Bloom! Violinists Perform at the Ollin Farms Tomato Festival

This afternoon, several of our families convened at Ollin Farms to enjoy their tomato festival and to entertain the passerbys with their fiddle tunes. Ollin Farms is a local, family owned, sustainably run farm located a few minutes from the school. This year, we were very fortunate to participate in a Farm to School program with the farm, in which the children had the opportunity to visit the farm and the school purchased produce from the farm to use in practical life and food preparation activities. Additionally, many of our families purchased CSA shares from the farm and had the option of picking them up at the school. The children absolutely adore the farm, and especially Farmer Mark, Kena, and Lluvia, the baby lamb that came to visit them at the school. In fact, it is a rare Monday when one of the children does not run into the school and excitedly tell their friends about seeing Farmer Mark at the farmers market over the weekend. So, when our Suzuki students were invited to perform at the Annual Tomato Festival they could not have been more pleased. Naturally, the Tomato Festival featured tastings of many beautiful varieties of fresh, local, heirloom tomatoes. There were beautiful Green Zebras, Black Crims, Brandywines, Cherokee Purples, and equally beautiful heirloom cherry tomatoes.
And, of course, there were the regular Ollin Farmstand offerings- assortments of beautiful fresh eggs, carrots, beets, turnips, eggplants, basil, squash, peaches, onions, and Kena's amazing tamales and salsa.
There were heirloom tomato tastings, cooking demonstrations (showing both fresh preparations of the vegetables and food preservation techniques), a delectable spread prepared by local chef Dale Lamb, and activities for the children.And, of course, there was music! The Bloom! Montessori Suzuki students assembled under the music tent with their violin teacher, Erron Lacy of Longmont Suzuki Strings. After tuning was complete, the children performed a set including the pieces Cowboy Ride, Jumping Beans, Mississippi Hotdog Twinkle, Biled Cabbage, and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star for a kind and appreciative crowd.
The Tomato Festival was a great opportunity for the children to perform. In what proved to be one of my favorite moments of the afternoon, the children cheerfully and spontaneously volunteered to perform solos. As I watched the tiny children confidently get up in front of the crowd, without a hint of stage fright, tell the audience what song they would be performing,

and play their most beautiful impromptu renditions of the songs, I felt so proud of the confidence, presence, and verve demonstrated by these young children. Their love of music, performing, and life was palpable. And, like any good hoedown, there was dancing. After taking turns performing their solos (some children electing to play as many as three!), the happy children demonstrated their fervid square dancing.

There were one or two obligatory minor square dancing injuries, and then the delighted children took to sampling the local produce (for which, to my great amusement, they insisted upon saying a little blessing before eating), and racing after Farmer Mark for a tour of the farm. The children fed the sheep and chickens, collected eggs, found some interesting insects and a small toad, and spied the fields of vegetables (as you might imagine, the growth of the pumpkins was of particular interest to them). During the tour, Farmer Mark explained his philosophy of farming in which healthy soil amendments, crop rotation, and and the use of organic fertilizers are used to grow delicious, nutrient dense vegetables, and to prevent the topsoil degredation which plagues so many industrial farms; he also discussed the innovative drip irrigation system used by the farm to conserve water.
We wish to sincerely thank Mark and Kena Guttridge and Ollin Farms for their hospitality and for their commitment to educating our students about the value of good nutrition, local farming, and sustainable agriculture. You can find Ollin Farms, and sample their delicious produce for yourself, every Saturday at the Longmont Farmers market and daily from 10-6 at their farm stand. For more information, please visit their website at: http://www.ollinfarms.com/
Additionally, Ollin Farms will be hosting a dinner at the farm on August 26th at 6pm; proceeds benefit Slow Food Boulder County. You can register for the dinner on their website.
We would also like to thank Erron Lacy, of Longmont Suzuki Strings, for sharing her enthusiasm and expertise with us. For more information about Longmont Suzuki Strings, please visit their website at http://www.longmontsuzukistrings.org/.
Finally, we would like to thank Tobin Munsat for providing the guitar accompaniment for our performance.