarm-ingly high numbers (and requiring tax-funded services); as they search for

land donations, and try to raise money for farmsteads and farm programs, they are challenged by a care sys-tem that is set in its ways. They need the chance to show that the current system, while it has its success stories, involves too much care-giving. They need the chance to prove that the farmstead teaches autistic people to be more self-suffi cient. That by placing residence and work at the same loca-tion, we can save taxpayer money and be more environmentally friendly. That more farms mean more fresh produce for the community.

Amanda Hogan believes that farm-based education is the ultimate for people on the autism spectrum. “There’s always a reason for every-

thing you do on a farm,” she said. And autistic people “love to be able to nurture something.” Like Boo McDaniel, Amanda understands that farms do not need to offer mounted programs in order to help autistic people and their families. Even thera-peutic riding programs can use their resources to teach more than riding to people with autism. Windrush Farm, which already has a vocational program, is planning to offer more kinds of farm work, such as haying, to its autistic participants. The older stu-dents who no longer ride already help out around the barn, with feeding, grooming, and tacking up the horses.

The lure of nature is fundamental, its effect on the most disabled among us, profound. The “most involved” autistic man served by Windrush Farm summed it up. “Going out-side?” he asks. “Going outside?”

Linda H. Davis is the author, most recently, of Charles Addams: A Cartoonist’s Life, and is president of the non-profi t SAGE Crossing Foundation. She is the mother of a 22-year-old autistic son, who lives at home.

”“The lure of nature is fundamental, its

effect on the most disabled among us,

profound.

”“

In the last 15 years, a growing number of schools in the U.S. and worldwide have begun in earnest to teach stu-dents to think about systems – rather than fragments – as the context for exploring complex problems, and for fostering more intentional decision making about the natural world. Ac-cording to the 150 educator-authors of Benchmarks for Scientifi c Literacy, thinking about systems – “thinking about a whole in terms of its parts,

and, about how the parts relate to one another and to the whole” — is an essential element of scientifi c literacy that should be mastered by the time students graduate from high school.” An increasing number of schools around the country, including several State Departments of Education, are embedding systems concepts into “Education for Sustainability” (EFS) — learning that promotes understand-ing of the interconnectedness of the environment, economy, and society — and are requiring EFS be included in middle school science standards.

How can farm-based education foster systems literacy? When we become systems literate, we do three things:

1. We see systems, the whole and its parts and processes, as the context for decision making and learning. (We make visible the connections among the chickens, the manure, the soil, the crops, the farmer, etc.)

2. We develop enduring understand-ings of the principles that guide living systems (see side bar),

3. We approach both simple and complex systems with what educa-tor Art Costa calls “habits of mind” — characteristics of what intelligent people do when confronted with problems whose resolutions are not immediately apparent. For instance, we may begin to antici-pate unintended consequences by tracing loops of cause and effect, always asking “what will happen next?” (For more related “habits of minds”, see www.lindabooth-sweeney.net/thinking/habits).

Farms Are Living SystemsA living system is an animate arrange-ment of parts and processes that continually affect one another other over time. Not everything is a system though. If you divide a heap of bricks in half, what do you get? Two heaps. The collection of bricks are a heap, not a system. What do you get if you cut a cow in half? Ask any child over four this question and see what they say. Most children know that you don’t get two cows. Living systems have an integrity; the parts matter, and the way the parts are arranged matters. The great American conservationist Aldo Leopold brought our attention to this integrity when he called for “intelligent tinkering” with the natural world:

The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: “What good is it?” If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the fi rst precaution of intelligent tinkering.”

When we understand what constitutes a living system, we also see that our families, communities, organizations, and farms are all living systems. The parts of a farm are the farmer, animals, crops, insects, soil, weather, and more that are connected to and

nested in each other. The farm is part of a larger food production system that includes natural and human resources, waste, food processing, distributors and consumers.

Farmers and farm-based educators can join another living system, a sys-tem of learning and teaching, in which students, teachers and other visitors discover how a farm is not a set of interesting but disconnected parts, but a living system nested within larger systems. Farmers know this well. With a little help and a few ideas, they can be remembering what they already know, and then helping young people to make connections beyond the farm, to their everyday lives.

