After meeting at school in the morning and going over the agenda for the day (and having delicious toasts!), we boarded the bus and headed to the New Jersey Nut Farm in Medford. We arrived around 10:00 a.m., met our hosts and heard about what they do on their farm and why it is so important.
The farmers, Rachel Cope (Class of ‘03) and her husband, Luke Tarvin, grow chestnuts, elderberries, asparagus, aronia berries, and more! Chestnuts went extinct in the U.S. in the 1800s due to a blight, or a disease. The Chinese chestnuts that some people brought to the U.S. are immune to this disease, so they carried it to and infected the U.S. chestnuts. The chestnuts that Rachel and Luke are growing are a hybrid of American and Chinese chestnuts.
During our visit, we assisted Rachel and her husband Luke with many tasks on their farm to help keep it running.
We headed deeper into the farm where we were taught how to plant chestnut trees. While there, we planted 24 Chestnut trees that will be ready to be harvested in a few years! After that, we headed over to have a picnic lunch and played with Doc and Scout, the two ground dogs that help keep animals from attacking the trees. After lunch, we headed over to a field of Chestnut trees that had already been planted and helped with making sure all the Chestnut trees were planted correctly. Unfortunately, we did not get to try any chestnuts as chestnut harvesting season is from mid-September to late-October.
Then, we helped to pick up up tree branches that had fallen off after the trees were pruned. Around 1:45, we said goodbye to our new friends and boarded the bus to head back to campus to debrief and finish off the delicious sourdough bread that Mrs. Mullen had brought.
We hope to visit the farm again in the fall to collect some chestnuts and roast around an open fire!
