by Human Ecology Fellow – Alicia Barlow
Grafting, budding, scion, rootstalk and upside down T graft are all words and phrases that are now part of the vocabulary of six students here at The Island School. One of the most unique and meaningful times of an Island School semester occurs when students embark on their 8-day kayak and Down Island Trips. As a Human Ecology teaching fellow this semester, I have stayed on campus to act as a mini-project advisor to those students who are participating in the academic portion of these rotations. During Human Eco class, students were split into groups and assigned a project theme to work with, and were expected to design and complete a project in a week and a half and then present their finished products to the remaining students on campus. During the first half of our rotations I worked with six students under the theme of “agriculture” as they attempted to bring the process of budding and grafting fruit trees to The Island School orchard.
These students had already visited a local farm during the agriculture segment of our Human Ecology curriculum, where a farmer – Edrin Symonette – introduced them to the concept of budding to produce fruit trees. As part of this mini-project, Harry, Annabelle, James, Hallie, John and Emily called Edrin and asked if we could return to his farm and receive a personal lesson on grafting from him. Continue reading
