Flex Farm Arrives at XMS

Gil Shaw (Fork Farm staff), Anna Zampaloni '22, Mrs. Chris Goulet, Mrs. Jennifer Boyd, and Mrs. Cindy Foss assemble the Flex Farm which took several hours.

Staff assemble the snaps for the Flex Farm walls . Each snap holds one seedling of lettuce and each Flex Farm contains 288 snaps.

Flex Farm growth as of March 31st (thanks to Mr. Linsmeier's care).

Students in Cindy Foss’ 5th grade class have something very exciting growing in their classroom! Thanks to a generous donation by a Xavier family, they are the proud recipients of an indoor hydroponic growing system known as a Flex Farm. It uses only water and nutrients, holds 288 plants, and can provide over 300 pounds of produce in one year. The parent company, Fork Farms LLC, an agricultural technology company based in Appleton, has received several awards for their hydroponic products. They were recently the cover story of the local Insight Magazine.

At the end of February, Fork Farms delivered the farm which took a few hours for assembly and training. Mrs. Foss’ students were fascinated by the unit when it was wheeled into her classroom. A few days later, students began planting lettuce seeds in the rockwool medium which was then placed under a grow light to encourage germination. On March 13, the rockwool plugs containing lettuce seedlings were planted into the Flex Farm.

Mrs. Foss’ class is the first at XMS to grow fresh leafy greens using the Flex Farm, but eventually all students at the middle school will have an opportunity to learn about hydroponic farming. Teachers will use the STEM curriculum provided by Fork Farms and students could use the scientific method to design their own experiments based on concepts that they might be curious about.

The XMS Flex Farm, which students affectionately named Brooke because of the soothing, babbling brook sound it makes, was able to continue growing while we were all working and learning from home, thanks to the care of Joe Linsmeier, XMS Facilities Director. Mr. Linsmeier checked the water pH and level, and added nutrients as needed. He also sent photos to Mrs. Foss so that she could send them to her students. After 28 days of growing, the 20 pounds of organic lettuce was ready to harvest and donated to the St. Joseph Food Pantry to help support the needs of families within our community.

“A good farmer always grows as many crops as he can in a season”, said Mr. Linsmeier. So a second batch of lettuce was started and will also be donated to the food pantry when it is ready to harvest.

There are several noteworthy Xavier connections to Fork Farms: Xavier parent and Bassett Mechanical CEO, Kim Bassett, helped the founder, Alex Tyink, build and field test the first stainless steel Fork Farm prototype; Xavier parent, Maria Totzke, is the accountant for Fork Farms; Xavier parent, Marybeth Matzek, is the managing editor of Insight magazine; Xavier student, Anna Zampaloni ‘22, will be working with the XMS Flex Farm to help create and teach lessons to earn her Girl Scout Gold Award.

Jackson Verbrick ‘27 planting a rockwool into the Flex Farm snap

Flex Farm growth as of March 31st, the seedlings were planted on March 13th

Example of lettuce ready to harvest from a visit last fall at Menasha schools farms

Seedlings in the rockwool, almost ready for planting

Example of different varieties of lettuce grown at Menasha schools farms. Flex Farms grow leafy greens and herbs and the list of capabilities continues to expand.