From Commons Educator, Ja’Daiza Johnson:

The Food and Farm lab students took a trip to Headwater Food Hub and Lagoner Farm last week. At the Hub, they learned about how they source and distribute local organic food to families, restaurants, and schools in the Rochester area. They also learned about storage of fresh foods and how different foods can range from very delicate to hearty. The Headwater Food Hub is also a certified B corporation, which means they work very hard to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. At Lagoner Farms, we enjoyed a delicious farm-to-table lunch and learned about their apple cider processing and about how they plant various crops to harvest almost year round. As a result of this trip, the class gained insight into local organic farming, processing, and distributing, as well as getting a look at all the behind the scenes work that goes on at the farms and in businesses that supply food from organic farms.

To culminate their travels and learning, the members of the Food and Farm Lab class presented an assembly for the Upper School. The assembly began with “performance art” of the class members eating salad, accompanied by Ben Doane on cello (Julie-O by Kevin Olusola–check it out) and images of the class pursuits throughout the trimester projected on the wall behind them. After their performance, the members of the class read their group poem, then invited all of the Upper School students and faculty to partake of the beautiful salad they had made which included greens and veggies grown at Harley and locally, with a delicate honey vinaigrette dressing. It was a delicious edible education!