Of bees, and beef, and water and wheat
LOREN BENOIT/Press At one of the Farm to Table stations at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds on Thursday, Post Falls fifth-grader Raya Zirker learns about the life cycle of the honeybee. Kids from both Lakeland and Post Falls school districts rotated through hands-on learning centers this week to learn the importance of agriculture in everyday life.
COEUR d’ALENE — Mike Kennedy's bee facts generated quite a buzz of excitement with fifth-graders on Thursday.
"I learned that a queen bee’s hive is cleaner than an operating room in a hospital," said Abby Fitzgerald of Ponderosa Elementary. "I also learned that a queen bee holds over one million eggs inside of it."
“When the bee colony wants a new queen, they sting that queen to death," said Ponderosa fifth-grader Zack Clarke.
Kennedy, a member of the Inland Empire Beekeepers Association, taught the students some bee basics, such as why they make honey, how wasps make their paper nests and how bees see the world.
"It's amazing to me the students have as much knowledge about bees as they do," Kennedy said. "They come in, they're already prepared, they know about honey, they know about pollen, they know about the structure of the hive. I think that's a credit to the schools because they're teaching them something that I think is important."
Kennedy was one of several presenters who imparted their knowledge to more than 450 Post Falls youngsters Thursday during the third annual Farm to Table day. The Kootenai County Fairgrounds hosted the event, which educated children about how their food gets from farms to their homes.
“I learned that Jell-O is made out of animals’ hooves, like pig hooves, cow hooves,” said Ponderosa student Kyndall Limesand. "I learned about bees and about the different hives they use."
The 15 interactive stations included experts in wheat, water, dairy, potatoes, sheep, cattle, crops and gardening. The day also featured horse-drawn wagon rides.
"We got to shear a sheep, and we got to keep some of the wool,” Abby said. "All the people were really nice, and it was just cool learning about it all."
Farm to Table co-organizer Linda Rider said she and many others are passionate about teaching younger generations that food doesn't just come from a grocery store.
"It takes production agriculture to produce it," she said. "That's what we're trying to teach today to make them understand. And the importance of natural resources. That's why we have water and pollinators and bees, those kinds of things that are important to the whole picture of agriculture."