Making Connections with Project Connection at Monument Valley Middle School:  

school to farm to table to school to...  

By Suzie Fowle

What better way to grow and produce food than with "berkshire grown" students from the Berkshire Hills Regional School District (BHRSD)?  This summer dozens of elementary and middle school students dug into the soil under their feet and experienced how that soil sustains life.  They became familiar with soil science, growing food, cooking, budgeting for farming and consumption, nutrition, and feeding homeless and under-served members of our community.  Thanks to BHRSD's Project Connection summer program (led by Kristen Lewis, Jennifer Kujawski, and Janet Tone), students were exposed to a complex web of connections between farming and hunger, between soil and health. 

At Second Hand Farm, just a short walk from the schools, Luke Pryjma had students harvest garlic, conduct budgeting exercises, monitor plant health, consider ways to address hunger issues in our area, and compare local egg yolks to factory-farmed yolks.  Students mimicked grazing animals by ripping up and trampling weeds in an overgrown garden.  With the addition of mulch and fermented weeds, they witnessed the area's transformation into a fertile, productive garden.

At Pumpkin Hollow Farm and Lila Berle's sheep farm, students experienced animal farming -- oxen (pictured), sheep, ducks, working dogs, pigs, and geese - and learned about the animals' roles in healthy soils.  After picking berries at Windy Hill Farm, students compared the nutritional value of fresh to preserved fruit.  In the Project Sprout and Muddy Brook gardens, students grew plants for making herbed butters and teas.  They learned about soil and human health and the importance of bacteria.  Using different colored vegetables, they made and tested natural dyes.

The students also became chefs.  They produced meals at the Barrington Brewery, the local soup kitchen, and the Guthrie Center.  Using school lunches as an example, they looked at ways to improve nutrition on a limited budget.

Many thanks to Project Connection instructors, BHRSD administrators, and the farmers who made this happen.  Berkshire Grown is looking forward to continued collaboration with BHRSD and working with our energetic and locally grown youth.

  Saturday October 5, 2013  10am-4pm 

Berlin-Berkshire Fall Foliage Grazing Tour

$20/person

Local foods lunch at the Berlin Fire Hall catered by

Wild Oats Market, Williamstown, MA.

For more information and to register, contact the

Hudson Mohawk RC&D Council at 518-270-2668.

Talk, Tour and Tasting at Sidehill Farm, Hawley, MA 

Saturday October 5, 2:30 - 5 pm 

Sidehill Farm in Hawley is a commercial, on-farm yogurt maker in Massachusetts -- and their yogurt is delicious!  Enjoy fall foliage, spectacular views, and a pasture walk with CISA, Franklin Land Trust, and farmer Amy Klippenstein. Learn about farmland protection and get a peek into the yogurt processing plant. Make a day of it by picnicking on the farm, shopping in the farm store, or picking apples on your way to the farm (email  for a Local Hero orchard route!). Rain or shine, RSVP to Judy Hall at 413-665-7100.  

Williams College, Griffin Hall, Room 3

Part of Food Week  

In Cows Save the Planet, journalist Judith Schwartz looks at soil as a crucible for our many overlapping environmental, economic, and social crises. She reveals that for many of these problems-climate change, desertification, biodiversity loss, droughts, floods, wildfires, rural poverty, malnutrition, and obesity-our ability to turn these crises into opportunities depends on how we treat the soil.