Storybook Farm & Johnny Appleseed

We had a wonderful visit last week to 21 Acres/Storybook Farm in Woodinville. The mission of 21 Acres is to teach people to farm, eat and live sustainably. They read us the story Johnny Appleseed, which we have been studying as an American tall tale, and then gave us a tour of their young apple orchard. We tasted three different types of apples, then pressed our own apple cider using a locally made cider press. We sampled the apple cider, fresh, warm and DELICIOUS, while we ate lunch.

We also learned a lot of interesting new facts about bees. We talked about their role in pollinating, looked closely at a frame from a bee box and how the bees build up their honeycombs with a thin layer of hardened plant resin called propolis. We felt and smelled the small area of honeycomb left on one of the frames (It smells like herbs! No, it smells like honey!) and then went out to see the bee hives next to the fields. We learned the fascinating fact that bumble bees hum a "C" note that causes certain tomato plants to vibrate, and thus drop their pollen. We also cut an apple open horizontally to see the 5 point star formed inside, and counted the number of seeds. In a fully pollinated apple flower, the fruit formed will have 2 seeds in each point of the star: ten seeds altogether. Ours had only six --so we talked about how, over time, that would mean fewer apple trees, fewer apples, and less food for people to eat. What kinds of CHANGES would that cause in the world, we wondered?

The fresh cider really was delicious, and everyone loved turning the press to make it. Here are a few of the letters we'll be sending as a thank you:

Dear 21 Acres, You said the apple trees were only a few years old, and, I'm just saying', the apples were GOOD. And the bee boxes were fascinating! The bees wax inside was rubbery. I have seen them before. I also thought it was fun! -J.G.

Dear 21 Acres, Thank you for the apple cider, it was really good because it was sweet and hot. Thank you for telling us about bees. I learned that bumblebees play the C note and make tomatoes vibrate. I also learned bees make their own frames. 21 acres was really fun! - K.F.

Thank you, 21 Acres. I loved the apple cider. It looked good. It was hard to make. Bees were one of my favorite parts and I learned that bees stack their pollen and if bees didn't exist lots of things would die. It was a great field trip! - C. S.

Dear 21 Acres, Thanks for teaching me that bees buzz the note C. It's so funny that it helps tomatoes grow! I liked the cider. many people didn't like it or didn't want it, but I liked it. I did not know that bees pollinate apples and each apple should have ten seeds for it to be fully pollinated. When we tried 3 different types of apples (Ruby Jon, Jonagold, and Honey Crisp) my favorite was Jonagold. It was fun! - M.K.