McDonogh Roots Farm 2016

“ROOTS CONTINUES TO GROW” ARTICLE

REPRINTED FROM THE WINTER 2016 ISSUE

OF MCDONOGH MAGAZINE

McDONOGH

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BY MEREDITH BOWER, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Roots Farm has come a long way since the seeds for a

communal garden were first planted in 2006. At that

time, focus groups comprised of alumni, faculty, staff,

and parents were enthusiastic about bringing farming

back to McDonogh. The consensus was that “the

things we can do in the future are things we did in the

past,” referring to the school’s founding as a farm

school for boys.

Roots Continues to GrowAs word about the garden spread, so did excitement

for the project. In one very productive meeting in

2008, the name “Roots” was proposed, a mission

was agreed upon, and a location was chosen. With

seed money from the McDonogh Parents

Association, the initial plans to plant a simple acre of

potatoes at the end of Barnhill Road on the edge of

campus quickly sprouted, and tomatoes and

pumpkins were added to the list along with space for

a half-acre of individual garden plots.

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Fourth grader Ria Sood and Sharon Hood harvest sunflowers with plans to use the seeds in homemade bird feeders.

>>>Roots Continues to Grow

and shared with local food banks. Soon after students

returned to school in the fall of 2009, they piled onto

hay wagons for a trip to the garden for McDonogh’s

first Harvest Day. Lower schoolers picked pumpkins

that had grown so large the children could barely lift

them, while middle schoolers weeded the potato patch

in preparation for the crop to be plowed to the surface.

Additionally, a few hundred tomatoes were plucked

from the vines and sent straight to the dining hall.

In Roots’ first year, it is estimated that it yielded 4,000

pounds of potatoes, 1,000 pounds of tomatoes, and

more than 200 handsome pumpkins.

Over the past six years, Roots has evolved from a

garden to a two-acre farm with a greater variety of

crops. In 2015, Roots yielded roughly 7,000 pounds of

produce, 500 traditional pumpkins, and 300 munchkin

pumpkins. The farm’s growth also includes inviting

learning spaces planted among the crops. The most

recent addition is a 3,072 square foot multi-purpose

barn, which is being used in countless ways by teachers.

“Roots is not only a homage to our first days as a farm

school, it is a vibrant laboratory where students from

all divisions go to learn,” says Kevin Costa, Director of

the Academic Program. “Teachers increasingly see

opportunities to take ideas, once limited to the

classroom, and have them come alive in the garden,

barn, and beehives. In this way, students learn through

experience. This is just one facet of what makes Roots

such a special feature of McDonogh’s campus. It also

exemplifies what we mean by place-based learning—

what other school could do what we do?”

In March 2009, the fertile land was plowed and

tilled, and volunteers of all ages collected the first

harvest: rocks.

Meanwhile, in classrooms across campus, seedlings

were popping out of peat pots. By the end of the

school year, first and fifth graders had planted

tomato and pumpkin seedlings and volunteers had

planted seed potatoes. Over the summer, the crops

were tended and the tomato plants became heavy

with fruit that was used by Sage Dining Services “ R O OT S I S N OT O N LY A N H O M AG E TO O U R

F I R S T DAY S A S A FA R M S C H O O L , I T I S A

V I B R A N T L A B O R ATO R Y W H E R E S T U D E N T S

F R O M A L L D I V I S I O N S G O TO L E A R N .”

— K E V I N CO S TA

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Not YourTypical FarmersOn the surface, Sharon Hood and Kirk Robertson ’98

could not be more different. She arrives at Roots Farm

wearing a dress and chunky heels, which she promptly

ditches for colorful rain boots. After tying on a vintage-

style apron, she is ready to pull weeds and pick

tomatoes. He shows up in sensible overalls, work boots,

and a John Deere hat ready to plow the land and

prepare it for planting.

She grew up in a Baltimore City row house with an

abundant but postage stamp-sized garden tended by

her mother. She dreamed of owning a cow, living on a

farm, and teaching. He grew up on a horse farm in

Carroll County, studied agriculture at Virginia Tech, and

then pursued his dream of running his own family farm

and teaching school.

Together they are why Roots Farm is flourishing. As a

result of their deep-seated passion, more students are

learning at Roots, more crops are being cultivated, and

more people are benefitting from the bounty.

