Merry Lea's Environmental Education Outreach team launched a new program this fall. Accompany child scientists as they compare a farm with wild ecosystems and learn where food comes from. Also read about a pastor's academy that enabled Merry Lea to share ecological expertise with the faith community; the volunteers behind Enchanted Forest and some new trail shelters.
News & Updates
Enchanted Forest Transforms Volunteers into Native Animals
Merry Lea’s 2016 Enchanted Forest attracted a robust crowd of 220 people. Children had a chance to chat with native animals such as a beaver, an opossum, a monarch butterfly, an owl, a frog, a toad and a raccoon. Volunteer animals took a crash course in diet, predators, parenting and other habits of the animals they portrayed.
Children Find Favorite Foods at Merry Lea Sustainable Farm
Exploring Merry Lea Sustainable Farm will wrap up a successful first season this week. The program introduces children to a working farm and the ways farm ecosystems are different from wild ecosystems.
Puffball Stirs Children’s Imaginations
Children on an Autumn Adventures field trip encountered a puffball near the Learning Center Building on a recent October morning.
Sustainability Students Hone their Values
Students in Merry Lea’s 2016 Sustainability Leadership Semester completed final presentations in their Faith, Ethics and Eco-Justice course October 13. The assignment challenged them to articulate their key values as they relate to soil, soul and society–a framework students encountered in the book, Rekindling Community by Alastair McIntosh. A visual model was part of each presentation.
Merry Lea Farmers Make Sorghum Molasses
Merry Lea Sustainable Farm hosted its annual molasses-making party the week of October 3. Four volunteers helped staff members extract juice from sorghum stalks and set the liquid to boiling.
Merry Lea Hosts Pastors’ Academy
Ten pastors attended a Pastor’s Academy at Merry Lea’s Farmstead Site, September 21, 2016. The gathering invited them to interact with ideas that leaders of Goshen College’s three research institutes grapple with and relate them to their own ministries.
Vegetable Santa Courts CSA Customers
At the Merry Lea Sustainable Farm (MLSF), that could be any combination of over forty foods. Tomatoes, mushrooms, greens, chickens, eggs, pork, squash, cucumbers, carrots, raspberries and green beans are just a few of the groceries Kate’s CSA customers have received.
Farm Volunteer Complements Home Gardening
Summer is an off-season for most Merry Lea volunteers, but not for Doug Vendrely, a retired teacher from New Paris, Ind. The past two years, Doug has contributed a morning each week to the Merry Lea Sustainable Farm.
Summer 2016
Read about the strategies used for growing food at the Merry Lea Sustainable Farm and the ways it ties into Merry Lea's programs. The farm is running a CSA this summer and fall; the Pre-K to 12 team is gearing up for a new program there and summer researchers are investigating birdlife and grazing. This issue also includes a feature on Volunteer Doug Vendrely.
Public Electric Vehicle Charging Station at Merry Lea
