Building “The Shire” Farm

Team Name/Location

Team Hobbit, The Oregon Shire

“I feel that as long as the Shire lies behind, safe and comfortable, I shall find wandering more bearable: I shall know that somewhere there is a firm foothold, even if my feet cannot stand there again” – Frodo

Every great fellowship has a “there and back again” beginning and ending place from which their adventure begins. An inviting and welcoming home that bonds members around a common purpose. It also is a meeting place that continually reminds and inspires each member to never give up or quit on each other, or on our purpose, once the shared journey begins. ‘The Shire’ School Farm is meant to be that place for our Growing A Future Fellowship. A place to learn and grow together as we strive to see a school farm become an integral part of every school district.

Having and operating a successful ‘The Shire’ school farm will provide a shared virtual meeting place for other school farm fellowship members to share ideas, successes, and failures. It will also provide a working example of a K-12 school farm educational platform that will inspire and empower others to join our fellowship and create a school farm for their community.

“It’s like the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered.” Sam

With the physical farm in place, our goal is to continue to build and fine tune the endless teaching and learning opportunities provided through it. These ‘wanderings’ will also include what is learned and shared by other school farm fellowship operations. Ultimately, our goal is to develop inspiring and engaging school farm related K-12 curriculum (stories) that can be shared with other fellowship members and their students.

“May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” — Galadriel

Although the above journey will involve and include many other school farms and fellowship members, we felt the fellowship needed a starting point for this adventure. A place that we can always look back upon with fond memories as a place of safety and comfort.

This Collective

The Growing a Future Fellowship

Project Owners

Welcome to “The Shire” – It all started with one raised bed

"It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to." ...

What we’ve learned so far on this journey

“Why, you have nearly finished it, Mr. Frodo!” Sam exclaimed. “Well, you have kept at it, I must say.” “I have quite finished, Sam,” said Frodo, “the last pages ...

Trey Hackett - Farm Director (tall hobbit)

Growing (okay, and eating) healthy food from the soil I have nurtured and healed. I'm passionate about health and exercise (in the gym and outside on the farm) and exploring nature and hiking in the wild. Probably hard to imagine it, but I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan and find so many commonalities with where we are today in the world. Finally, I absolutely enjoy the impact that comes from mentoring someone about agriculture and watching them fall in love with the soil and nature.

The past 3 years I've managed to transition my agricultural science degree into building two school farm related programs (one in Oregon and one in Alaska). Both required working with students, volunteers, leadership and community members. From soil testing and preparation, irrigation layouts & installation, crop rotation strategies, planting & harvesting schedules, food preparation and presentation (CSA boxes) and creating teaching and hands-on learning experiences for K-12 students.

“The Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while the Company is true.” – Galadriel. My goal with 'The Shire' School Farm is to create a powerful, inspiring, and imaginative example for the Growing a Farm Fellowship. A living and successful school farm example to use as the initial launch pad for the fellowship and a place to create, test and share the tools and resources for existing school farms and to inspire other schools to start their own school farm projects. Essentially, to build a fellowship of school farms that want to share an adventure that will change the world for the better, perhaps even save it.

Richard Hackett - Sea Mercy Founder (old wizard)

As a carpenters son, I love building amazing things through hard work and careful planning. As a deep thinker, I'm passionate about the journey of humankind through history and understanding the various paths and choices (good and bad) we've taken through time. I love learning about 'the old ways' within cultures and how our abandoning them for the sake of progress has impacted our mental and physical health and happiness. If the impact has been negative, then finding ways to bring 'the old ways' back into our society. I love reading great stories (historical and fantasy) about overcoming impossible odds and encouraging and empowering people to see and apply those stories to their own lives.

I bring a great deal of experience in the business world, having created and operated multiple business organizations from scratch that have been built around effective partnerships for success (large for profits and not for profits). The past 11 years I have had the incredible joy of seeing a need in the South Pacific (providing health, disaster and agriculture programs for the thousands of 'at risk' remote islands) and creating a non-profit charity (Sea Mercy) that has strived to address those needs through local and international partnerships. Programs and partnerships that are now changing the very lives and futures of those living there for the better.

“For behold! the storm comes, and now all friends should gather together, lest each singly be destroyed.” – Gandalf. I strongly believe that unless we find a way to teach and train this next generation about growing healthy soil and food, the future of humankind will be dark. I believe the most important and effective way to overcome this growing darkness before us is through the Growing A Future Fellowship of school farms, each willing to gather together to share the knowledge and resources needed to teach and train this next K-12 generation (and the generations that follow).

Task

Person

Weeks

Fall/Winter planting bed preparation (ground cover)