Practicing good stewardship at Blue & Silver Farm

A learning garden, a tiny forest, a flock of ducks, a sugar bush, and a greenhouse are just some of the initiatives allowing PC students to think about and practice stewardship at Blue & Silver Farm.

As a Quaker-founded school, stewardship is one of the six values that guide Pickering College. This value is usually interpreted as being good stewards of the earth and its resources, and goes hand in hand with sustainability.

The farm, located just a few minutes’ drive from the Pickering College campus in Newmarket, was gifted to the school by the late Charles Boyd, who taught at PC for 53 years. It includes soy and cornfields, paddocks, a forest, a creek, a barn, and a renovated farmhouse learning space.

“There’s all kinds of land-based learning opportunities that we’re able to give our students [at Blue & Silver Farm],” says Joshua Armstrong, Director of Teaching and Learning.

One of the first things PC did at the farm was establish a learning garden, where students grow vegetables such as beans, squash, kale and lettuce. The garden has already yielded over 1,000 pounds of fresh food, most of which was donated to the York Region Food Network. A greenhouse has been added, including a classroom and growing spaces. Armstrong says the plan is to grow a signature vegetable to serve in PC’s Harry M. Beer Dining Hall.

“Our students are going to do a whole inquiry piece about it where they try to figure out: what does the dining hall need? What do people want to eat the most?”

One of the farm’s signature projects is a small-scale sugar bush operation. Last year, PC students from grades K-12 helped to tap 10 maple trees and boil down the sap to make maple syrup. This year, the plan is to scale up by tapping 20 trees and running tubing instead of using sap buckets. Armstrong says the project teaches students how to be good caretakers of the trees.

“The kids go out and they name all the trees and talk to them and develop that relationship with them. They say, hey, this tree is being really shy today, because it’s not producing a lot of sap, for example, and this one is really an extrovert. They’re thinking about how we have to make sure that we’re not over-tapping these trees and hurting them.”

Another stewardship initiative is the creation of a riparian or riverbank zone along the creek that runs through the farm. With advice and support from the Ontario Woodlot Association and 7-Generation GTB, students have planted carefully selected species of trees next to the creek.

“That will help create this whole zone where animals and birds are able to be very close to the river, and we’re helping support a really healthy watershed,” Armstrong says.

The school has also connected with PC alumnus James Brown ‘69 who works with Little Forests Kingston, which helps people and communities plant small, fast-growing forests to support local biodiversity and connect larger green spaces.

“Little forests have this incredible ability to regenerate land. We’ve got a representative coming to meet our biology students, and she’s going to talk about how when you plant these four different layers of the forest together in a really thoughtful way, you can do something like 100 years of growth in 15 or 20 years,” says Armstrong.

The plan is to plant a little forest on a plot formerly used to grow corn and soy. Students will use Microsoft FarmBeats sensors to gather soil and water data and analyze it with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

Speaking of soil health, Grade 12 student Bea Bougourd’s Global Leadership Capstone project will bring a new source of fertilizer to Blue & Silver Farm this spring: A flock of ducks is being donated by a parent in the Junior School and will join the chickens already at the farm. Bea is designing and building an enclosure for the ducks and a pond for them to enjoy, using mainly recycled materials.

Bea was thrilled to have the option to use Blue & Silver Farm as a resource for their Global Leadership project: “I think it’s great that PC has the farm now, and I’m glad they want to start introducing more outside classes.”

In addition to improving the soil with their droppings, duck eggs provide a local, low-carbon supply of fresh food. Ducks are also fairly easy to live with, says Bea. “They’re good to have as pets; they’re pretty low maintenance, and younger kids can go around them with not much problem.”

Whether it’s tending to trees, ducks, gardens, or greenhouses, stewardship is a year-round endeavour. At Blue & Silver Farm, PC students and faculty have ample opportunities to embrace and embody this Quaker value in their everyday lives.