Spring Brook Farm in Reading, Vermont makes delicious and award-winning cheese that supports the Farms for City Kids Foundation.
Spring Brook Farm is a traditional dairy farm of over 1,000 acres. In addition to its 100 plus Jersey cows, 42 of which are milked, the farm has goats, chickens, roosters, pigs, and turkeys. The cows produce over 600,000 pounds of milk each year. The farm sells hay, sweet corn, eggs, meat, and chickens and turkeys seasonally. The income from these activities is used to sustain the farm’s educational program. The farm also has vegetable gardens, a greenhouse, raspberry and blueberry bushes, grapevines, and a small apple orchard, as well as its own honey bees to pollinate the farm and produce honey. Cheese-making began at Spring Brook Farm in 2008.
Farms For City Kids has been in operation since 1994. Groups of urban children aged 8 through 12 come to the farm for a week at a time to experience a farm-based curriculum that combines classroom studies with firsthand farm experience. They help take care of animals, work in the greenhouse and gardens, and watch cheese production through the viewing windows in the cheese house. Cheese-making provides a framework for the students to study economics, chemistry, microbiology, food preservation, health, and nutrition. Students work in groups to unlock character strengths‚ develop teamwork skills, and strengthen core values such as hard work‚ leadership‚ respect‚ self-confidence, and responsibility. The program challenges them to overcome fears and accomplish more than they thought possible.
The farm raises funds so that children can participate in the program at no cost. All funds from the sale of cheese go to support the Farms For City Kids Foundation.
Learn more about Spring Brook Farm at their website, http://farmsforcitykids.org or in the video, below.