Taking a First Step Most of us were not taught in school to “think about systems.” Traditional schooling has tended to separate the material world from the social world, reinforcing the notion that knowledge is made up of many unrelated parts. Growing up, I was taught the best way to understand a subject was to analyze it or break it up into parts. I wasn’t taught in school to see systems of mul-tiple causes, effects and unintended

page 4 WINTER/SPRING 2009

continued from page 1: Living Systems on the Farm

Principles of Living SystemsWe use the phrase “living systems” as a metaphor, to represent an animate arrangement of parts and processes that continually affect each other over time. There are liv-ing systems at all scales, from the smallest plankton, to the human body, to the planet as a whole.

Interdependence: Living systems are made up of interconnected relationships, in which each partner affects and often needs the other.

Systems Integrity: A system is “whole” or it has “integrity” when all the parts and processes essential to its ability to function are present. In living systems, it matters how the parts and processes are arranged (that’s why you don’t get two cows if you cut a cow in half).

Feedback: Living systems are made up of circular processes that create stability by counteracting or lessening change (balancing feedback) or growth or decay by ampli-fying or reinforcing change (reinforcing feedback).

Biodiversity: Living systems depend on the variety, complexity, and abundance of species to be healthy and resilient.

Cooperation and Partnership: In living systems, species exchange energy and resources through a con-tinual cooperation and partnership.

Living Cycles: A cycle is a circular process that repeatsover and over, frequently returning to where it began. Thewater, nitrogen, carbon and other cycles sustain life, circu-late resources, and provide opportunities for renewal.

Rightness of Size (or Optimal Size): The propor-tions of living systems—their bigness or smallness and their built-in limitations to growth—infl uence a system’s stability and sustainability.

Waste = Food: In living systems, waste from one system becomes food for another. All materials in nature are valu-able, continuously circulating in closed loops of produc-tion, use, and recycling.

This is only a partial list of enduring understandings related to Living Systems. For other key concepts, go towww.farmbasededucation.org.

When we become systems literate...we

see systems, the whole and its parts and

processes, as the context for decision

making and learning.

Find three systems-thinking activities at FBEA’s web site: www.farmbasededucation.org to do with visitors to your farm, and learn more about Linda Booth Sweeney and systems education.

WINTER/SPRING 2009 page 5

Recipe: Winter Root Slaw from COOKING WITH SHELBURNE FARMS: Food and Stories from Vermont used by permission of Viking Studio (Penguin Group USA). Copyright Melissa Pasanen and Shelburne Farms, 2007.

There is no question that eat-ing locally in northern latitudes gets more challenging as the

temperature drops: here in Vermont our fi elds experience a deep freeze and animals huddle in the barns to keep warm. But just because your garden is asleep doesn’t mean you should abandon all hope! There are still plenty of sweet, nutritious root vegetables to enjoy as the winds howl. The following recipe, adapted from Cooking with Shelburne Farms: Food and Stories from Vermont, is just one way to enjoy a crisp mouthful of vegetables in the cold months. Served as a side dish to nearly any sautéed or broiled meat or fi sh, this dish reminds us of just how good local can taste.

Cellaring roots is one of the best ways to make sure you and your family can enjoy the benefi ts of local, farm-raised food throughout the win-ter. Some root cellars are fancy, stone-built rooms, but your vegetables don’t

need such special treatment. A cool, dark room with high humidity will do the trick. It is too late to cellar roots this year, but my guess is that your local farmer has stashed away some of the fall harvest. Go ahead and ask —she just may sell you a 10 pound bag

of mixed roots. For more information on root cellaring, see Elliot Coleman’s book, Four Season Harvest.

Phoebe Garfi nkel lives at 44.476N where she enjoys cooking, eating and cross-country skiing when the temperature begins to plunge.

