New Germany Rural High School, New Germany, NS
Grant term 2024-2026
My name is Mike Wilson. I have been teaching history and agriculture for nearly twenty years in the small rural community of New Germany, Nova Scotia. Our school is named New Germany Rural High School and we are made up of 307 students from grades 7-12.
Having grown up working on my family’s large dairy farm in New Brunswick before teaching, I saw firsthand the importance of food preservation with my grandmother and mother from the food we grew and raised on the farm and in our large gardens. Year round, we could enjoy the food from our hard work.
When I moved to New Germany and met the students here, I knew we needed to learn these skills as a school community. I helped develop a provincial agriculture curriculum and explored starting gardens and other food growing methods here.
As the years have passed, our students have flourished learning new skills around the food we grow. Students of all grades took a hand in developing our new garden areas (we now have a well developed vegetable garden, fruit tree orchard, berry patches (raspberry, blackberry, haskaps, blueberry), pollinator gardens, and a rhubarb patch. We also built a small greenhouse for early seed starting. These foods can be used in our school cafeteria and classrooms to feed our students.
In the spring, we pair with a local landscaping company who comes to our school and donates three days to show students how to prepare the gardens, mulch walkways, build fences (for pesky deer), and start the growing process for another year. Junior high students especially love this time to get dirty and help out.
In the school, grants and donations have allowed us to purchase a commercial dehydrator (we use to mainly dehydrate apples, sage, thyme, peppers, and other items we grow), a garden hydroponic tower (mainly for greens year round), two light growing tents, a grow light system for seed starting, a canning system (for us to make pickles, picked beets, and relishes), and now through the Farm to Cafeteria Canada grant, we have a new medium sized Harvest Right freeze dryer to learn even more food preservation methods.
When we received the grant, we made the purchase of a medium freeze dryer. At first, it was an intimidating machine to learn. Students studied the manual, watched videos, and we all eventually learned the benefits of freeze drying food…plus it’s fun.
Although I traditionally teach senior high students, this machine has created a revolving door of students coming in each lunch hour and break time to see what the new experiment of freeze drying we are trying. Students come in and learn about the machine, help harvest the food outside, prep the items, and learn how to find the correct settings for the items. We then bottle or heat seal mylar bags with the items. Most do not last long enough for the need for long term storage but it is neat knowing the food will last around 25 years with no nutrient loss if sealed properly. Daily I hear “whats in the machine today?” or “what are we going to try making next?”
So far this year, our machine has run nearly non stop. We have learned what items take longer (most fruit has lots of moisture and takes 24-48 hours) while some things take little time (most candy are 2 hours). We have done healthy batches of foods we grow and some we have bought due to deer or the drought this year here in NS. So far this year, we have freeze dried: strawberries, blueberries, apples, watermelon (very strange..comes out tasting like fake watermelon candy), peaches, pears, raspberries, jalapenos, potatoes (can be reconstituted), and a few candy types (Skittles, Werthers soft caramels, ice cream sandwiches and Twix bars were the biggest candy hits). We have also learned about batches that fail or will not dry correctly. We learn from those mistakes, make notes, and move forward.
In the end, this grant from Farm to Cafeteria Canada has allowed us to continue on our food preservation learning and journey here at New Germany Rural High School. I am excited to see what we learn together in the future.
Mike Wilson
Social Studies and Agriculture Teacher
New Germany Rural High School