Hood and Robertson’s dreams of teaching brought

them to McDonogh. She is a Lower School science

teacher, and he teaches fifth grade science. When

Roots began as a garden in 2009, the two were ready

to get their hands dirty. With his experience, Robertson

was tapped to manage the farm work. And when the

first director of Roots, Joanna Bratton, moved away,

Hood stepped in. Almost immediately, Hood and

Robertson fell into a natural division of labor that not

only suits their personalities, but also suits the needs of

the operation.

Robertson is responsible for the functional side of the

farm, primarily working with machinery and supplies.

Give him a chore and he will get it done. Hood is

responsible for the day-to-day operations from

managing the budget to engaging students, teachers,

parents, and alumni. She is also the partner with the

vision, which ultimately makes Roots a wondrous

place to learn, discover, and experience.

The two teacher/farmers feel their partnership is

much like a sibling relationship. They are open and

honest and look to each other for direction. And while

their approaches are quite different, there is mutual

respect for what each contributes to the operation.

“I like to reach out to people and pull them into the

farm, and he likes to get his work done. It works really

well,” says Hood. Robertson teases Hood by saying she

has “decorated” the farm with park-like pathways,

whimsical signs, benches, and nooks and crannies. He

appreciates it, noting, “I know the value in it, and it has

to be done. My focus is the plants. In terms of real

farming conditions you wouldn’t have time for what

she does, and you also wouldn’t have funding.”

There is no question that the window dressing and the

events planned by Hood make Roots appealing to

students, families, and donors. Last summer, as a result

of a donation from former trustee Vernon Wright ’60,

Hood’s dream of having a barn at Roots for year-round

learning was realized. In September, the barn was the

centerpiece of the McDonogh Parents Association-

sponsored back-to-school “Honey of a Jam Fest.”

Families came out to the farm to learn about the crops

and the role of honeybees, pick pumpkins, and try their

hand at cider pressing. Once interest in Roots is

sparked at events such as this, students and their

families return to help with the chores that result in the

bounty donated to the hungry.

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The combination of the practical and the engaging is

why Roots continues to grow. “We are blessed with an

incredible gift and opportunity with the land,” says

Robertson gazing over the farm from the crops to the

barn. “We built this. We grew this. And now, more and

more people are saying, ‘we think what you are doing

is important.’”

Connecting Curriculum to RootsEach June after school lets out for the summer, the

incoming kindergarten class and their parents are

invited to Roots to plant pumpkin seeds. Kneeling in

the dirt as they poke their little fingers into the soil,

they get to know their new teachers and future

classmates. Four months later when they return to the

farm to harvest their crop, the students are amazed to

see vines dotted with orange pumpkins. They take

them back to their classrooms to make pies and bread,

which are then shared with the bus drivers or served

on Grandparents’ Day.

“The process contains countless lessons on growing and

giving that they will use throughout their lives; it’s unique,”

says Robertson of the activity planned and implemented

by Hood. “Our society is so far removed from

understanding where food comes from. What Sharon

does with pumpkins is one of the greatest things we do.”

From prekindergarten through twelfth grade, teachers

are using the farm for all kinds of hands-on lessons.

The unique opportunity to integrate Roots into the

McDonogh curriculum is why, in 2013, the Edward E.

Ford Foundation awarded McDonogh a $50,000

matching grant to further curriculum development.

They saw the value of bringing the humanities and

science to life in a tangible outdoor classroom where

students also learn to be good stewards of the earth

and give back to the community in meaningful ways.

“ R O OT S I S N OT T H E S O L E F O C U S O F A N Y PA R T I C U L A R C L A S S O R CO U R S E. I T ’S M O R E L I K E A P L AC E W H E R E PA R T O F T H E S C I E N C E C U R R I C U LU M C A N B E P U R S U E D O R PA R T O F A N OT H E R

C L A S S C A N B E E N H A N C E D.” — C H R I S W H I T E ’66

English teacher Josh Waller ’02 addresses the Middle School faculty at their unconventional morning staff meeting in the barn at Roots.

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Additionally, the Class of 1966 has stepped in with a

campaign in honor of their 50th Reunion year. The

cleverly named effort, “Roots 66,” recognizes the

potential of Roots to affect the curriculum as well as to

give back to the community. Chris White ’66 shares the

enthusiasm cultivated at Roots with his classmates.

