Oregon produces high quality vegetables and ranks fifth in vegetable production in the United States. Vegetables grown in Oregon range from the most popular to over 50 varieties of kale. In 2017, Oregon produced 777,000 tons of fresh use vegetables with a value of over $177 million. Additionally, Oregon vegetable producers yielded over 316,000 tons of processed vegetables with a value of $57.8 million. The top three producing counties for processed vegetables are Umatilla, Marion and Morrow counties. Top counties for fresh market vegetables are Umatilla, Malheur, Morrow, Marion and Clackamas. With the growing demand of locally-grown produce, Oregon is in a great position to provide for its residents! In additional to mainstream vegetable markets, Oregon has many famer’s markets, farm stands, and restaurants that use locally grown products.
Explore the world of gardening through owning a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operation! Students will explore economics as it relates to owning and operating a program through a garden simulation.
Lesson Overview
Activity 1: Up in the Garden, Down in the Dirt
Students are introduced to the topic of garden and begin to recognize the presence of organisms living in the garden through the reading of this fun children’s book, Up in the Garden, Down in the Dirt. Find this book and other garden related books in our Lending Library!
Activity 2: Vegetable Gardening for the Community!
Students are introduced to the concept of Community Supported Agriculture farms, a program where members pay a farmer to have fresh produce delivered or available for pickup on a regular basis. CSA farms were first developed to provide produce to people that don’t have access to gardens to grow food and to meet a growing demand for food grown on small acreage farms. Students watch a short video that provides background information on CSA’s produced by the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
Activity 3: Map your CSA!
Students are provided the following scenario. You are going to take on the role of the owner of a local CSA with 10 acres to grow potatoes, lettuce, radish, spinach and broccoli. You will be selling Winter Shares for $24 per box of vegetables delivered on a weekly basis to local families. As an owner you will create a name for your farm and decide how much of each vegetable to plant. In this section of the lesson, students will begin to map out their garden making decisions on the amount of each crop to go and in what arrangement 0n their 10 acre property.
Activity 4: Garden Yield Projections
Students calculate yield projections based on average yields and the amount of acres they planted of each vegetable.
Activity 5: Garden Income & Expenses
Students are introduced to uncontrollable expenses that affect their profit that are difficult to predict. In this activity, students will roll a die to determine how their crop fared in the seasons and will end with students calculating their income and expenses.
View complete lesson plans linked below!
Curriculum is broken up into small activities that can be done over multiple sittings allowing students to have good breaking spots in between each part.
See this lesson in Modular Delivery through our Google Classroom Example, follow the instructions below.
1. Log in to a google email account, it does not have to be associated with a school.
2. In the menu option, select Classroom.
3. Using the + in the top right hand corner, select join a class.
4. Enter the Class Code: agals5q
5. Select Classwork at the top and you should see the topic “October 2020 – Vegetables”
6. Underneath this section the lessons are broken out into 4 assignments.
Teacher Guide for Modular Delivery
October 2020 – Vegetable Google Drive Folder
Curriculum is combined into one assignment that students will work through independently at their own pace.
Teacher Guide for Independent Study
October 2020 – Vegetable Google Drive Folder
Students complete the whole lesson through 1-hour long lesson in an in-person classroom setting.
The activities below will have the student portions in Spanish but the teacher directions are in English.
Find the lesson in Spanish here.
