THE BLUE AND RED tractors trundled past rows of green — Brussel sprouts, kale, Swiss chard, green onions and the fluffy tops of carrots — before coming to a stop beside what seemed like endless rows of strawberries.
A STUDENT LOOKS OVER HER FRESHLY PICKED STRAWBERRIES. PHOTOS BY ALAN WENDELL/DIOCESE OF ORANGE
Then the transitional kindergarteners eagerly stood up, clearly wanting to get off the tractor wagon, when suddenly tour guide Dustin Uneda laid down the law with some surprising news.
“They either go in your basket or in your stomach,” he said with a smile. With excitement and hungry tummies, 39 littles from St. Hedwig Catholic School climbed down and wandered among the rows of hydroponic strawberry plants.
The Los Alamitos school’s two transitional kindergarten classes were on their third, and final, field trip of the year at Tanaka Farms in Irvine.
“Today is going really well,” said TK teacher Lauren Macias. “The students are having fun picking the strawberries and kale, and I think it’s a great experience for them to do hands-on. I feel like that really connects them to what they are learning in class.”
The students have been studying plants and their parts by growing their own flowers; learning about fruits, vegetables and harvesting; and the life cycle of a strawberry.
A STUDENT SHOWS OFF A LARGE STRAWBERRY HE PICKED DURING A CLASS FIELD TRIP TO TANAKA FARMS IN IRVINE.
But the teachers kept the strawberry tasting part of the day a secret — which turned into the best moment for many.
It became all about seeing “their eyes lighting up when they realized they got to eat the strawberries,” said TK teacher Nicole Vasquez.
“We are excited to be here, learning about farmers, learning about vegetables and fruit, and taking what we learned and seeing it first-hand,” Vasquez added. “I want them to realize how fruit and vegetables going from farm to table is important. But also, they’ll see it’s a job and this is what someone does for a living. It takes lots of people in our community to help us enjoy different things.”
Many students who visit Tanaka Farms have never been to an actual farm before, said Uneda. He sees the experience bringing children a lot of joy and he hopes they’ll learn where their food comes from.
“There’s a lot of times we ask kids on tours where their food comes from and the first answer is ‘the market,’” Uneda said. “So, this way we get to show them where our foods are grown, like at a farm like this and other farms. Then hopefully they will appreciate the hard work farmers do for all of us.”
Wandering among the strawberries with her mom, 5-year-old Nova Cerca peeked at her peers through the green leaves and vines. The children were instructed not to pick the unripe white strawberries that needed more time to grow, but the red ones that verged on crimson.
“Nova, here’s a good one!” her mother, Carla Cerca said, pointing out a particularly juicy fruit.
STUDENTS GET TO MEET AND PET SOME FARM ANIMALS AT TANAKA FARMS.
“I want to taste it,” Nova said, reaching out her small hand to bend and snap the strawberry off the vine. She took a bite, a bit of juice dripping down her chin.
Once back on the wagon, one little boy said he ate “like sixty hundred.”
With baskets and stomachs full of strawberries and bags of handpicked kale, the students then headed off to meet the farm animals. Passing miniature horses Dolly Madison and Little Debbie, Vasquez and her students discovered four goats eating hay.
“Do you think it’s breakfast time? I think it’s breakfast time,” Vasquez said to Hazel Neumann, who then got to pet a goat. “What does it feel like? Is it soft?”
Seeing the goats, horses, cows, chickens and one very irate pig named Al was the peak of the field trip for friends Mia Duan, 4, and Rowan Swanson, 5.
Classmate Savannah O’Donnell, 5, said she had fun picking the strawberries and kale — clarifying that she won’t be eating the kale — yet found the farm animals to be the best part.
“It was fun,” O’Donnell said, “because we can see the horses.”