What a great trip we had to Barsolus today! Primary 7 were kindly invited to visit Gillian and the crew to learn how plants benefit humans and how farming practices work from field to fork.
Gillian explained about the seasonality of different crops and how Barsolus need to time planting of vegetables such as Brussel Sprouts perfectly so they are ready to harvest for our Christmas dinners!
Our pupils also found out how different varieties of vegetables impacts on soil health over time. As a result farmers are required to rotate crop growing on field every three years or so. We also talked about taking care not to release too much carbon from soil through the use of NPK fertilisers.
We learned about cooperative arrangements with Girvan Early Growers who rent fields from Barsolus for carrot growing. They don’t have enough land around Girvan, so hire fields to grow and harvest their own crops.
Barsolus talked about working in more environmentally sustainable ways through the Government’s ‘greening policy’. Barsolus have chosen to interpret their green action by leaving areas to grow and develop naturally. Farmers have options on what solution they choose. Gillian also chatted about reducing the chemicals added to soil through the need to change to using less damaging types of fertiliser.
We had a game of ‘identify the veg’. The children were very knowledgeable. We then had a carrot pulling competition to see who could pick the biggest carrot. Scott chose three category winners:
Biggest carrot – Cara
Fattest carrot – Atticus
Longest carrot – Stephen
Cara was declared the supreme carrot champion.
Gillian very generously let the children fill a bag of veggie goodness to take home. There’ll be a few pots of soup on the go tonight. 🙂
Our thanks go to Wilma Benson for very ably escorting Leswalt and helping out our group.
We can’t thank Barsolus enough for a fabulous learning experience right on our doorstep!
UNCRC Rights of the Child – Article 24 Health, Food & The Environment
