Rooted in Learning: Local Farm Helping to Grow Young Minds at Corbett Prep

So much happens when you plant a garden with your kids. Not only so they witness the process of their food growing from seed to plant, but they also get to see the resilience it takes to get that food to their plate. The Lawrance family understands this, and it’s a lesson they are bringing to their kids’ school, Corbett Preparatory School of IDS in Tampa.

The Lawrance family has deep roots in Tampa … literally. They own the land that Bearss Groves is on, and, earlier this year, leased out the property to the current crew that runs the farm stand so that they can focus on their family farm in Lutz, where they began offering a new u-pick experience to the community. They’re taking it a step further by bringing the farming experience to students at Corbett Prep through a new raised-bed garden system, and it’s already growing young minds.

TBPM: What attracted your family to Corbett Prep?

Courtney: Everything about it attracted us. We started when Wells (oldest son) was in kindergarten. We went to an open house, and we loved the way the campus looked … the conversations with the teachers and the administration.

Barry: We had a whole list. Courtney had done ungodly amounts of research of all the schools that we wanted to interview, and Corbett was first on our list. We showed up at Corbett, and when we left, we were like, we're done.

CL: We didn't go to any other place.

BL: We knew this was it. These were our people.

CL: Yeah, the core values and the focus on the whole child and emotional intelligence and the Yale program [Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence’s RULER program], and the morale of the teachers we spoke with—it was just a very positive environment.

TBPM: This is what we hear so often from other Corbett Prep families. Why was the focus on emotional intelligence important to you?

BL: We have had employees who have been through Corbett, and I have friends whose kids were in Corbett, and you could just tell that they were better prepared for life.

CL: I think part of that emotional intelligence development carries on through adulthood. It becomes a natural, almost ingrained skillset. And you could really see it in the kids as they moved on to high school.

The kids being able to identify how they're feeling and how to work through things is a lifelong skill that is so valuable as they become adults, in their careers and in their families.

TBPM: One of our favorite things about this school is the campus grounds and outdoor learning space, and that’s why we are here, because of the garden beds your family donated to the school last school year. This must have been a fun way to tie in your family farm business into your children’s school. The students seemed to really love it!

CL: It gives them the learning experience, not only of planting the seeds and then of harvesting, but they can understand the whole process of it, the patience it takes, the hard work it takes, the resiliency you need to make it from beginning to end.

The kids love being involved with it. The Beach Buddies [PreK-4 class] helped plant and then harvest. There was an amazing amount of parent feedback, and they were very appreciative that their child got to have that experience.

TBPM: Let’s talk more about the school garden and how you did it.

BL: Growing in Florida is not the same as up north. Up north, you can throw seeds on the ground, and you have plants. Florida has sandy soil, so one of the things we did was raised bed gardens so that we could enrich the soil with compost, peat and other things that are more favorable for soil conditions for growing vegetables.

The other thing, too, is choosing the right varieties, choosing things that the kids could actually tangibly harvest. When we pulled the carrots out of the ground … it was so cool to see … all the kids watching, and watching broccoli and cabbage literally come to life over time. And the kale—they would be grabbing the kale, and we're like, you can eat it. And it blew their mind. They would just start chewing on it. One little girl walked around with the kale in her hand. She was just like munching on the kale.

But the whole thing is a raised-bed garden system. We do have a drip irrigation system built into it on a timer. So we try to eliminate all the variables that in a school setting where everyone’s busy.

TBPM: Do you have any special plans for this year for the school garden here?

BL: We have the whole season kind of planned out. We believe we'll be able to get three different plantings and harvests … fall, spring and then maybe the beginning of summer.

We also want to add a sub-irrigated bed. Sub-irrigated means it'll have a water source under the bed, so it kind of wicks the water through. We're going to try to get some tomatoes, like grape tomatoes.

CL: Last year was the first year, and it was a great success, and everyone loved it, so we'll try to ramp up this year and add some new things.

TBPM: Speaking of new things, you’ve leased out the Bearss Groves property to someone else, and you’ve now turned your focus to your family farm in Lutz—let’s talk about this journey for your family!

BL: I started working at Bearss Groves when I was 13 for the original owners. And as I grew up working there, the opportunity presented itself to buy part of the company in ’97, and then run that and Bearss Groves together. Eventually Marty Bearss and the Bearss family decided that they were done dealing with retail. So we took over in 2006, and then eventually they sold the property or developed the property that were the orange groves, and we kind of took over the market and expanded the market and bought that space from them.

So that was the start. And then we started farming our own stuff. Once the citrus greening and all the citrus diseases killed all the crops of citrus, we lost the revenue from fresh oranges.

So we started doing row crop farming on a larger scale. We built a hydroponic greenhouse. We've since moved the farm to Lutz, and we have 20 acres there where we're growing strawberries and u-pick sunflowers.

This year, we're doing only u-pick, that's it. So we'll be u-pick every single weekend this year [during the season]. Hopefully we can get more community people out there and experience it.

TBPM: You were able to get some of the Corbett Prep students out to the family farm.

BL: Yeah, we've done a couple of Corbett days. We opened just for Corbett, so it was super cool because then our kids are there and all their friends from school, and they're running through the sunflowers.

CL: They were playing tag, and they were filthy. Kids should be a little dirty some of the time, but yeah, they had a great time. We also did Corbett Cares with a group where we had a few rows of vegetables out at the farm like squash, zucchini, tomatoes and eggplant.

BL: We grew everything there; they [Corbett Prep families] came and harvested it and then donated it to Feeding Tampa Bay.

TBPM: Why was it so important for your family to bring this farming experience to Corbett Prep?

CL: Well, it's important to us, so it’s nice to see that translate to the school setting.

BL: When I come to school for other things, they'll call me Farmer Barry.

CL: We think it's important. Agriculture is a vital industry and so introducing kids to it and hopefully inspiring the next generation of farmers may change their trajectory in life.

Fun Fact:

 The PreK4 students harvested veggies last school year as part of their International Baccalaureate unit of inquiry. During their IB farm-to-table unit, they studied the central idea that food goes through changes. They began by planting seeds and sprouts with the help of the Lawrance family. Throughout the winter and spring, the class has watched as their plants grew taller. And then on harvest day, fourth-grade volunteers helped the younger students gather carrots, beets, kale, lettuce and onions.

*Get updates about the upcoming u-pick season on the Lawrance family farm by following the original Bearss Groves page on Facebook.

Related:

Teacher to Know: Madeline Olivera – 5th Grade Teachers at Corbett Preparatory School of IDS.