Schools and The Winona Farm
Bluff View Montessori school was the first school to be involved in our food waste recycling program. They are just a small school so their left-overs are only collected twice a week. It takes two to three days for them to fill a barrel and each day wet newspapers are placed on the contents to prevent any potential odor problem. Here is a picture of Winona school's first barrel of food waste to be recycled as it was loaded into the truck... left to right Dick, a Montessori student and principal of the school, Les Hittner.

The students at this school are responsible for sorting the trash from the waste food and putting all items into the appropriate receptacle and we are very pleased to find very little non-food waste in our barrels.

Schools Groups Welcome
If you would like your students to visit the farm please call [507] 454 3126 or email Dick & Sue Gallien.
When visiting the farm, children can participate in activities such as feeding chickens, milking a goat, bottle feeding a calf or kid, holding baby chicks or ducklings, watching as eggs are candled* and being amazed to see the forming embryo's eyes and heart. Depending on the season and time available we may also offer a ride on a hay wagon or on the trailer across the creek.


In the Spring of 2003 Bluffview Montessori Kindergarten visited the farm, they fed the chickens when they flew out of the chicken coop and got to hold baby chicks, kittens, rabbits, a duckling and pet a gosling.


Then they got to watch as the pigs were fed a big pot of food waste, some of which came from their school. Butterscotch, the Jersey heifer calf was a big hit with the little ones; these two girls were particularly enamored with her. Later the children, parents and teachers went for a hayride and ate a picnic lunch on the hayfield across the creek, before heading back to school.

In the Spring of 2002 Dakota Kindergarten and First Grade children visited, Stephanie showed them our baby calf Valentine, one of less than 700 critically rare Milking Devons. They also got to hold ducklings and chicks as well as lots of other activities.

In the summer of 2001 Hokah Special Ed preschool children visited the farm. Along with all the normal activities they also enjoyed a ride on the farm trailer. We went across the creek to the large hayfield and stopped at the creek so that the children could feel how cold the water was even in the middle of summer.


In 2001 Hokah First Grade visited the farm, the children eagerly left the bus so they could feed some chicks. Later Madeleine brought a kid for them to pet, this always seems to be a popular activity.


2000... Rhianon showed Dakota Kindergarten and First Grade children how to bottle feed a calf.


* "Candled" This is the term used for holding a bright light against an egg so that the growing embryo can be seen through the shell.
We would like very much to get all the schools food waste, not for any great profit; there's little of that once the cost of the truck, fuel, maintenance, barrels, pressure washer etc are figured in, but for the good of the environment. Our time would be more profitable in many other ventures without the sort of resistance we now receive.
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