Hope is at the Root in Winterby Phoebe Garfi nkel, Food Systems Coordinator at Shelburne Farms and Board Member for the Vermont Fresh Network

1. In a large serving bowl, whisk together the crème fraiche, cider vinegar, mustard, sugar and salt.

2. Cut the parsnips and carrots into 2-inch matchsticks, or grate on a box grater. As you cut or grate them, add the vegetables to the dressing and toss to coat.

3. Using a sharp knife or very good peeler, peel the knobby skin from the celery root and cut or grate per above. Add the celery root to the dressing and toss to coat.

4. Toss in scallions. Refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 2 days. Before serving, adjust seasoning to taste.

½ cup crème fraiche2 ½ Tbsp. cider vinegar1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. Dijon mustard1 tsp. sugar1 tsp. coarse kosher salt plus more to taste3-4 small parsnips (about ¾ lbs.), trimmed

and peeled3 medium carrots (about ½ lbs.), trimmed

and peeled1 small celery root (celeriac, about ¾ lbs.)6 scallions, white and light green parts only,

thinly sliced

impacts. Yet these are the some of the skills our children will need to build healthy food systems, navigate inter-dependent fi nancial systems and deal with issues of global impact such as climate change. Without these skills, we continue to operate from crisis to crisis, stuck on the problem solving treadmill, where our “solutions” often only create more problems or make the original problem worse.

“The journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step.” So said Lao Tzu, the famous Chinese Taoist philosopher. Where do we begin? Rather than seeing the farm as a collection of unrelated pieces, how will you encourage, or continue to encourage your visitors to under-stand how the parts of your farm work together and how your farm is connected to and nested within other systems? How will you use the vibrant and enriching context of the farm, to encourage a child’s natural

inclination to look for connections on the farm and among, nature, people, problems, and events? However you choose to encourage systems literacy, please share your ideas with others in the FBEA network. Your fellow farmer-educators and future genera-tions will be grateful that you did!

Acknowledgements: I interviewed several farmer-educators, including Rebecca Gilbert (Native Earth Teaching Farm), Verena Wieloch (Gaining Ground), and Edie and Tom Sisson (Drumlin Farm) for this article. Many thanks for your generous contributions.

Linda Booth Sweeney, Ed.D. is a systems educator, researcher, and writer dedicated to helping people of all ages learn to embed everyday decisions with deeper understanding of liv-ing systems principles.

FBEA in Edutopia Magazine!Edutopia.org recently featured the Farm-Based Educa-tion Association in an article by Bernice Yeung, titled, “Cultivating Minds: Food-Related Curricula Take Root Nationwide.” Link to the full article from the Publication Resource Page of the FBEA website, or at: www.edu-topia.org/food-school-garden-farm-curriculum. The article was published November 5, 2008 © Edu-topia.org, The George Lucas Educational Foundation.

EVERYBODY EATS!: Find Your Local Farm: Volunteers from the Farm School, the Food Project, the FBEA, the Minute Man National Historical Park, and Gaining Ground volun-teered at the summer Bruce Springsteen Concert at Foxboro stadium.

page 6 WINTER/SPRING 2009

The Symbiosis of the Educational Farm and the Conservation Commission: Land’s Sake and the Town of Weston, Massachusettsby Grey Lee

Land’s Sake is an educational farm in Weston, MA, operating on town land since 1980. Most people

know us as the main farm where we have a retail farm stand, CSA distribu-tion tent, and where we host many educational tours. Less visible to the public are our educational programs at schools and other work sites, as well as our forestry work: tending to trails,

harvesting fi rewood in the winter, our maple program, and our land care branch. Staff members offer ecological horticulture services for private and institutional clients and maintain open space on behalf of the town. We enjoy a close relationship with the Town Government through the Conserva-tion Commission, which oversees a contract we bid on and have won for many years. Many people consider the farm the “heart of Weston” and a

keystone in maintaining a country at-mosphere in this suburban landscape.

