Teaching teachers about farming

Standing beside his dairy barns, John Bucher gave school teachers a lesson about farming.

As his black-and-white Holsteins trudged back up a fenced runway from the milking shed, Bucher told the two dozen educators that he began producing certified organic milk last year because of the extra revenue it provides.

He said the partial conversion of his 650-cow dairy represents one way that Sonoma County farmers can find a niche and compete against much larger farm operations around the state.

“We have to figure out what works here and what’s sustainable for us,” said Bucher, who also has planted 42 acres of pinot noir grapes on his land in the Russian River Valley.

Bucher was among a number of farmers who spoke this week to teachers enrolled in the county Farm Bureau’s Ag Boot Camp.

The event amounted to a two-day field trip in a bus that cruised along narrow country roads, under shady oak boughs and beside rows of lush green grapevines.

Farm leaders for two decades they have been taking school teachers and other educators to see firsthand what is happening in the county’s $3 billion agriculture industry.

“We want to give them a greater awareness of agriculture and food and fiber...and then to have them share it with their students,” said Lex McCorvey, the farm bureau’s executive director.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the educators visited such operations as Gourmet Mushrooms near Sebastopol, Cline Cellars winery near Sonoma, and Oak Hill Farm and Atwood Ranch Vineyard, both outside of Glen Ellen.

The listened to historian and Press Democrat columnist Gaye LeBaron, stood atop the iron-rich reddish soil of Santa Rosa Junior College’s Shone Farm near Forestville and ate a freshly picked, white variety peach known as “strawberry free” at Dry Creek Peach and Produce near Lake Sonoma.

Carla Peterson, a teacher at Pacific Christian Academy in Graton, declared the peach delicious and said its smell reminded her of the fruit she used to eat as a child at her grandfather’s home in Sebastopol.

“When you go to the store now, they don’t have that smell,” she said.

At the junior college Shone Farm, the teachers saw students trimming surplus branches from apple trees. They learned that much of the farm’s produce is sold to the college’s culinary program and its food services, as well as to restaurants.

Heidi Herrmann, an adjunct instructor for the college, said she hoped the tour will prompt teachers to share with students the opportunities available at the farm for learning a variety of skills, including obtaining the only sustainable agriculture certificate at a California junior college.

Sue Reyes, an English teacher at Cook Middle School, said she came back for a second year of boot camp because she is fascinated by the world of agriculture, especially organic farming.

“I understand the plight of the farmer better,” she said.