At Elwyn, student farmers reap educational harvest

Students at Elwyn officially have gone into the farming business.

The 163-year-old organization, which provides services for children and adults with disabilities, has taken over operations at the eight-acre farm on the campus in Middletown Township, Delaware County.

"Everything is going directly to our folks," Ethan Brazell, 34, assistant director in education, said Tuesday.

Greener Partners, a community-supported agriculture nonprofit (CSA), had run the farm for about six years, but it has consolidated operations at its Collegeville, Montgomery County, farm, Brazell said.

Instead of letting the fields go fallow, staff approached the school administration with a plan to continue the farm, incorporate various programs for the 360 students, and provide fresh produce to the adults in the 30 residential homes on and off campus.

Elwyn hired the CSA's farmer and began planting. What is grown is all organic, Brazell said.

Herbs, onions, spinach, strawberries, collard greens, butterhead and romaine lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, kale, Swiss chard, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, white and red-skinned potatoes, melons, squash, and cucumbers are a few of the crops already planted, said Justin Donaldson, 37, the farmer, who lives on the site with his family.

A core group of students - usually two or three at a time - work on the farm alongside Donaldson. They spend about three hours each day cultivating and planting the crops. The ground maintenance staff lends a hand with bigger projects, Donaldson said.

"I love it," said Duane Giles, 20, a student from West Philadelphia. "I'm an outside person."

Giles said he likes to "work with his hands" and enjoys the planting.

At the Health Harvest Center at Elwyn's Davidson School, the fruits and vegetables are used to teach students what ingredients can be used to make smoothies, which are also sold to the staff.

Teachers, administrators, and other workers on campus also can buy produce from the student "farm stand" in the administration building from June through the end of October, Brazell said.

In this week's bounty, a head of butterhead or Romaine lettuce and bunches of Swiss chard and kale were selling for $2 each. Spinach was $1.50 a bunch.

Some of the produce will end up as dinner for the rabbits, rats, lizards, and tortoise in the school's Nature Lab, said Brazell.

In the campus greenhouse, the school has set up a small aquaponics system to help sprout some of the vegetables. The system uses the nutrient-rich water from two large fish tanks holding tilapia, pumped up into grow beds filled with clay beads.

When the fish population gets too big, the extras are put to good use by the students, said Brazell.

"We had to catch our own fish," said Giles. The tilapia were fried and served with spinach and herbs from the garden, he said.

"This farm represents a way to tie together all the other opportunities for kids," said Brazell.

Giles, who lives at home, has been at Elwyn for six years. When he graduates next year, Giles said, he hopes to continue working in either agriculture or in the landscaping business - like a garden center.

"I'm going to miss this place when I graduate," he said.