In the contractual arrangement, Land’s Sake has a license to raise vegetables and run a farm stand on one 40-acre parcel most commonly identifi ed as Land’s Sake, and to cultivate three other public parcels of farmland in other parts of town. Under the con-

tract, the Town pays us for raising up to 22,000 pounds of vegetables for distribution to the needy. We are also reimbursed for provid-ing educational work on the farm to local children in our summer program. Land’s Sake maintains the public park-like grounds of the main farm, which once was a private arboretum, and mows several public fi elds around town to keep them open and beautiful. In a separate

contract, we manage a maple syrup operation where we pay youth to help us collect and process sap and are reimbursed for a certain amount of expenses related to sugaring. (See chart for a summary of this contract.) In yet another arrangement, we are licensed to use a small town-owned farmhouse as staff housing, offi ce space, and as a base of operations.

The Conservation Commission of

Weston is a seven-member volun-teer board that oversees the town’s conservation land and administers the Wetlands Protection Act on behalf of the Board of Selectmen. Much of their time is spent working with property owners to ensure best practices and protection of wetlands during build-ing projects. They have one paid staff administrator but no grounds staff. Through the contract with Land’s Sake, the Commission is able to ensure their domains are well tended, and at a relative discount from what it would cost if Town employees were to perform the work. By having an edu-cational non-profi t maintain a working landscape that brings the public onto the land for events, programming and shopping, the Commission ensures that the benefi ts of protected land are leveraged into actual experiences by members of the community.

Land’s Sake and the Weston Con-servation Commission have worked together for almost 30 years, which has demanded tremendous institu-tional support by the individual Com-missioners who see the benefi ts of working with an outside party. Land’s Sake takes care of staffi ng, equipment and other infrastructure issues and the Commission has cost-effective and effi cient control over what gets done and when. Land’s Sake appreciates a landlord who would otherwise leave their land in a state of static custody. As a community-serving non-profi t, it would be otherwise impossible to afford market-rate rents and concur-rently provide educational outreach based on vegetable production and land management. The community enjoys numerous benefi ts: the beauty of the working landscape, a farm dedicated to educating people about agriculture, ecology and local history, and well managed and welcoming public land for recreational and aes-thetic purposes.

As the community farm movement gains traction, we are happy to share our story with those exploring similar scenarios in their own communities.

Grey Lee is the Executive Director of Land’s Sake and is a founding board member of the FBEA.

Land’s Sake, Inc. Contract with The Weston Conservation Commission Based on the most recent year

Service .................Amount Description Field Mowing.................. $15,000 Mow and care for 21 open fi elds throughout the town – approx. 100 acresCase Maintenance ........... $5,000 Land care: including mowing the main farm site – the Case 40 Acre FieldEnvironmental Ed ............ $8,000 Deliver programs to the public schoolsGreen Power .................... $8,000 Support summer youth work at the farm Food for the Needy ......$25,000 Grow and distribute 22,000 lbs of foodCommunity Gardens ...... $1,000 Help care for a few dozen garden plotsOrchard Maintenance .... $2,000 Tend an apple orchard on town landTotal .............................. $64,000

Become A Member of the FBEA!Join the nearly 100 farm-based educators, historians, land conserva-tionists, farmers, and community organizers in our network. Need to renew or are thinking of joining? Now is the time. We will be updating our Membership Program this Spring.

Benefi ts of Membership now include: • 10% discount on seasonal workshops & events, including fall conference

Post job opportunities on the FBEA Job Resource page • Tailored recommendations for resources to help you in your work• Organizational members• may send up to 3 staff members at a discount to FBEA events and may include as many e-mail addresses from their organization in their membership as they would like

Coming this spring:Access to our online database of • materials and informationWeekly fl yers including seasonal • farm-based activities, featured farm-based programs and prac-titioners, and fun and inspiring ideas to help you in your workTo join, or for more information, visit the membership section of the

FBEA website or e-mail: membership@farmbasededucation.org.

