Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/kids-and-soil-a-perfect-match/5023540/
A few summers back, while travelling the length and breadth of my adopted home state of Iowa, I met a farmer named Mary. At that point I had only been a denizen of Iowa for several days, and as an initiation into this new chapter of my life I eagerly signed up to participate in a sustainable agriculture travel course, which is how I ended up at Mary’s quaint farmstead. Mary and her husband live on a picturesque farm in Northeast Iowa, replete with crops, trees, and nearly every type of iconic farm animal imaginable. Mary — learning that I was one of the few city folk in the group — discreetly asked me what it was like to be on her farm after coming from a city like Chicago.
Needless to say, I was in awe of the beauty and tranquility of the idyllic farmstead and the pastoral landscape surrounding it; however, the fact that I was not fully comfortable in this environment was not lost on Mary. Perhaps she observed me closely watching every step I took to carefully avoid the cowpies randomly strewn about the pasture, or maybe it was my meticulous avoidance of the low-lying muddy depressions that ...