Saturday, April 26, 2014
FARMAMERICA
PAGE 1C
FARMAMERICA
Minnesota Agricultural Interpretive Center
Farmamerica connects students to an industry that dominates Minnesota’s landscape
Key players
Byy MATT HUDSON
mhudson@owatonna.com
School tours at Farmamerica send students through time, from homestead settlement to current farming practices. After covering 160 years in four hours, Executive Director Jim Gibson wants the young visitors think more about where their dinner comes from. “We can help kids make a connection between food and agriculture and how that’s changed over the years,” Gibson said. Southern Minnesota’s agricultural interpretive center offers school tours as a core part of its program. Each year, about 40 schools sign up to have their students visit the grounds to learn about the former days of crop cultivation through interactive exhibits. From growing small plots to feed a single family to tending vast fields to feed a nation, the tours are aimed at connecting youngsters to an industry that dominates the landscape around them. “Really, the theme is how did agriculture work in those various eras, and how did it affect the lives of kids,” Gibson said. The first stop puts kids on the prairie, as if they had just arrived from the East to claim a homestead in the Minnesota Territory. Interpreters explain how settlers obtained the basic necessities — water, food and shelter — from the undeveloped land. The prairie contains restored native wetlands and vegetation, which students identify and learn about with the help of the site’s new prairie interpretive
Honoring those who contributed to the center’s development By CAMEY THIBODEAU
cthibodeau@faribault.com
TOM HAGERTY
Farm Camp Minnesota is a two-day education experience where youngsters in grades three to six learn how food goes from the farm to the table. (County News file photo)
center. Next, the tour jumps ahead to an early period of development at the 1850s settlement. Small, wood-braced homes are on site as examples of typical family living for the period. One main attraction is the one-room Gallagher Country Schoolhouse, which accommodated grades one to eight in a single location. An old Methodist church, built in 1881, is also on site. Another main structure on the homestead, the church was a respite from farm work. At each stop, costumed inter-
preters explain the roles of kids in those times. Patty Altman, a second-grade teacher at Sacred Heart School in Waseca, said the lessons are convincing. “We really enjoy it because they give you a tour of what farming life was like way back in the 1850s, and they explain how hard they had to work, [and] how everybody in the family had to participate in the farming,” she said. Students then leave the late 19th century and travel into the next via a horse-drawn trolley. Just down the trail lies another
step in development at the 1930s site. Here, the visitors walk through a dairy farm, feed mill and blacksmith shop that shows the transition from manpower to a more mechanized system. In warmer weather, farm animals like pigs and chickens graze at the site. Students can even get hands-on experience at the dairy farm. “They love to be able to milk the goats and things like that,” said Mimi Lamm, a fourth-grade teacher at Cleveland Elementary in Le Sueur County. “They love to go into the blacksmith’s area.”
Altman and Lamm have been bringing classes to Farmamerica for 12 and seven years, respectively. Both said it’s an exciting field trip for their students. Around 60 volunteers serve as interpreters each year. They tell stories as characters living in that period, sometimes for up to 200 students per day. Community members, former teachers and parents have all served as interpreters over the years. And they know their stuff, Lamm said.
See KIDS on 3C
Longtime Farmamerica chairman to step down, but stay involved with interpretive center By JESSICA BIES
jbies@stpeterherald.com
A
t 83 years old, Ed Frederick’s voice may be growing weak, but his passion for agriculture is strong. Soon to step down as chairman of the Wasecabased Farmamerica, Frederick has made a career not only studying agriculture and dairy production, but telling its history. Farmamerica was established in 1978 in order to share the narrative of American agriculture — past, present and future — preserving and protecting area farmers’ heritage. It’s a legacy Frederick has devoted much of his life to creating. And one he said he’ll never stop working to develop. “This place has got tremendous potential,” Frederick said, raising his hands to the ceiling of Farmamerica’s visitor center. “Potential that hasn’t even been scratched yet, hasn’t been realized … there’s just so much we can do here.” An education in livestock, dairy production Frederick grew up near Madison Lake on a livestock and dairy farm, strongly influenced by the Great Depression and the resulting agricultural climate, he said. “The fact I was born into a family with nine children, a farm that was brought up through the Depresssion era, gives you a little feel for what was going on at that time,” Frederick said. “During that time, Dad thought ‘We have to get through this.’ We had five cows for each of the kids … It was an interesting time.” He and his siblings were some of the first members of the Lakeside 4-H Club in Madison Lake and
later would become active members of Mankato High School’s Future Farmers of America. Frederick held a number of offices in the local chapter and received the FFA State Farmer degree for his involvement. “I became very interested in agriculture and where it was going,” Frederick said of his involvement in FFA. “My whole life has been geared toward a passion for agriculture and doing what I could for the development of agriculture.” While a member of FFA, Frederick also met his wife, Shirley. They married shortly before Frederick left for the University of Minnesota to study agricultural education. In addition to a bachelor’s degree in the subject, he earned a master’s degree in dairy production and in 1947, a Ph.D. in dairy physiology. “After I graduated from the University of Minnesota I had an offer to go to Crookston as the animal scientist and teacher up there at the Northwest School of Agriculture,” Frederick said. “This was 1958.”
See FREDERICK on 2C
Ed Frederick, to step down as chairman of the Farmamerica board after nearly 22 years, talks about how the agricultural history center was founded. (Jessica Bies/Waseca County News)
Occupation: Minnesota state veterinarian for 17 years Interest in Farmamerica: Born and Hagerty raised on farm next door to Farmamerica, served on the Farmamerica board. Contributions to the center: Hagerty was involved with the Farmamerica history and timeline from the 1850s to present. He just returned from the Capitol where he testified about a bill asking that be Farmamerica be identified in state statute as an educational facility versus an entertainment facility, and has known Ed Frederick for most of his career.
DOUG LEET
Occupation: Director for the local USDA/ASCS Office (later Farm Service Agency) in Waseca from Leet 1978-2003, Ag banker at Roundbank from 2003-13. Interest in Farmamerica: Leet served on the Farmamerica Board of Directors for six years in the mid-90s and helped develop and expand its school education program. Contributions to the center: Leet helped with the fledgling school tour program, and as a board member, led a group that worked to flesh out the school tour program. The group included Dave Werner, then Waseca County extension director; Norm Bohmbach, who had just recently retired as the Waseca adult vo-ag instructor, and Hugh ChesterJones, dairy researcher at the Southern Research and Outreach Station, among others. They had two goals at that time, first to provide a more formalized tour format with themes and talking points for interpreters at the Pioneer and 1920’s-30’s farm sites along with a script for tour leaders, and second, to establish a modern farming exhibit that could be used as another stop along with the historical sites.
See KEY PLAYERS on 4C