Annual Membership ratesStudent……………..$35Individual …………..$50Organization………..$140

WINTER/SPRING 2009 page 7

Farm-Based Education: A Global SnapshotLearning about Rural History and Culture in Tuscanyby Erin Cinelli

As you turn off the main road and begin to climb the long drive-way up to the Castello complex

at Spannocchia, keep an eye out for fl ashes of white and black striped animals. You may see one of our Cinta Senese pigs, one of the heritage breeds of farm animals raised by the Tenuta di Spannocchia, a 1,100-acre organic agricultural estate nestled in the Montagnola Senese region of Tus-cany, just south of the medieval city of Siena. Spannocchia has been owned by just two families throughout its his-tory, the Spannocchi family—one of the prominent banking families in Siena in the early Renaissance—and the Cinelli family, the owners since 1925. After the Italian government abolished the Mezzadria tenant farming system in the 1950’s, the Cinelli family decided to convert Spannocchia into an educa-tional center. The fi rst visiting students in the 1960’s focused on Etruscan archaeology, but current visitors can get a glimpse of all aspects of Tuscan rural culture and sustainable agricul-ture. The Spannocchia Foundation, a US-based non-profi t that raises funds through its membership to support education and enrichment activities offered at the Castello, was founded in 2002 to encourage global dialogue about sustaining cultural landscapes for future generations through the example of Tenuta di Spannocchia.

There are activities at Spannocchia to suit all tastes and interests. We offer weekly tours of the Cinta Senese pork production operation, which includes visits to the animal enclosures and seasonal farrowing areas, the salumi production kitchen, and the meat curing room. (Salumi is an umbrella term for traditional Italian salt-cured pork products like prosciutto, pancetta, salami, lardo, soppressata, etc.) The tour concludes with a guided tast-ing of Spannocchia’s organic salumi products. Participants learn about our efforts to preserve traditional methods of farming, our commitment to organic agriculture, and the role that Spannoc-chia Foundation members play in sup-porting our efforts to preserve heritage farm animal breeds.

We also offer guided tours of our vegetable production opera-tion, including the kitchen garden, fruit orchard, and large-scale production plots. These tours focus on explaining our efforts to produce vegetables for our kitchen in a sus-tainable, integrated way, using the resources available to us from our land and the Mediter-ranean climate, including a discussion about composting at Spannocchia.

Weekly cooking classes feature Span-nocchia products and traditional Tuscan recipes prepared under the guidance of long-time Spannocchia chef, Loredana Betti. Classes includes a tour of the garden, instruction in the preparation of a four-course luncheon, and recipes of the items prepared. Participants enjoy the fruits of their la-bor at the end of the class, along with organic wine and vin santo produced at Spannocchia. Loredana grew up at Spannocchia in the 1950’s when she and her family were tenant farmers on the property. As a young girl, she learned how to prepare the traditional fare of the region and eventually de-veloped a talent notable even in this area, where almost everybody seems capable of culinary magic!

For local residents, the Castello hosts seasonal festivals, including a May Day celebration with traditional songs and music to welcome spring, guided nature tours several times a year, and fattoria didattica (educational farm) programs for local school children of all ages.We have hosted members of the Farm-Based Education Association at Spannocchia over the years. Some have been regular guests looking for a vacation that would be relaxing and inspiring at the same time, while oth-ers have been long-term collaborators, such as the Farm School, which sends its apprentice farmers to Spannocchia

for several weeks each February to learn about cultivating vegetables in a Mediterranean climate while west-ern Massachusetts is still covered in a cold layer of snow. We have also hosted FBEA members at Spannocchia around the time of Slow Food’s Terra Madre gathering — many attendees try to expand their trip to Italy to explore different regions, and visit producers in regions outside of Turin, where Slow Food is based. It is a wonderful opportunity for us to show what we are doing at Spannocchia to visitors who really understand and appreciate our activities! We also offer opportu-nities for 1-2 week volunteer stays, which have proved to be very popular, and fi ll up quickly with travelers in-terested in being part of a community and contributing to life on the farm during their travels in Italy.

There are many ways to visit Span-nocchia—we offer farmhouse rentals, a bed and breakfast, an internship program for young adults interested in learning about sustainable agriculture, volunteering for a week or two on the farm, or daily visits for those interested in exploring the property on their own or hiking on our many trails and farm roads. Just remember to keep an eye out for the pigs foraging in the woods!

