Farmwise Devon returns teaching youngsters about the countryside
Children from schools across Devon will today be learning about farming
Last updated 11th Oct 2022
Devon's Westpoint will today host its annual 'Farmwise' event for school pupils aged between 7 and 11 - the first time since before the pandemic.
The fun and hands-on activities are designed to 'offer an insight into farming and evoke all their senses with the opportunity to see, touch, taste, hear, feel and even smell'.
Farmwise is sponsored by the Devon County Agricultural Association as well as Mole Valley Farmers, South West Norse, and is supported by Devon Council.
Activities include:
• COOKING up a storm making sausages and pizzas, turn cream into butter, press apples for juice to drink, and mill grain and oil seed rape across various zones including the Food Zone, managed by South West Norse and supported by their suppliers, Total produce, Savona, Scorse and Quorn.
• LEARNING how our fruit is produced and how to reduce our carbon footprint by buying local and in season produce in the Fruit Zone, managed by the NFU.
• DISCOVERING the process of crop production in Devon and how crops are then turned into food we eat in the Devon YFC Arable Zone, complete with big shiny farming machinery including a Combine Harvester.
• GETTING up close to livestock courtesy of the Devon County Farm Estates Tenants, including a Ruby Red cow and her calf, a large Black Pig and her piglets as well as sheep and goats. They will also find out about the importance of good animal husbandry and how animals play a role in the management of the Devon countryside.
• UNDERSTANDING the importance of trees to our environment. The children will also take their learning home with them as they plant acorns in the Forestry Zone in sustainable newspaper pots that they will make themselves and take them back to school where they can watch them germinate and plant them out. The team at Teign Trees will also be on site, helping children to identify trees and provide demonstrations of how to climb huge trees in the Wadsworth Pavilion.