Salem-Keizer Future Farmers of America’s annual plant sales are just beginning, and agriculture students are already seeing high demand. McKay High School students help prepare vegetable starts and flower baskets in the school’s greenhouse. The proceeds support the club’s membership fees and competition trips.
Josue Castaneda, Margarita Arroyo and Nevaeh Okell will tour the greenhouse as part of their Introduction to Agriculture class at McKay High School on Tuesday April 13, 2021. (Amanda Loman / Salem Reporter)
When her high school moved classes online last year, Kaydance Sabin, 16, said gardening helped her cope with the stress and social isolation.
She grew cucumbers, strawberries, and tomatoes in her family’s Salem home.
“It just distracts you so much,” said Sabin. “I could just be out there listening to music and gardening for hours without even realizing it.”
Now, 16-year-old Sabin and her 17-year-old classmate Lillianne Benson are back in the McKay High School greenhouse preparing for their biggest event of the year: the plant sale, which provides the bulk of the funding for Salem-Keiser’s only Future Farmers of America provides chapters.
The greenhouse on the southern edge of the school is overcrowded with more than 10,000 plants and begins for gardens and kindergartens in the Salem area. To date, more than 6,000 plants have been sold, and 11,000 more are still waiting to be purchased, said agriculture teacher Gerald Hosler.
“We usually overplant things. We’re going to have more things than we’re likely to ever need, ”he said.
Plant sales are open online and purchases can be picked up from May. Hosler said sales will run until the end of May or until all plants are sold. The remaining plants are to be donated to Marion Polk Food Share, local elementary schools and other community groups.
Revenue increased year over year with gross sales of approximately $ 11,000.
The greenhouse at McKay High School on Tuesday April 13, 2021. (Amanda Loman / Salem Reporter)
Hosler suspects this is because sales are becoming better known and gardening is increasing as more people stayed home during the pandemic looking for hobbies that didn’t require gathering in groups.
Students usually grow the plants from seeds, work in agriculture classes offered at school and outside of school hours as part of the FFA. That year, Hosler said they relied more on plugs because the school was still online when preparations for sales began in December and January.
The students helped prepare the sale and transplant in small groups. Now the greenhouse is overflowing with everything from tomatoes and cauliflower to pots of flowers and herbs.
“Children still have that experience of transplanting and looking at plant nutrition,” he said.
Proceeds will cover the cost of entering competitions, travel, and membership for FFA students. Hosler, who restarted the district’s FFA program in 2015, said he didn’t want cost to be a barrier to anyone interested in participating.
Gerald Hosler, Agriculture Teacher, is giving an Introduction to Agriculture class at McKay High School to tour the greenhouse on Tuesday, April 13, 2021. (Amanda Loman / Salem Reporter)
Benson came to FFA in 8th grade because her mom told her she could get more rescue llamas by showing them on site at FFA and 4H events.
She has been breeding llamas since 4th grade and helps to look after a herd of around 17 animals on her grandmother’s property outside Salem. Most have food-inspired names: wonton, poptart, and cocoa butter.
“I stayed because it’s way better than normal school,” Benson said of her agriculture class. “You can do things that actually benefit real life.”
That includes skills like practicing job interviews as part of the FFA club, she said.
Sabin grew up with chickens in a family home in Aurora before moving to Salem.
Before the school closed last spring, the two said they often spent time in the school’s greenhouse, which serves as a social center for agricultural students. The spring break was consumed by the start of transplants.
Like Sabin, Benson said raising plants and animals helped her get through the past year when her family planned a renovation of her grandmother’s garden.
“It’s a way to meditate without doing absolutely nothing,” said Benson.
When personal classes resumed earlier this year, the two said the school’s greenhouses were overgrown and full of mature beginnings.
Benson, Sabin, and their classmates prepare for shifts where launches are loaded into waiting cars. You expect a busy May with the higher sales volume.
“It’s a lot more than we did. We definitely need to clean up the greenhouse, ”said Benson.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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