"What wonderful smells!" Jordan exclaimed when she stepped off the school bus at Flying Cloud Farm. After exploring the long rows of chard and herbs, students from Isaac Dickson Elementary's K-2 class got to help farmer Annie Perkinson wash lettuce to prepare it for market.

"How do you wake up in the morning?" one child asked. "I have an alarm clock and electricity, just like you," Annie replied. Stories of life on the farm are often associated with "a simpler time" when the farmer was awakened by the crow of a rooster and had to heat their hot water over a wood stove. Although these stories may be part of our agricultural heritage, farm field trips offer students the chance to connect with how the food they eat is grown today and who is growing it.

Students on this fieldtrip were drawn to the beautiful flowers on the tall okra, and sampled okra pods raw. The memory of this experience lead one student to ask her mother to buy okra the next day. Farm field trips encourage many kids to eat vegetables.

Growing Minds is about making these connections — between the food we eat, the farmer that grows it, and the land in our communities.