Farm to School : Taste the Local Difference

Peter Bane published Permaculture Activist magazine for over 20 years and has taught permaculture design widely in the temperate and tropical Americas. Author of The Permaculture Handbook, he is a native of the Illinois prairie whose interest in good food and simple living led him at mid-life to become a writer and teacher of permaculture design. Peter is the Executive Director and was a founding board member of PINA (Permaculture Institute of North America). He is also a co-founder of the Great Rivers and Lakes Permaculture Institute, a regional hub in the PINA network. He was also drawn into the arcane world of intentional community as fate presented the opportunity to help create and build Earthaven Ecovillage in the southern Appalachian Mountains. There he discovered his inner architect in the course of building a small off-grid solar cabin and later took on the more prosaic job of rehabilitating a pair of suburban ranch houses in the Midwestern college town of Bloomington, Indiana. Peter has earned a string of diplomas in Education, Media, Community Development, Trusteeship, and Site Design from the Permaculture Academy of Britain, the Permaculture Institute, and PINA. In 2014, he began building a new garden farm on 10 acres of sand in west Michigan with partner Keith Johnson. Blue Sky Farm emerged from these efforts, and the two have since moved into an energy-efficient, climate appropriate, multifunctional solar building in the breezy Lakeshore region. There they are developing hedgerows, orchards, productive gardens, renewable energy, programs of rotational grazing with small animals, and sustainable management for their 6 acres of oak woods. A prolific writer in journals and collections on forestry, building, and all things permaculture, he has turned his attention in recent years to climate cooling, and through PINA and GRLPI, to organizing permaculture graduates into an effective force for good in the Energy Descent Era. Keith Johnson was raised in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (where he learned at an early age he was related to Johnny Appleseed), and has been a commercial landscaper, stonemason, and organic gardener since 1976 in places as varied as subtropical Bay Area of California, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Michigan, and the mountains of W. North Carolina. After devouring Permaculture One in 1978 he continued to learn all he could on the subject. He’s been teaching Permaculture since 1995, has instructed more than 1200 students, many of those through Indiana University’s annual Design Course which began in 2003. He’s taught or trained with Bill Mollison, Larry Santoyo, Tom Ward, Penny Livingston, Peter Bane, Chuck Marsh, Andrew Goodheart Brown, Albert Bates, Starhawk, Jerome Osentowski and others. Previously resident in Bloomington, IN, Keith now lives in Montague, MI). Keith participated in a number of local and national activism projects including the editorial guild of the Permaculture Activist, the founding of Transition Bloomington (Indiana’s first Transition Town Initiative), and past board member of the Local Growers Guild. He contributed to Bloomington’s Peak Oil Task Force, was active with the Bloomington Permaculture Guild, served on the Bloomington Food Policy Council and helped launch the Trillium Horticultural Park Project. Public speaker and radio interviewee, he works to share a vision of cultural and ecological regeneration and continues to provide ecological design and consultation services via Patterns for Abundance. He is also web manager and assistant editor of Permaculture Design Magazine. Keith holds diplomas in Education, Design, Site Development, Community Service, and Media from the Permaculture Institute and diplomas in Teaching and Design from PINA.

Hosting a field trip

What months would you be interested in hosting a field trip?

Do you have parking available for a school bus?

No

Do you have a bathroom available

No

Would there be a fee involved?

No

Consulting on School Gardens

Farm Details

Plainsong Farm & Ministry

Farm to School Info

Planted

Farm to School Info

Pleasanton Valley Greenhouses, Inc.

Farm to School Info

Powderhorn Farm

Farm to School Info

Pregitzer Farm Market

Farm to School Info

Presque Isle Farm

Farm to School Info

Providence Organic Farm & Market

Farm to School Info

Raindance Organic Farm

Farm to School Info

RC Organic Farms

Farm to School Info

Resonance Center Farm

Farm to School Info

Rice Centennial Farm

Farm to School Info

Rising Pheasant Farms

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Secret Garden at Brys Estate

Farm to School Info

SEEDS

Farm to School Info

Seeds and Spores Family Farm LLC

Farm to School Info

Serenity in the Garden

Farm to School Info

Shady Grove Farm U.P. LLC

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Farm to School Info

Sunshine Meadows Farm

Farm to School Info

Sweet Grass Farms

Farm to School Info

Sweeten Farms LLC

Farm to School Info

Taiga Farm and Vineyards

Farm to School Info

Tantre Farm

Farm to School Info

What is the best way to contact you?

Phone, Email

Which of these Farm to School activities are you interested in?

Visit a classroom, Hosting a field trip

Visit a classroom

What months would you be available?

January, February, March, October, November, December

What counties are you willing to travel to?

Washtenaw

Would there be a fee involved?

Yes

Additional notes you wanted to share with teachers:

Educational Field Trips (1.5 to 2 hours) We offer a more customized experience for schools or other organizations interested in a richer experience that enhances the school curriculum or their group’s goals. Deb Lentz, co-owner of Tantre Farm, is a seasoned teacher of 16 years with classroom experience in 1st through 6th grade. Every season a few of the farm’s 1st year interns or 2nd year apprentices have some teaching or summer camp experience, so we engage their expertise as well. We offer a basic edible farm tour that can be enhanced with more curricular hands-on vocabulary, songs, and activities that fit each groups needs. Teachers should discuss this with Deb a month in advance, if they are interested. Tour content is age-appropriate, and each tour is conducted with an emphasis on good observation skills through the 5 senses and how certain herbs, vegetables, or fruit grow and can be used in cooking. Although tasting is highly encouraged, it is not required. Each group of students comes home with a bag of edible samples and a real life experience of where their food comes from. Some groups end their experience with their own prepackaged lunches on the picnic tables in the backyard. Dress appropriately for the weather and farm conditions, since tours are mostly outside and take place whether raining or sunshine. If inclement weather, we may mutually decide to cancel or postpone the trip. For field trips we suggest a sliding scale of $1 to $5 per child for school groups or other organizations requiring more specific attention (teachers and other adults are free).

Hosting a field trip

What months would you be interested in hosting a field trip?

May, June, July, August, September, October

Do you have parking available for a school bus?

Yes

Do you have a bathroom available

Yes

Would there be a fee involved?

Yes

Additional notes you want to share with teachers:

We ask for a $1 to $5 sliding scale donation per student for trips to the farm. See our website for more details about edible farm tours or educational field trips under Community Connections.

Farm Details

Tasty Acre Foods LLC

Farm to School Info