A Walk Around the Neighborhood

Our farm is located in a neighborhood of apartments, factories, and trailer homes. We decided to take a walk to explore our surroundings. We found a northern watersnake, two pear trees, a wild plum tree, a dead racoon, and many baby frogs. We saw a community garden with huge onions, bees, beetles, carrots, squash, peppers, lettuce, and way too many Japanese beetles. There were plenty of mosquitoes and huge bees on sunflowers. I was surprised at how big onions get when you don't harvest them!

What is PEAT?

P.E.A.T. stands for Program for Entrepreneurial and Agricultural Training. This program was created to teach today’s youth how to become their own employer. It also teaches teens how to grow healthier food for the Madison community. Starting in late June we have been working from 8:30am to12:30 pm. We go out onto the field to plant different plants and do work on them like watering and doing what’s necessary for our plants to grow.

Where is the PEAT program?

Our farm is located on Moorland Road, on the south side of Madison. It is a rural-urban area where there is a community farm, Apartment buildings, trailer homes and factories.

Why PEAT?

This program is designed to help teach youth about running their own business and doing it well. It’s not only giving them a job and a source of money but also giving teens a chance to be productive with themselves and not being on the streets getting into trouble. P.E.A.T also shows young people the importance of growing and how it affects our world of understanding how a plant grows without any bad chemicals that other companies put on their foods. We’re doing this because we are hoping to spread our business throughout the country. Also we want to make a change by inspiring and spreading the word, to other youths, to do the same.

How does PEAT work?

Before all the planting begins we put the woodchips on the ground and spread them so that they are thick. Then we went out to the field to measure the length in the rows of where the seedlings would go so that when we started planting the plants would be the same in a straight line. We also kept track of weeds so we can take them out and made sure to also water and fertilize our plants to ensure the growth of them. We did all this with the help of Milwaukee's Growing Power which provided us with training.

Who are we?

There are nine farmers in the P.E.A.T. program. They include Abigail, Kenon, Khadjiah, Leondray, Daniel, Imani, and Carlos. Abigail is a student at East High School. She moved from Maryland one year ago. Khadjiah, 15, was born in Madison, Wisconsin. She enjoys playing sports, drawing and hanging out with friends. Kenon is going to La Folette High School and likes to play basketball, framing and growing plants. He was born in Rockford IL. Carlos was born in Mexico and came to the United States when he was 4. He loves to go out the farms and grow to learn new things. Daniel enjoys hard, fun labor and to exercise. He also likes to learn, and listen to people’s advice and opinions. Imani is a student at West High School. Her hobbies include playing basketball, volleyball, reading, and writing. Leondray is a student at La Folette High School. He's from Rockford, Illinois.