(John Kegebein, CEO of the Agricultural History Project, shows a draft for the new Living History Farm, which will be part of the AHP. Work is slated to start up in October. Photo by Tarmo Hannula/Pajaronian)
WATSONVILLE — For more than 30 years, the Agricultural History Project has preserved the experiences of early day life on the farm as well as educated the public about agriculture of the past.
Now, the organization is close to launching a project that will nearly double its grounds and the educational programs it offers.
Expected to break ground in October, the AHP’s Living History Farm will add almost an acre of space to include livestock pens, a garden, an apple orchard, a carriage house and more.
AHP Board Director Donna Bradford, who co-chair’s the organization’s planning committee with Mary Bannister, said the expansion will allow AHP to improve its educational programs for families.
“It’s really going to help the Ag History Project up its game,” she said.
Donna Bradford played a big role in chasing down grants for the new project. Shown here, she visits the proposed site for the Living History Farm, which will be built between the existing AHP and Ocean Speedway. Photo by Tarmo Hannula/Pajaronian
In 2015, AHP received a grant from Community Foundation Santa Cruz County to conduct a study that gauged the community’s support for the Living History Farm. The study’s findings were positive, and the community ranked having educational programs for children as the top priority.
The interactive outdoor museum is meant to connect people to real-life experiences on a farm or ranch during a specific time in history.
CEO John Kegebein said the project will be built in phases, starting with the livestock pens, which will allow 4H students a place to raise animals for the fair.
The proposed garden will be named after Lynne Grossi, a long-time volunteer at the AHP and fairgrounds who died in February.
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Day on the Farm
To help raise money for the project, which is estimated at more than $1 million, the AHP is holding a barbecue fundraiser during the annual Day on the Farm on May 12.
The barbecue will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the AHP, located near the entrance to the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, 2601 East Lake Ave. in Watsonville. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for children ages 12 and under.
Now in its 15th year, Day on the Farm, which runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., is described as taking a step back in time. Activities include ice cream making, hay rides behind draft horses, tractor driving, farm animals, crafts and more.
Day on the Farm is in addition to the AHP’s Second Saturday on the Farm, a program that is increasing the numbers of guests it pulls in every month, Kegebein said.
Each month, the event focuses on a particular topic in agriculture. Next month’s event is scheduled as “Dairy Month.”
Kegebein said 800 people attended Second Saturday on the Farm in March, which was themed for Easter.
A rendering of the Agricultural History Project’s expansion.
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Educating for the future
In the late 19th century, about half of the nation’s population was employed in agriculture.
Today, only 1.5 percent of the nation’s workforce is directly involved in farming, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
It’s this downward trend that the AHP hopes to reverse, and education is key.
“We’ve lost so much in our world as far as people directly involved in agriculture,” Kegebein said.
According to the USDA’s 2012 Census, there were 2,109,303 farms in the country, down almost 100,000 from 2007. In addition, the average age of farm owners continues to rise, which is now at 58.3 years.
“There are less and less people involved in agriculture,” Kegebein said. “A lot of the older people are retiring but the younger ones are not picking up the load.”
The implications could be devastating.
“We’ve got a big world to feed,” he said. “The fear a lot of people have is, how are we going to feed the world in the next 20, 30 years?”
Kegebein added that every once in a while, someone approaches him at an AHP event and says they don’t worry about their food, “since it comes from a grocery store.”
“What we’re doing with this expansion, we’re making it a learning center,” he said. “We try to teach people where their food comes from today. It’s not from the grocery store.”
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Admission to Day on the Farm is free. A donation of $2 is suggested.
To purchase tickets for the barbecue fundraiser or to donate to the Living History Farm project, call 724-5898 or visit www.aghistoryproject.org.
