Locally grown history was made in the south end of Bainbridge Island in Spring 2011 when our third farm-school partnership was seeded with Blakely Elementary School and Heyday Farm.

Heyday Farm generously offered EduCulture the opportunity of starting an edible education program with Blakely Elementary. This edible education program is a model of private farmland partnership with public education to grow public produce for school and community food streams. Students walk from school campus through the Islandwood environmental learning center to neighboring Heyday Farm.

What makes this Blakely School-Heyday Farm partnership so special is the bunch of “firsts” with our latest edible education program in the south end of Bainbridge Island: a first season of this farm-school program, a first farm partnership for Blakely School, a first educational venture for this new farm, and the first time row crops had been planted on this fertile ground.

This partnership has developed into rich programs like follow the egg, where students collect chicken eggs from the field, following them through processing and into the carton. Students also plant crops that then supply their local food stream.