Erin Cinelli is the Executive Director of the Span-nocchia Foundation and is a founding board member of the FBEA.

Find out more about Spannocchia at: www.spannocchia.org

Tuscan salami curing in the aging room at Tenuta di Spannocchia

FBEA Board Chair: Megan Camp, Vice President and Program

Director, Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, VTMarci Birkes, Education Director, Stonewall Farm,

Keene, NHWayne Castonguay, Farm Manager, The Farms of

the Trustees of Reservations, Ipswich, MAErin Cinelli, Executive Director, Spannocchia Founda-

tion, Portland, MEPatch Connors, Director, The Farm School, Athol, MAMatthew Davis, Program Director, Hawthorne Valley

Farm, Ghent, NYBrian Donahue, Professor, Brandeis University, and

Co-Founder, Land’s Sake, Weston, MASam Feldman, Founder & Chairman of the Board,

The FARM Institute, Edgartown, MAJudy Fink, Education Programs Director, Stone Barns

Center for Food and Agriculture, Pocantico Hills, NY Matthew Goldfarb, Executive Director, The FARM

Institute, Edgartown, MABen Holmes, Founder & President, The Farm School,

Athol, MADana Hudson, Northeast Regional Lead of the

National Farm to School Network, VTJen James, Director of Communications, The Food

Project, Lincoln, MANena Johnson, Public Programs Director, Stone Barns

Center for Food and Agriculture, Pocantico Hills, NY

Grey Lee, Executive Director, Land’s Sake, Weston, MATia Pinney, Teacher/Naturalist/Adult Education

Coordinator, Drumlin Farm, Lincoln, MARachel Schneider, General Management Group,

Hawthorne Valley Farm, Ghent, NYLouise Schorn Smith, Countryside Consulting,

Glenmoore, PA Kris Scopinich, Education Manager, Drumlin Farm, MAMichele Wales, Farm Program Coordinator, DE

Nature Society, Hockessin, DE

FBEA Advisory BoardMichael Ableman, Farmer, Author, Photographer

& Founder of the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens, British Columbia, Canada

Rolf Diamant, Superintendent, Marsh-Billings-Rocke-feller, National Historical Park, Woodstock, VT

Daphne Derven, Executive Director, New Orleans Food & Farm Network, LA

David Kahn, Executive Director, North American Montessori Teachers Association; Founding Program Director, Hershey Montessori Farm School, OH

Scott Stokoe, Organic Farm Manager, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

John H. Vogel, Jr., Adjunct Professor of Business Ad-ministration and Associate Faculty Director, Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth, Hanover, NH

Upcoming Events More details at: www.farmbasededucation.org

APRIL 18–19, 2009 Workshop & Farm Tours: “Farming & the Arts” Hawthorne Valley Farm, Ghent, NYThis two-day workshop will focus on how to incorporate the arts and artistic interpretation into the public programs and overall ethos of farm-based education. It will include: breakout sessions on creative arts on the farm (litera-ture, poetry, music, painting, fi ber arts, etc.), facilitated discussions on how farm-based education programs use creativity and imagination to make meaning and cultivate knowledge in their educational and service-oriented programming, and tours of area farm-based programs.

NOVEMBER 12–15, 2009 The Farm-Based Education Conference Hosted by Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, with events at the Doubletree Hotel, Tarrytown (35 miles north of NYC). The conference will feature a keynote speaker, workshops, great local food, entertainment and tours of public access farms in the region. This year’s conference is made possible through the generous support of our sponsors, including the 1772 Foundation, preserving and enhancing American historical entities for future generations to enjoy. www.1772foundation.org. Questions? contact info@farmbasededucation.org

174 Liberty Street • Concord, MA 01742www.farmbasededucation.org

FBEA Board Members at 2008 strategic planning meeting, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

newsletter design by Holly Brough, Shelburne Farms

If we need to update your contact information and/or if there is someone we should add to our newsletter mailing list, please let us know by e-mailing info@farmbasededucation.org or calling 978-318-7827.

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