It’s really cool to help out, especially when you get involved with a food bank.”

Mason Lane, eighth-grader who helps at the farm

PORTSMOUTH — When they first sank their fingers into the dirt at Cloverbud Ranch three years ago, Portsmouth Middle School students couldn’t have possibly known how quickly their garden would grow.

Despite the fact they began working their first patch of soil just as a pandemic shut down schools and moved learning outside and online, the student-run AgInnovation Farm — “Ag” as in agriculture — didn’t take long to blossom into a wide-ranging learning project aimed at serving the entire community.

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“We’ve come a long way and have a lot going on,” said Margie Brennan, the Portsmouth school district’s K-8 science instruction coach who established a school garden at the middle school in early 2020 after being approached by Sara Churgin, district manager of the Eastern R.I. Conservation District (ERICD). Churgin had already helped install a rain garden as part of an outdoor classroom at Melville School. João Arruda, the middle school school principal, also threw his support behind the project.

Later on, Martin Beck of New England Grass Fed, who leases the 100-plus-acre Cloverbud Ranch just a short drive from the school on Jepson Lane, gifted six acres of land near the top of the ranch for student use.

The after-school program recently began its spring session and has a total of 75 students involved twice a week.

“We have veteran kids who are returning, so last week they came to the farm and set it up the way we wanted it. The new kids coming in will fulfill the jobs that the older kids have come up with,” Brennan said.

Due to inflation and the higher costs of food, the big focus this year is on food production. “We’ve talked to the (St. John’s Lodge) community food bank and they’re in desperate need of food. We’re happy to help, but before we do we’re looking at soil health, so we’re trying all these different methods of farming,” she said.

That includes things such as no-till German farming methods, hydroponics, vertical plant, in-ground planting and more, she said. “They say by 2030, if we don’t change the way we’re farming, we’re not going to have nutrients in our soil. The kids need to know that.”

There’s a lot going on, and during a recent visit students were scrambling all over the farm, carrying tools, carrying for chickens, shoveling dirt, watering plans, and solving the problems that your typical farmer runs into on a daily basis.

“We have a pollinator path that’s finally underway. URI is doing a bee study with us, so the kids will be able to do some analysis of the number count. We also have an apple, cherry and pear orchard that we’re planting,” Brennan said, adding the farm also has blueberry bushes.

The farm received chickens in spring 2022 and students built them coops as well as a hutch for bunnies that are also coming to the ranch. (Besides a fence installed by Citizens Bank, students have built just about everything else, Brennan said, including an outdoor classroom with shade pavilion.) 

“You can’t mix chicks and chickens together because of the pecking order,” Brennan said, explaining why students moved the chicks away from the coops and into the high tunnel further down the hill. “Ryan’s working hard on getting volunteers to help us dig an extended fence so we can get room for the chicks.”

That would be Ryan Brancato, a farm manager and partner who recently became a master gardener through the University of Rhode Island. He came aboard in June 2022 and is here four days a week, but will be working full-time from mid-June to mid-September. Brancato has the important task of writing grants for the farm and also coordinates students from Gaudet Middle School in Middletown, who come here on Mondays and Wednesdays.

“It’s constantly evolving,” Brancato said of the farm, noting the high tunnel had weeds “seven feet tall” when he first came board, and there was no community garden at the time. (Plots are available for $35, and members of the public have access to all tools and water.)

Another one of Brennan’s key partners is Lisa Brew, a longterm substitute teacher. “She’s been out with me for the past year and a half. She loves gardening, so she does that, while I’m more of the big vision,” Brennan said.

Problem-solving is key

At one point, Brew asked Brennan if she should help a small group of students who were struggling while figuring out how to build a shelter. Brennan said no, “they have to figure it out themselves,” so Brew left the area to get back to planting.

Problem-solving is a key part of the learning experience at the farm, Brennan said, and usually the students figure out things on their own. “One example is that when we first got the chickens, they kept escaping. Mason (Lane) and AJ (Chobian) figured out a way to extend the fencing down. We have lots of little problems that need solving,” she said.

Mason’s an eighth-grader who first started working the farm last summer.

“It’s really cool to help out, especially when you get involved with a food bank,” he said, referring to St. John’s Lodge on Sprague Street. “(The chickens) are fun to hold and you get to feed them and collect eggs, which we give out to people. It’s also creative, like when we built the chicken coops.”

It sure beats sitting in a classroom, said Mason, who loves fishing at the pond nearby. “It’s so much easier, and it’s relaxed. You have to do work, but it’s fun.”

What is he taking away from the experience? “Personally, I’m going to try to make a little garden and have plants for myself,” he said.

PHS involved

Brennan is also working with three seniors enrolled in the engineering program at Portsmouth High. “They’re going to school for engineering and are nearly done designing a solar-powered rain catchment system on the high tunnel, so we can irrigate,” said Brennan, noting it normally took an hour to water everything last year. (Solar power is big at the AgInnovation Farm; both the chicken coops and bunny hutch will have solar fans to give animals relief from the heat.)

Brennan is also running a three-week summer camp this year. She had 25 kids in 2022, despite advertising just by word of mouth. Thanks to a U.S. Department of Defense grant, Brennan has drones that are used for topography mapping and other tasks, such as checking the water at nearby Sisson Pond, which hasn’t been utilized recently due to an algae bloom. There will also be fishing, soil testing, water testing, and more.

“An indigenous artist is coming this summer to work with the kids. She’s going to talk about the culture of the lands and come up with a mural,” Brennan said. The art program will be the “A” in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) learning, which is the core of the entire program.

As for future plans, they include starting up a 4H program as well as a small farmers’ market next summer, so students can understand how a farm needs to be sustainable in order to remain running. 

“First, they have to learn that food doesn’t come from a grocery store, and with inflation, families are having a harder time providing fresh food for their families. And number two, this isn’t just fun. They have to understand that you need to make some money to keep it going,” she said.