We are excited to announce that Clearwater Farm was recently chosen to receive two grants to help grow and enhance our Summer Youth Gardens program. This couldn’t have come at a better time. At the start of the summer, our community garden was without water due to a broken water line. However, thanks to the generous support of Mayo Clinic Health System – Franciscan Healthcare and the Coulee Food System Coalition, we were able to fix the water issue and provide the youth gardens and the rest of the community garden with plenty of water to get us through these hot summer days.

The remaining grant money will be used to replace worn out tools, repair the fence that surrounds and protects the entire community garden, build additional demonstration beds to enhance the youth gardens, provide scholarships to local youth organizations to attend this educational program, and purchase a digital camera to share the program’s successes with the community.

In its second season, the Summer Youth Gardens program has brought many new additions to the farm. First we are happy to welcome our new Garden Teacher, Sara Nelson, an experienced educator from Viking Elementary in Holmen. Nelson has been learning alongside the participants as they collected, incubated, and hatched several chicken eggs. These baby chicks have been the highlight of the summer. We were also able to install an educational beehive at the farm. Thanks to a Clearwater Farm volunteer, Jeff Murawski, participants were able to view these honeybees up close and learn about the hive, flower pollination, and honey production.

Over the course of 10 weeks, participants from 8 different youth groups will plant, care for, and harvest a variety of vegetables and herbs in small, easy to manage raised beds with the guidance of the Garden Teacher. They will learn how to incorporate this produce into simple and affordable healthy snacks. Along the way, they have made scarecrows, cooked with a solar oven, worked with the farm animals, played team-building games, and explored nature.

A weekly newsletter helps connect families to the farm by sharing gardening tips, snack recipes, and other fun farm facts. Families are also invited to tour the gardens at the end of the summer and help celebrate the harvest. For a copy of the weekly newsletters, click here.

We would like to thank the staff from Catholic Charities, Coulee Connections, Family and Children Center, Gundersen Childcare Center, and Ho-Chunk Youth and Learning Center for giving their kids the opportunity to experience growing and preparing their own food from seed to table. We would also like to thank the many volunteers who have donated countless hours of hard work to make the community garden a beautiful and inviting place for these youth groups.

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