Eighty 7th graders from Portland’s King Middle School learned about soil science and soil bacteria from NEO’s project manager, Jeff Brinck and award winning compost salesman, Chris Bales.

On October 2, 2009, Jeff and Chris traveled to Broadturn Farm in Scarborough, Maine to assist King’s lead science teacher, Ruth Maclean, with a coordinated curriculum segment called “SOIL SUPERHEROES”. Under their direction, the students spread compost; pulled soil samples; answered questions such as: “What does bacteria need to thrive in the soil?” and “Give 5 examples of things the farmer can add to the soil to improve it.”; and saw first hand, some of the other day to day field management chores of a typical farm.

“Every day, the people at New England Organics help farmers improve soil fertility.  Seldom, do we get the opportunity to share this information with a broader group. The kids really got a lot out of this”, said Jeff, “one of them even told me that this was the first time they had seen lettuce outside of the grocery store.”

The lesson did not end with the field day, once the soil test results came back from the lab a few weeks later, Jeff joined the classes at the school to review results and talk about what sort of amendments the farmer could add to “fine tune” the soil. The lesson ended with Chris Bales escorting the students to the parking lot to see the 600 pound pumpkin, grown with compost, that he turned into a boat!

New England Organics sends a “Thank You” to the teachers and all of the 7th graders at King Middle School.