This classroom is a farm

Noel Schmidt is a teacher disguised as a farmer at Patchworks Farm, the nonprofit he founded in Santa Rosa. He usually can be found stomping around in muck-encrusted boots or working in the big red barn with a leaky roof.

Not that the leaks bother Schmidt much. He already envisions it repaired with gleaming solar panels. That's just one step of a multifaceted effort to launch a learning center focusing on sustainable practices.

"What teens are not hearing is how to connect to the land; why sustainability is important. They need to feel it," Schmidt said. "They need to discover for themselves where they figure in with all these ideas around sustainable practices."

Schmidt is a lifelong educator, former Peace Corps volunteer and recent social justice teacher at Ursuline High School. He reached a point in his own life about 10 years ago when he said he felt a yearning to leave rooms and structure and schedules behind and find his way to the natural rhythms of sowing and plowing, with the purpose of helping the greater community.

He realizes now that he was inspired long ago as part of a team taking students to work on building projects in Mexico.

"Every summer, we'd pull up and the kids would make faces. 'Ewwww,' they'd say as they looked around," he said.

In a matter of days, the students could see the beauty in hospitality, simple living and helping. "By the end of the summer, they could see the beauty there; especially the spirit of people. Each year, more and more kids signed up."

It is that type of sentiment that helps fuel Patchworks Farm, which operates on a small leased property just behind St. Rose Catholic School, a short walk from Ursuline and Cardinal Newman high schools.

One of the current tasks is raising $11,000 to install solar panels on the barn roof. Cardinal Newman seniors Lucas Topolous, Kendrick Talamantez and John Lawlor have devoted their senior year service project to the effort.

"I passed out fliers to 195 houses in my neighborhood, asking neighbors to leave any empty cans out on their porches in bags," Lawlor said. He collects them weekly to redeem at a recycling center.

"I'm really excited about helping to create an after-school eco-learning center for kids. When we have solar, we can sell unused energy back to the power company and so it will eventually be a revenue source," Lawlor said.

Tony Negri, a board member of Patchworks Farm and former principal of Santa Rosa High School, backs the effort to introduce teens to hands-on lessons of growing and consuming food locally.

"We all need to think about what we're doing. I like these certain Australian oranges, but do I like them enough to burn so much fuel to get them here?" Negri said.

Negri admires Schmidt for his focus on providing low-cost local food for the community through a summer stand at Kaiser Hospital, as well as a subscription-based boxed farm food program, while challenging young volunteers to help with the work, planning and projects.

The nonprofit's Web site, www.patchworksfarm

.org, offers opportunities for getting involved, including a call for adult mentors and help with fund raising. There is also an opportunity to sponsor a small patch of land annually. If any generous soul has a pickup gathering dust, Patchworks Farm could use that, too.

"Nowadays a lot of teens don't understand physical labor. Noel gets the kids to work hard and think about these issues," Negri said.

Lawlor, 17, said that working with Schmidt has made him change some of his own habits.

"He's so knowledgable and fun to work with. He inspired me to plant a little vegetable garden in my own yard and to really think about driving so much around town," Lawlor said.

You can reach Staff Writer Rayne Wolfe at 521-5240 or rayne.wolfe@pressdemocrat.com.