Our YEL forum this term has looked a little bit different. We have held all our meetings at school and Cindy (our NRM Education Officer) has uploaded all the information to Microsoft Teams and we have been following along at school. There were some videos that we had to watch about how the Starkey family at Loxton are a ‘Sustainable Farm’ and how the Schubert family from Loxton expanded their farming to include crickets in order to maintain an income during the drought.

We learned about the importance of sustainable farming. Sustainable farming is when you look after the resources you have and make sure you can re-use the land and water for years to come. The Starkey family talked about how they use machinery that was gentle on the land they were farming to ensure minimal soil erosion and added nutrients to the soil when seeding.

We wanted to see if we were able to use what we had at school to become a bit more sustainable and decided that the fruit scrap bins were a great place to start. Previously, our fruit scrap bins were placed in an area that ended up with the full afternoon sun. This created a smelly problem for our class (and other classes who would also empty them) as the flies and bugs were all over it. We decided that we needed new tubs that had lids and encouraged all the classes to help by making sure the lids went on after the scraps were placed in the bin. Secondly, we found a new home for each bin, and made sure that it was always in the shade.

Once we had everything ready to go, signs were printed and laminated, and we let each class know of the new location for each bin. This has been a huge success so far and every student has helped by placing their fruit scraps in the bins and replacing the lids. This fruit and food then goes home with Mrs. Hunter and she feeds it to her chickens.

After watching the video from Zachery Schubert and learning about how they farm crickets, we looked at ways we could use the fruit and food scraps to help OLOR become more sustainable. With bugs and insects on the brains, we decided that a worm farm would be a fantastic addition to the school. The worm juice could be used on the school veggie garden and the fruit and food scraps could be used to feed both the chickens and the worms. Worms are a sustainable farming option because they use fruit and food scraps we have on hand and do not cost much to keep.

This is something we are still working on, and we will let you know when it is ready.

Lastly, we would like to thank the students at OLOR for taking on the new fruit bins with such enthusiasm (maybe it’s because there are no more smelly fruit bins to walk past!). Seeing you all making sure the lids are on properly and that the food dropped around the bin is picked up has made it so much easier and helped it to be a success. 

Emma, Ruby, Anastasia and Madison – YEL 2020