This past month’s educational program highlights included: 

• Central Middle School students, from San Carlos, CA, for a full day of farm activities, lunch preparation with ingredients from the farm, and pie baking.
• The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) Food and Society Fellows toured the ranch after the 2009 Food & Society conference held in San Jose, CA. Funded by W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the IATP Food and Society Fellows use media, scholarship, public education and outreach to create stronger community food and farming systems that are healthy and just for farm families, the environment and consumers, working toward a future food system in which Good Food is abundant. Many of them said that their visit to Pie Ranch was the highlight of the conference.
• Apprentices, Dede Boies & Lauren Bonn led a pie baking workshop at the neighboring Costanoa Lodge using wheat, strawberries & rhubarb grown at the ranch.
• A group of students from San Francisco’s Jewish Community High School came for an extended tour of the ranch, collected our multi-colored eggs, and held our 9 new baby goats.
• Paul Revere Elementary & Middle School visited from San Francisco. They had a great time chasing chickens, preparing pies & picking strawberries.
• The Mission High Piesters had their end of the school year overnight. This is the annual culmination of their monthly trips to the ranch. The students spent two days & one night picking strawberries, thinning our baby apples, preparing nutritionally dense meals with our chef educator, Megan Hanson, baking pies, interviewing resident farmers & apprentices, journaling, and sitting around the fire telling ghost stories. The stars were bright & they slept well. In our closing circle, Mission High teacher Matt Heller gave out appreciations. He remarked on how senior Devon showed thoughtfulness and respect, serving other people first at meal time and how the whole group had gotten so much better at willingly cleaning up after themselves & washing their own plates…without asking! We all noticed how each one of them was more expressive & relaxed. We look forward to witnessing their end-of-the-year presentations at Mission High and our final trip with the Piesters at the end of this month.
• 25 members of the Wharton Club of Northern California – the Wharton School of Business’ largest alumni club in the world - came for a tour of Pie Ranch including farm activities & strawberry-rhubarb pie baking.