A Good Book, Time on a Farm and Time in the Kitchen

The Navigators and the Pioneers went on a farm trip to Storybook Farm where we heard another version of the Johnny Appleseed story, we learned about the farming methods of an organic farm and we made our own apple cider. It was a great introduction to our studies of Tall Tales, food chains and ecosystems and our impact on them.  

Getting ready for our excursion--asking a lot of questions

The bus ride was long but entertaining.
This boy was singing our continents song while drawing (quite accurately!) a world map. 

Storybook Farm is a branch of 21 Acres, a local organic farm that "through education, advocacy and collaboration, 21 Acres seeks to accelerate social change toward more sustainable ways of growing, eating and living."

Mr. Aaron read Johnny Appleseed to us and shared the importance of having lots of honeybees.

He showed us the inside of a hive.

In our colorful raincoats, we went outside to see the farm.

The apple saplings were just about our height and some had an apple or two. 

The bees preferred to stay inside on this rainy day and many of us were quite content with that.
 Each hive houses 20,000 - 40,000 bees and help pollinate the entire Woodinville valley. 

The 21 Acres Center was built using green technology. All the driveways and patios had permeable pavers and the roof had plants growing on it to slow run off. 

Back inside, we learned that each apple should have 10 seeds in it. If it doesn't, it wasn't pollinated enough. Later we opened up some apples from our backyard apple tree and discovered there far less seeds in the apples and most of them were deformed, a result of not enough pollination. We need more bees!

We tasted a variety of apples and voted on our favorite. 

We got to make our own cider.

It was a lot harder than it looked and took a team effort!

It takes a lot of apples to make a cup of apple cider. 

Tasty!

Yummy!

Well worth the effort!

Thumbs up!

Before we got back on the bus for the hour long trip, we each used the recycling toilet system. :) 

Push the button before and after use???

We can all do our part to help sustain our environment. 

Using every spare minute to read!

After our trip to the farm, we've read What If There Were No Bees? A Book about the Grassland Ecosystem (along with What If There Were No Sea Otters and What If There Were No Wolves) and are becoming more aware of the impact we have on the world we live in. 

We're beginning to wonder what can be done?
More to come....