“This ain’t your grandfather’s (our) McDonogh

education,” White recently wrote to them. “While we

are primarily the products of the ‘students learn/

teachers talk’ model, today’s McDonogh students

spend a good deal of their academic life in project-

based learning.”

He continued, “Roots is not the sole focus of any

particular class or course. It’s more like a place where

part of the science curriculum can be pursued or part of

another class can be enhanced. As kids matriculate into

the higher grades, the Roots exposure comes with them.”

To help teachers understand how Roots can easily

become part of their lessons, Hood invited faculty to

the farm for a series of informal brainstorming sessions

called, “Connect with your Roots.” On a perfect autumn

afternoon, a handful of teachers gathered in the barn

where they sat on hay bales, sampled honey cake, and

enjoyed homemade salsa with chips. Although the

group came from different disciplines and divisions, it

didn’t take long for ideas to begin flowing. Since then,

many of the suggestions posted on the barn’s “wall of

ideas” have been nurtured and already incorporated

into lesson plans in a variety of subject areas. Lower

School Chinese teacher Fang Fang Ma took her

students to the farm to learn how to say the names of

the colors they saw in Mandarin, and Middle School

Language Arts teacher Kim Mitchell’s students found

inspiration in the farm as they wrote poetry. For years,

students in the Upper School English elective “In Good

Taste: The Literature of Food” have visited the beehives

and participated in the honey harvest, and next year,

Marilyn Boyle will incorporate the corn harvest into her

tenth grade lesson on the Industrial Revolution.

Jody Christophe, who teaches Middle School Spanish,

discovered Roots is ideal for cross-curricular lessons

and “doing good.” Christophe is using Roots to study

the lifecycle and the migration of the Monarch

butterfly, which travels annually from northern

Minnesota to Central Mexico. Knowing that the

butterflies are nourished by milkweed, Middle School

students plan to grow it near the farm with the hope of

attracting the Monarchs to McDonogh’s campus. In the

process of learning about the butterflies, in Spanish of

course, they will also learn about the region in Mexico

where they winter. And as a bonus, the students will

have a positive impact on the environment.

Student groups aren’t the only ones gravitating to

Roots. The Middle School faculty held an early morning

meeting in the barn, and a recent Lower School

professional day included a campus-wide scavenger

hunt that ended at the farm. There, the group relaxed

around a fire, drank hot chocolate, and recapped what

had transpired during the day.

“People want to have meetings here,” says Hood. “The

barn has made the difference. It’s like our home.”

With the recent addition of the barn, Roots has

become a place teachers can use in almost any

weather condition. On a cold November day with rain

beating down on the barn’s tin roof, Hood overheard a

fourth grader exclaim, “It is so much fun to be out here

Fourth grader Dana Thompson takes her turn using the apple press as her classmates watch.

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in the rain. This is the coolest.” Hood recalls, “All I

could say is ‘wow.’ With so much high tech in their

world, this is high touch. In terms of contrast, it

doesn’t get any better than Roots.”

Grounded in the Greater GoodRoots also provides an opportunity to teach children

of all ages about being good stewards of the earth

and to practice John McDonogh’s tenet to “do the

greatest possible amount of good.” At Roots,

volunteering and tending the crops aren’t perceived

as chores when the end result is growing food to

enjoy or to donate to people in need.

Hood and Robertson have seen the interest in Roots

blossom over the years. “You can just watch the kids

become enamored. They take pride in the work

knowing, for example, that the potatoes they are

digging will be used by Sage or donated to a food

bank,” says Robertson. “For most kids, planting and

harvesting is ‘foreign,’ and they want to know when

they can go back.”

In addition to fifth graders who plant and harvest

potatoes and kindergartners who are responsible for

the pumpkin crop, Roots relies on upper schoolers for

much of the heavy lifting. In 2015, some 35 students

earned more than 300 community service hours at

Roots. Additionally, the girls’ and boys’ lacrosse teams

as well as the track teams came out in force to clean

up the land and prepare it for spring planting.

“ S E R V I C E I S T H E H E A R T O F R O OT S , A N D P E O P L E A R E T H E H E A R T O F T H E FA R M .”

— S H A R O N H O O D

Juniors Kasey Gibbons, Catie May, and Margaret Donovan discover a dewey spider web while volunteering at Roots.

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“Service is the heart of Roots, and people are the heart of

the farm,” says Hood. “We can’t do it without them. It’s

amazing how much people want to do and get involved.

