Dover-Eyota High School students expand their orchard
By Heather Thorstensen
hthorstensen@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 06/02/2011 8:46 AM
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EYOTA, Minn.— Dover-Eyota High School students expanded an orchard at their school on May 16 with help from apple grower Jerry Kathan.
Last spring, he helped students plant 15 dwarf apple trees, representing three Minnesota-hardy varieties, in a courtyard of the school. This year, he led 17 horticulture students in 9th through 12th grades plant five semi-dwarf pear trees.
The school bought the plants from Kathan using grant funds from the Olmsted County Statewide Health Improvement Program.
Once the trees begin producing fruit in three to four years, the harvest will be used in Dover-Eyota K-12 school meals. That will help students connect with where their food comes from, said Dover-Eyota Schools food and nutrition director Carrie Frank.
Once the trees fully mature in five or six years, the orchard could produce up to 45 bushels of apples and pears per year, Kathan said. That would be approximately 1,800 pounds of fruit.
Fresh food provides the best nutrition and keeps the school's dollars in the area, said Frank.
"I consider our cafeteria a learning environment," she said.
Anything they don't use would go to food shelves in Olmsted County.
The orchard will also expand the horticulture curriculum at the school, said agriculture teacher Jacob Robinson.Students will learn how to maintain the trees through pruning and picking the fruit.
"It's another hands-on opportunity for them," he said.
None of the students involved in the pear tree planting had planted a fruit tree before.
The trees ranged in size from about five feet to seven feet tall when planted. Kathan showed how the strong root system had been grafted to the trunk. Measuring out 15-foot spacing, the students dug holes while Kathan explained how deep the tree should be planted and that it's important to plant them with a limb facing in the southwest direction to help block harsh winter sunlight from the trunk. He suggested they put light-colored paint on that side of the trunk to also help reflect the light.
After trees were in the ground, he helped students stake them down and prune the limbs.
Two seniors, Ethan Meyer and Alex Miller, will be alumni when the trees begin producing fruit, but they were still happy to be developing the orchard for future students. Both have younger relatives attending the school.
"I have a younger sister, she eats lunch here everyday," Meyer said.
Sophomore Jon Renken found it interesting how Kathan clipped some of the roots before planting the trees.
Kathan is the second generation in his family to farm. He and his wife, Carol, and their two children, Bailey and Levi, produce apples and honey on their 120-acre Kathan's Ridgeview Orchards in La Crescent.
Through the Farm to School program, Frank already purchases apples for the school from Kathan, as well as other food from local sources. Turkey comes from Ferndale Market in Cannon Falls, hamburger from Burt's Meats in Eyota and other produce comes from Produce Plus, run by the Blatner family, whose children attend the school, Frank said.