2nd Grade Trip to HyVee and Mule Barn Berry Farm

We started our day with a detailed, behind-the-scenes tour of HyVee in Liberty.  We learned a lot about how they make some of the food and how they stock other foods.  We also learned about nutrition and the NuVal system.  Here are some pictures from our tour:

We learned how they proof dough, make rolls, and bake bread in the bakery area.

We got to pet one of the live lobsters.  We learned that lobsters can only survive for 24 hours out of water.  Lobsters gain 1 pound every 7 years, so a 10 pound lobster is 70 years old!

This is the refrigerator where they stock the milk and juices.

It was Veteran's Day and HyVee was offering breakfast for the veterans.  We saw many veterans including this amazing gentleman who served in World War II.  He was gracious enough to pose for a picture with us.  We all thanked him for his service to our country.

We traveled north to Lathrop to tour the family-owned Mule Barn Berry Farm.  We learned all about how the farm started and how they work hard to produce blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries.  It was very interesting to learn about the different growing methods and the tools they use on the farm.  They also let us sample some of their homemade blackberry jam.  Yum!

That is a groundhog radish that they plant near their strawberry plants.  They use it for aeration in the soil and nutrients. 

We learned about the irrigation system.  They use water from the lake in the background to irrigate their crops.

They keep bees to help with pollination.  The bees were pretty quiet since it was so cold!

This is a long tunnel that is under construction.  It will soon be wrapped in plastic.  The strawberry plants are planted in coconut husks instead of soil to help with food safety.  

We learned about pruning blackberry and raspberry plants.