Today, Growing for Good visited Fernbrook Farms an educational experience located in Chesterfield, New Jersey. To start off the day, our group began with a tour of the various greenhouses located on the property. Here, we observed many different irrigation systems used for growing different types of plants, giving us a better understanding of agriculture behind the scenes.
During this tour, we got a closer look at how many plants are truly grown at Fernbrook, learning that each greenhouse contains 7000 plants or more, depending on the species! Following this, we were brought to fields where we saw the growing areas for many different herbs and fruits. Specifically, we saw how strawberries and tomatoes use different types of covers during the winter for different growing benefits and learned which covers are used for avoiding invasive species.
The next activity we participated in was an amazing visit to the different farmland animal pens. We saw various animals, including cows, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, and roosters. We loved taking pictures of the animals, learning about them, and seeing how they interacted with each other and the land.
Lastly, we took a tractor ride around the property, where we viewed landmarks around Fernbrook Farms showing how its growing and farming history developed over the years. We also saw structures that gave us insight into the farm’s past. For example, we saw an old water tower and learned how it benefited the land dating back to the 1800s, and we heard how its use changed over the years.
Overall, this experience was extremely enriching and enabled us to expand our knowledge about animals and plants and added to our understanding of the environment.
