| MARCH 24, 2010 -- The Farm City program of the Connecticut Agricultural Education Foundation was held at Brookside Farm II, Litchfield, on March 23.
Each year Farm City, an educational, agricultural program, travels to a different working farm in Connecticut.
At Farm City, local school children participate in hands-on activities that teach them about different aspects of farming and local agriculture.
This year the crop studied was maple syrup.
Sixty-five third-graders from South West School in Torrington learned about the history of maple syrup, how the sap is harvested from the trees, how syrup is made and packaged. Farm City is sponsored by the Connecticut Agricultural Education Foundation (CTAEF).
Brookside Farm II, located in Litchfield CT, is a relatively small and very high quality maple syrup operation. Mark Harran and Kay Carroll, owners of the farm since 1999, make about 150 gallons of maple syrup per year, depending on weather conditions, which dictate the flow and sugar content of the sap.
Educators from several agricultural and environmental organizations donate their time and materials to support Farm City.
Locally, True Value of Litchfield donated the use of chairs, Litchfield Hills Foods Systems gave each child a gift certificate to the Litchfield Hills Farm-Fresh Market to continue their education about local agriculture, and Brookside Farm II sugarmakers Mark Harran, Jay Harran, Jim Katzin, John Langer, state Rep. Craig Miner and Kay Carroll were all available to educate and answer questions.
The Farm City program has been providing such experiences around the state for the past 18 years.
The program is supported through the cooperative efforts of The Connecticut Agriculture Education Foundation, Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environmental Protection, University Of Connecticut Cooperative Extension Services and Agriculture in the Classroom.
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