AgInnovation Farm in Portsmouth is student-driven, education-focused, and community-centered

One planting at time, island youth are learning the lay of the land

Photos by Jessica Pohl

A school bus filled with eager students pulls down a gravel road off Jepson Lane in Portsmouth. The passengers are middle schoolers, and their destination is AgInnovation Farm, where they have arrived for an afterschool program. As the youths file off the bus, they are greeted with a smile and a wave from Ryan Brancato, the farm manager, who guides them into a large shed that doubles as the classroom. There they are assigned tasks for the day before venturing off in pairs and trios.

On a Thursday in late May, some students were hard at work digging long, narrow ditches for dozens of basil plants, while others were in the high tunnel, organizing supplies and watering seedlings. Another group was busy at the chicken coop, where a sign on the door reads “The Fluffy Butt Hut.” Students expertly put out fresh water and hay and raked the area clean of droppings (“It’s an easy job, it’s just picking up some poop,” said one youth). Two hens and 10 chicks were the center of attention, and students frequently picked up the chicks and cuddled them like kittens.

Youngsters, seemingly in a constant state of motion, pushed wheelbarrows, carried shovels, and filled and emptied buckets across the lush five-acre property that backs onto Sisson Pond. When the school bus returned to pick them up, one boy ran to a stationary bell and rang it, while from across the farm someone yelled “Bussssss!”, alerting everyone that the day’s work had come to a close and it was time to go, for now.

From Fallow Land to a Growing Farm

Not so long ago, AgInnovation was nothing more than a sketch on a piece of paper, a map of possibility, dreamed up by students with a vision of how to transform five acres of fallow land into ripe farmland.

Owner Martin Beck of Cloverbed Ranch, asked Sara Churgin, Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District manager, and Margie Brennan, the science coach for Portsmouth public schools K-8, if the land could be put to better use.

“Sure thing was my answer,” says Churgin, with an enthusiastic smile.

The Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District helps landowners in Bristol and Newport counties, including farmers, residents and municipalities, with any natural resource concerns they may have, such as soil health, water quality and pollution. The goal is to promote and improve environmentally friendly practices to protect natural resources.

In 2020, as schools pivoted to remote learning, Brennan sparked the interest of 25 curious Portsmouth Middle School students when she created a virtual club to begin mapping out the farm. She showed the students a photo of the property and asked them what they would want a farm there to look like. The students designed a layout using their art skills (an original sketch hangs in the farm’s classroom), and the property was later developed as the students envisioned. The farm remains a student-driven place of learning.

During the school year, Portsmouth Middle School students visit the farm after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays; students from Middletown’s Gaudet Middle School are there on Mondays and Wednesdays AgInnovation also has a partnership with FabNewport and, new this summer, will host a program with members of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Newport County. There is generally a ratio of one adult to every 10 youngsters at the farm.

The farm supports several different habitats, including a self-sustaining microclover plot.

“Microclover is when you plant a seed that is pest resistant and a nutrient for the soil right in the sod, and you can see the crop coming right out of the grass,” Churgin explained.

There is also a pumpkin patch, where students harvest the gourds come fall, and a nearby pollinator path, which takes visitors around the orchard where an abundance of apples and peaches, depending on the season, can be plucked from the trees.

Adjacent to the school garden is a community garden open to other growers looking to experiment and explore new ideas.

“We give them a small piece of land to experience as well as help educate the kids,” says Churgin. “We want to be able to cultivate an atmosphere of community and help other organizations to do what they like to do and share it with our kids.”

Fostering an Interest in Agriculture

The afterschool and summer programs aim to teach young growers innovative ways of farming, along with how agricultural practices can be more sustainable.

“Project-based learning is the best thing that kids can do,” explains Brennan. “It incorporates all of the content we teach in the classroom, but in a meaningful way.”

The focus on experiential learning encourages the students to pitch original ideas of what they want to see on the farm. A question is often answered with a question, allowing the students to problem-solve based on their experiences.

“Everything is based on ideas they have,” says Brennan.

She and Churgin are working on grants to support farming opportunities for elementary school students. In Portsmouth, the elementary schools have parent-run clubs where students and their families help plant crops in the school garden.

“The hope is by getting them excited at elementary school, that it feeds into middle school and then high school, so the kids have the knowledge to get them career ready for agriculture science, biotechnology and anything else in the environmental field of careers,” Brennan says.

Farm-to-School and Farm-to-Table

Brennan, Churgin and Brancato foster the students’ interest in agriculture so they can apply what they learn on the farm in their own lives.

“Our hope is to really spark the kids and help them find the purpose of not only where the food comes from, but how to help continue the sustainability of our farms in new and innovative ways,” says Brennan.

Once the crops are ready to be harvested, Brennan and Brancato make snacks and meals so students can taste the foods they’ve grown and experience farm-to-table eating. Last year, they prepared a homemade dip and pasta in a sauce made with fresh tomatoes, basil and vegetables, all grown at the farm.

The hope is that the students will go home and share their knowledge — and enthusiasm — with their families, teaching them how to plant and maintain a garden or to grow food they can use for their own meals.

“They are more excited to eat the food because it’s from their hard work,” says Brennan, and that encourages them to eat healthier.

Eighty percent of the food harvested at the farm is donated to food pantries on Aquidneck Island; last summer, more than 600 pounds of crops and 120 eggs were donated. That teaches students the importance of being an active member of the community and makes them aware that not everyone has the same access to farm fresh foods.

Understanding food equity is part of the education program and as important as developing planting skills, according to the adult advisers.

Another goal is to serve some of the produce grown on the farm in Portsmouth school cafeterias, beginning with basil since it’s easy to grow in bulk. The rows students were digging in early May will potentially yield 500 pounds of basil. The hope is Chartwells food service will buy the aromatic herb from the farm and use it in the preparation of lunches it serves in town schools.

“We’re teaching them farm-to-table, and that would be farm-to-school,” Churgin said.

Looking Towards Summer

While students are enjoying summer break, a camp will replace the afterschool program.

Three sessions of camp will be offered: June 24-27; July 8-11; and July 22-25. It is open to Aquidneck Island students entering Grades 6 through 9, and feature gardening, bird and plant identification, and fishing.

Campers learn how to cast bait at Sisson Pond, where they catch bluegill or “sunnies,” small mouth bass, white perch, yellow perch, and catfish. Every freshwater fish reeled in is released back into the pond. The camp costs $40 plus a $10 registration fee, which covers gardening and art supplies and other necessary materials.

At the end of this summer’s camp, AgInnovation will take 25 percent of the produce harvested and host a farmer’s market. There the students will learn how a farm financially supports itself, incorporating math and consumer sales lessons into the education.

As the youngsters wrapped up their farm work on that May afternoon, a visitor asked one girl what her favorite part of the day had been. She answered, swiftly and simply: “Chickens. And just digging.”

For more information about AgInnovation, and ways to support the farm or become a volunteer, visit easternriconservation.org/aginnovation-farm.