They are drawn to the farm; it’s no longer a push.”

In addition to student, faculty, and alumni volunteers,

Roots also benefits from countless volunteer hours from

members of the McDonogh Parents Association,

including several with expertise in key areas. Hood cites

Courtney Gonzalez, the mother of four McDonogh

students, as an example. “She is a worker bee,” Hood

laughingly says since Gonzalez, her husband, Darryl, and

her father, Mac McClelland, who are beekeepers, do

much of the work with McDonogh’s hives. In addition to

harvesting honey and teaching students about the

important role of bees in food production, she helps out

in numerous other ways. “She just asks me what needs

to be done and then does it,” says Hood.

McDonogh’s Grounds and Maintenance crews are also

willing to pitch in at Roots. They, too, feel the pull and

realize the impact the farm is having on the school and

beyond. They take pride in doing whatever is needed, from

building fencing to landscaping, and generally keeping

things tidy.

Since its founding, Roots has relied on the expertise of

other farmers when it comes to the basics of agricul-

ture. Last winter, when considering a crop that would

keep the bees busy pollinating, Hood consulted with

Chip Mace of neighboring Foxleigh Farms. He recom-

mended that buckwheat be planted between the

community boxes and the pumpkins, not only for the

bees but also as a cover crop to condition the soil.

Weeks later, Mace arrived at Roots with the necessary

equipment to plant the buckwheat and prepare the

land for the other crops being planted by the students.

Using repurposed cedar, Director of Maintenance Keith Lambert begins building a multi-purpose table for the barn.

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Former parent Rick Bernstein, owner of First Fruit

Farms, a ministry devoted to growing food for the

hungry, generously offers advice and equipment to

maintain the land. His large-scale operation has also

served as a model for Roots to grow crops to be

donated to the Maryland Food Bank. “They all are

critical resources,” says Hood of her mentors.

“We have the opportunity to do so much good—more

good than we are already doing,” says Hood. “There is

so much more food to be grown, to be donated, and to

be used right here.” Robertson sums up how Roots and

the community work together, noting, “We are good at

cultivating crops, and along the way we have been

cultivating community and character.”

The Purpose of RepurposingEven with its park-like setting and brand new barn,

Roots exudes a well-worn, homey feel. Inside the barn

are deep sinks for washing vegetables, a bulletin board

for pinning up notes, sturdy shelving, a pile of quilts, and

a smattering of kitchen-style chairs. Purposely, nothing

is new. Hood, with her unique sense of style, has

outfitted the barn with things that were headed for the

landfill. “The barn needs to be a symbol and message,”

Hood explains. “It’s not about going out and buying new

shiny things. It’s about taking things we have here on

earth and recycling, reusing, and repurposing.”

Standing inside the barn, she points to the sinks that

came from Second Chance, a Baltimore-based salvage

operation, noting they will be used to wash produce

that will be used by Sage and Linwoods Restaurant.

With the help of Keith Lambert, Director of Mainte-

nance, doors from a chicken coop were affixed to a

wall and now hold notes clipped on with clothes pins,

large slate chalkboards from remodeled classrooms

have been framed and will be attached to a wall for les-

sons, and a new farm table is being built using leftover

cedar from another project.

The shelves along the wall next to the sliding barn door

came from the old science classrooms in Allan Building,

but they look like they belong in the barn. The formerly

polished dark wood is now a chalky, grass green with

scratches and nicks thanks to a “distressing” project

completed by the third and fourth grade “Roots

Squad,” an activity class that meets regularly at Roots

and does whatever needs to be done.

“Why do we want to make it look old?” the kids often

wonder. Hood tells them, “Distressing and changing is

art. Instead of going out and buying something new

that doesn’t match the feel of the farm, we are chang-

ing what we have. Rather than throwing it away, we

give it a new life.”

She concludes, “For the ‘get and toss’ generation,

repurposing teaches that you can find something old

and make it the coolest piece you’ve ever had. It’s a

different mindset. That’s what the farm is all about.”

