Bethesda Farm returned to The Clay County Agricultural Fair again this year to serve up scrambled pasture-raised eggs to elementary school students visiting the Early Florida Village as a part of their school day. As part of their morning, the students visited five different stations where they learned about:
- Livestock,
- Bees,
- Seeds,
- Forestry, and
- Chickens.
While the Bethesda Farm eggs were being prepared for each group of 15 to 20 students, the children learned about the advantages of chickens that live outside on pasture versus chickens that live indoors. We talked about how both people and chickens convert sunshine into vitamins that provide nutrition and how, for the birds, the vitamins help make the eggs from the hens even healthier.
We discussed the grass, bugs and worms that the chickens find on pasture that contribute to the hens’ healthy life and to the neutron of the eggs that they lay.
With children from grades kindergarten to second grade, you try to be ready for some creative questions. But when the young boy asked, “How do chicken’s poop?” it still took several seconds – or was it minutes? – to turn the question around and share with the group how the, er – fertilizer – that the chickens leave does a wonderful job building up the soil at Bethesda Farm, which allows the grass to grow back quickly after the hens have been moved to fresh pasture.
Over the two days, we served Bethesda Farm pasture-raised eggs to about 200 students and their teachers.
Chereese Stewart serves as the Fair’s Ag Education Director. Thanks, Chereese, for including Bethesda Farm each year!
More about the Clay County Fair
The annual Clay County Agricultural Fair runs through Saturday, April 13, 2019. The Clay County Fair started in 1987. In 2003, it received the “Champion County Fair” in the Florida and has received Blue Ribbon recognition for the Florida Federation of Fairs each year since then. Over 900 volunteers make for a wonderful event for more than 100,000 visitors each year. The fair is located at 2493 State Road 16 W., Green Cove Springs, Florida 32043. For more information, visit the link above or call (904) 284-1615.
Leave a Reply