Teaching and Learning from Farm to Table: An Introductory Workshop on Edible Education

What are the basic considerations for developing an edible education program, from the farm to the classroom to the lunch table? Build your professional repertoire around farm and food education while enjoying a summer day amidst the beauty of historic farmland and pleasure of an abundant kitchen in West Puget Sound.

The first part of the workshop will be spent amidst the agricultural beauty and abundance of Suyematsu & Bentryn Family Farms, the oldest and largest working landscape on Bainbridge Island. We will also visit the edible education program at neighboring Morales Farm. You will meet master farmers, practice some hands-on farming activities, and learn the key elements for cultivating your own farm-school relationship. In the process, we will harvest some of the ingredients for second part of the program.

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We will transition from Bainbridge Island to Indianola and Wiseacres Community and Garden. The rest of the day in kitchen and gardens of educator and master chef, Judith Weinstock to explore the culinary side of edible education. Together, we will make and enjoy a dinner feast with the food we harvest and locally grown wine from Bainbridge Island Vineyards.

This professional learning experience offers elementary and secondary educators the opportunity to explore the possibilities for teaching and learning about food and farming in their current teaching practice, and examine the pedagogical and curricular considerations for developing an edible education program.

This is a great opportunity to be fed professionally and feed others!

Objectives

• To cultivate lived experiences that will inform and cultivate a more lived curriculum.

• To explore authentic, meaningful and comprehensive ways to bridge classroom and communities which integrate scholarship, stewardship, citizenship, and sustainability.

• To improving and enrich a teachers’ professional repertoire around food, farming, culture and education within the context of their current teaching practice.

• To creating curricular pathways for engaging in environmental and sustainability education through utilizing our communities as curriculum and working and natural landscapes as outdoor classrooms.

• To broaden professional horizons by learning how to connect people, places, and projects to enrich and enliven learning experiences for students and the wider community.

Program Instructors:

Jonathan Garfunkel is founder and director of the EduCulture project. He has designed a series of ground breaking edible education programs involving local farms and schools, and developed professional development programs for educators throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Judith Weinstock teaches “Humanities Through Food”, a culinary arts program that integrates history, ethics, food politics, agriculture, culture, science, chemistry and nutrition through the lens of food and the art of cooking. She is a well known educator, chef, and caterer, and the author of “The Streamliner Diner” and “The Kingston Hotel Cafe” cookbooks.