The Liberty Prairie Foundation supports educational programming at the Prairie Crossing Farm to educate and inspire people to value healthy food, land and community through experiences on our farm.
 

The Liberty Prairie Foundation provides  leadership and financial support for local food system development, social entrepreneurship, land conservation, environmental education, and civic engagement.   

Summer Positions at the Liberty Prairie Foundation

 

Do you know a high school or college student interested in learning more about local food through a meaningful summer position?

• Prairie Farm Corps Crew Leader (ages 18-26). Lead a team of area high school students and work together to grow, cook, promote, and market healthy food raised on the Prairie Crossing Farm. Application deadline: Feb. 13.

 

by Eric Carlberg

 

As a farm educator, I work very closely with students in grades 7-9 in the Montessori School of Lake Forest (MSLF) Adolescent Program. Throughout the school year, students are engaged in on-farm lessons and work experiences that integrate agriculture with science, math, language, nutrition, social studies, and economics.

 

Students are organized in small groups which are each responsible for developing, from start to finish, one farm-related project that contributes to economic life at the school. This year, one group has begun researching flowers that attract native pollinators. They will be propagating plants for sale at the May 16th Organic Plant Sale at the Prairie Crossing Farm.

 

Another student group plans to create a maze to add to the attractions (and income) at the MSLF Halloween Carnival. Rather than using the traditional corn, they intend to plant sorghum, corn's more prolific cousin.

 

A third group has already begun selling baked goods that incorporate one or more ingredients from the farm at the MSLF Lake Forest campus weekly farm market. One of their baking projects was Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) cookies, made from amaranth grown on the farm. Students harvested, threshed, and winnowed the amaranth before popping it and sculpting it into the traditional Mexican Dia de los Muertos skulls.

 

Amaranth, traditionally used to make these cookies, was considered sacred by the Aztecs with its magenta blossoms likened to the blood of the gods. Banned by the conquistadors, amaranth continued to be grown in marginal regions far from colonial control.

 

We hope that enlisting each student in the planning side of farming, which is inherently creative as well as strategic, will help them develop business acumen and a greater capacity to collaborate with the earth's natural cycles. In addition to planning and executing specific growing projects, MSLF students help maintain all crops grown for educational programs on approximately 2.5 acres at the Prairie Crossing Farm. 

The Liberty Prairie Foundation hosts a variety of seasonal events to share our local food and conservation work with the broader community, and to support lifelong learning.

 

Our on-farm events help us balance our public education and outreach with the Prairie Crossing Farmers' needs to safely conduct farm operations on a working, certified organic farm.

 

We've finalized the following dates for the upcoming season:

• Organic Plant Sale & Farm Open House -   10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Sat., May 16
• Fall Festival - 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Sat., Oct. 3

Event details will be communicated in the upcoming months. In the meantime, save these dates! Free farm tours will be provided at both events.

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Prairie Crossing Farm

www.libertyprairie.org, 847-548-4062