What’s new at Blue & Silver Farm

There are many new experiential learning activities happening at Blue & Silver Farm this semester, and more on the horizon for the summer and beyond. This incredible farm property was gifted to Pickering College by the late Charles F. Boyd, who taught at Pickering for 53 years and was a beloved community member. We are certain he would be pleased and proud to see all the ways his gift is enriching the educational journey for PC students.

The farmhouse on the property has now been completely renovated, thanks to a major gift from a donor, and a full-time tenant program manager will soon move into the top floor living space. The main floor has a full kitchen area, where students can make jam and pickles and do other food prep activities. “It will be really fun and exciting for them to pick berries and go straight from farm to table, right there,” says Julia Hunt, Assistant Head of School, Strategic Initiatives. There’s also a large teaching space in the living room where students can spend time learning before heading outdoors into nature. And the attic loft has been transformed into an art studio with plenty of natural light for painting, photography and other activities.

The 44th annual Booker's Run, PC's school-wide cross-country event, was held at Blue & Silver Farm for the first time this year.

Hunt says the new location was ideal: “It was really great for community-building ... we have a nice field behind the barn where everybody finished their run, got some refreshments, and had a bit of social time.”

In January, a group of students in PC’s leadership program went out to the farm for an overnight winter camping trip, during which they had to stoke fires to keep warm in their hot tents.

Last year, a small garden plot was planted and harvested by students, and much of the fresh produce was donated to the local food bank and community fridge. There are big plans to expand the garden program this spring, says Outdoor Education Specialist Heather Amadori. To kick things off, on Earth Day Middle School students will plant seed balls to create a new pollinator garden and monitor its progress to see how their mix of wildflowers grows.

“That’s part of the experiential component. If they don’t grow, well, okay, did we put it in soil that was too acidic? Did they get dug up by animals and the seeds were eaten? I think that’s a neat opportunity for learning how to pivot and address challenges,” Amadori says.

Amadori is intent on incorporating Indigenous knowledge and wisdom into the outdoor learning program and plans to invite Indigenous educators to help students plant a Three Sisters learning garden at the farm. The Grade 3 class has already learned about the different parts of the Medicine Wheel and brewed cedar tea from materials harvested at the farm.

“There is a long-term and a long-range plan for where we can go with this, and it’s important that the things that we do are intentional and done with purpose,” she says.

The Grade 4 class is excited to pilot a very small sugar bush operation by tapping trees, collecting sap (with help from other grade levels) and learning how to turn it into syrup in the farmhouse kitchen.

Grade 9 students continue to benefit from an ongoing partnership with the University of Guelph. Professors in the School of Agriculture visited the farm last fall to help students design and prototype a component of a sustainable outdoor education facility. The project will wrap up with a gallery event where students answer questions from the Head of School, and Assistant Head of School, Finance & Operations, about their projects. “Our goal is to implement at least one project per year from the Grade 9 class, depending on what comes out. They’re really great projects,” says Hunt. “For example, there’s a student who wants to put a pizza oven in at the farm. That’s something we can really see the value in … and we’d get a lot of use out of it.”

This summer will see the debut of a new day camp at Blue & Silver Farm called Harvest Hub, aimed at students in Grades 4 through 8. “The kids will get to prepare and consume organic food, some of which they will plant and have the opportunity to harvest at the camp. There will be a lot of outdoor games and activities, in addition to the food components, and one of the real highlights is going to be an overnight on Thursday night in our camping area,” Hunt says.

It’s clear from speaking with both Hunt and Amadori that Blue & Silver Farm has already become an invaluable asset for learning and teaching for the entire PC community.

“We’re able to take small groups of kids out and help them really connect to experiences like outdoor education … that idea that they are capable of taking action, that they’re capable of doing things, gives them purpose and a sense of pride in what they’re doing,” Hunt says.

“The benefit of experiential learning is that it gives students the opportunity to follow their line of questioning and to actively experiment in an environment that allows them to do it where they can see, and they can feel,” adds Amadori.