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The clipping this text was read from
The clipping this text was read from

By Trista Scheuerlein

Special to the Rappahannock News

What’s green, abundant, full of kids, and supported by our wonderful community? The F arm-to-Table Program, of course!

Students in the Farm-toTable Program (F2T) have been growing food, creating school gardens, and learning through field trips to local farms since January 2004. Now the F2T program, a HeadwatersRappahannock County Public Schools partnership supported by the Young Farmland Fund, the Rappahannock County Farm Bureau, and the Cole Family Foundation, is attracting local, national, and global attention.

Mitzie Young of the Young Farmland Fund, Headwaters Executive Director Cole Johnson, and Program Coordinator Trista Scheuerlein will host an F2T Open House this Saturday, September 30, from 2 until 4 p.m. at Rappahannock County High School. All community members are welcome to come and see first-hand the gardens built and maintained by the students.

“We hope to build awareness for the program,” explained Johnson. “We are looking for additional support for the program, not only financially, but for all the learning opportunities that our local farmers have to offer.”

Preventing pests

without pesticides

Lynn Graves of Graves Mountain Farm hosted a field trip to his farm and processing facility earlier this summer. During the field trip, Graves held up a white piece of cardboard on a wire. “Does anybody know what this is?” he asked. One student was able to identify the object as a pheromone trap that confuses the apple codling moth and prevents it from finding a mate. Known as Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, this kind of tool helps to reduce the amount of pesticides that farmers use. Students in the F2T Program learn about such cost-efficient and sciencebased agriculture that keeps farming costs down while reducing the amount of pesticides in our environment.

“One person can only know so much,” explained Scheuerlein. “We tap into Rappahannock County’s ‘agricultural knowledge base.’ There are people here who come from generations of farmers, and they are models of how to farm 'successfully year after year. After all, farming is not sustainable unless you can feed the farmer,

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