“ F O R T H E ‘G E T A N D TO S S’ G E N E R AT I O N , R E P U R P O S I N G T E AC H E S T H AT YO U C A N F I N D S O M E T H I N G O L D A N D M A K E I T T H E CO O L E S T P I E C E YO U’ V E E V E R H A D.” — S H A R O N H O O D

Third graders Stella Hammond and Allison Kelly distress a cast-off bookshelf that is now being used in the barn.>

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Farm-to-Table(s)Anyone who has ever enjoyed a tomato fresh from the

vine will understand why the crop grown at Roots is

like gold. Rich with flavor and goodness, they are

emblematic of why the “farm-to-table” movement is so

popular. “The sooner you can eat something that is

freshly picked, the more flavorful and nutritious it is. It’s

not like a wine that gets better with age,” explains

Linwoods Restaurant’s Chef de Cuisine Jay Rohlfing,

who buys tomatoes and other fresh produce from

Roots. “You can’t beat naturally grown. It’s every chef’s

dream to get beautiful produce from as close as a

quarter mile away.”

The produce grown at Roots not only ends up on the

plates at one of Baltimore’s finest restaurants, it is also

served in McDonogh’s dining halls and in the kitchens

of people in need whose meals are provided by the

Maryland Food Bank. The distribution of the produce

to the three distinct outlets is at the heart of Roots’

mission to “unite our community through the

cultivation of the earth and stewardship of the land.”

Since the beginning, Roots has been donating produce

to the Maryland Food Bank. This past year, it is

estimated that 1,300 pounds of tomatoes, potatoes,

squash, and green beans went to the non-profit

through its Farm to Food Bank program. Butch

Langenfelder, the organization’s food sourcing

manager, is thrilled to receive donations from Roots

and other local farms, saying, “Every family needs

produce; it’s up there with protein in terms of

nutritional value.”

Roots is one of the smaller farms participating in the

Farm to Food Bank program, but the contributions are

considered big. In addition to offsetting the need for

the organization to purchase fresh produce for its

clients, there is great value for the students who help

grow it. Understanding where food comes from is also

important to Linwoods’ Chef Rohlfing. Not only does

he purchase produce from Roots, but he also maintains

a plot at the farm where he grows lettuces and herbs

for the restaurant. He occasionally brings younger

chefs to the farm to teach them about where the food

is grown. “When they see a tomato they know was

grown at Roots, they’ll treat it with more respect than

one imported from California or Mexico. They have

more respect for the food in general because they see

what went into growing it and where it came from.”

Linwoods began buying Roots’ tomatoes and adding

them to summer salads two years ago. This past

summer, the restaurant’s tomatoes came exclusively

from McDonogh, appearing in salads, sandwiches, and

sauces alongside Roots’ green beans, yellow squash,

and basil. The money from the sale of the fresh

produce to Linwoods is plowed back into the farm and

used to buy seeds for the following season.

Sage Dining, McDonogh’s food services provider, also

maintains a plot at Roots for growing fresh herbs. But

herbs are just a fraction of what goes from the farm on

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one side of campus to the dining hall tables on the

other side. During the growing season, Roots

provides Sage with a quarter of its potato needs, and

last summer it more than filled the kitchen’s zucchini

and squash needs. “We cooked it every way possible,”

says Derald Higgins, McDonogh’s Catering Manager.

“We thought people would be sick of it, but it was so

flavorful that people started asking for it!” Mashaye

Barr, Assistant Food Service Director agrees: “It was

so delicious, you could taste the sun.”

The tomatoes that became a sauce sparked a similar

reaction, not solely because they are sun-kissed, but

also because they are planted with basil as a

companion crop. At Roots, foods that taste great

together are grown together.

In the last few years, Sage has begun to rely on Roots

for everything from produce and herbs to sunflowers,

pumpkins and corn stalks for table decorations. Their

relationship with Roots is such that they can harvest

anything they need. “Being able to access food from

the farm is the best,” Higgins exclaims. “And it saves a

lot of money.”

As the farm has evolved, so has the process of

determining what to plant. Sage’s Barr and Chef

Rohlfing of Linwoods are both looking forward to the

next growing season when, in addition to the lush

tomatoes and squash, the produce they have

requested to be planted at Roots begins to sprout.

“Sharon [Hood] is all about producing products for us

to utilize,” says Barr. “That’s farm-to-table.”

“ YO U C A N’ T B E AT N AT U R A L LY G R O W N . I T ’S E V E R Y C H E F ’S D R E A M TO G E T B E AU T I F U L P R O D U C E F R O M A S C LO S E A S A Q UA R T E R M I L E AWAY.”

— J AY R O H L F I N G , C H E F D E C U I S I N E , L I N W O O D S R E S TAU R A N T

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