More than 10,000 plants were made available to an estimated 1,000 visitors to Saturday’s annual Spring Plant Sale and Farm Festival at Liberty Prairie in Grayslake.
“It’s just been my tradition,” said Michelle Suran of Skokie, who arrived early with Jerry Kohn, also of Skokie, in pursuit of herbs, vegetables, onions and flowers.
First in line at 7:12 a.m. were friends Elisabeth Neiss of Lake Villa and Inga Kleve of Antioch.
“I love gardening,” said Neiss, who came in search of flowering perennials. “I’m going for the native plants because I want to support the native pollinators, the Monarch butterflies, so I’m looking for milkweed. The idea is to have a beautiful flower bed.”
Kleve added, “They (perennials) go fast, so we come early to make sure we get what we want. We studied the list.”
The list of Lake County-friendly plants available included sedges, in addition to perennials such as wild strawberry and ostrich fern.
Al and Cheryl Lewis of Libertyville procured lettuce, tomato, peppers, zucchini and cucumber plants started in Lake County.
“I love it,” Cheryl Lewis said, referring to homegrown food. “It’s just kind of been a passion to enjoy. It’s healthy, fun … (and) relaxing.”
Heidi Robinson of Libertyville said she came early because, “I start seedlings, but I can’t get all the varieties that they have here without special-ordering them. I like to support the community college and the school districts.”
Liberty Prairie’s Spring Plant Sale and Farm Festival is presented in partnership with Grayslake Community High School District 127, as part of its Agricultural Pathway program. D127’s engineering a sustainable future class is taught by Jeff Miller, Liberty Prairie’s conservation farm director and a farmer.
“Agriculture is engineering in action,” said Karen Wilkes of Grayslake, executive director of non-profit Liberty Prairie. “The critical-thinking, problem-solving, and complexities of systems interacting, like fruiting trees and nuts combined with grazing sheep and goats, provide an exceptional learning environment.
“As students apply their classroom context in real-world scenarios, they deepen their understanding, grow their curiosity, bring creativity to their problem-solving and take immense pride in their work,” Wilkes said.
Gina Schuyler of Antioch, D127’s administrator of community partnerships, said, “Liberty Prairie is one of our outstanding community partners. The partnership here truly is the gift that allows students to explore a variety of different pathways because we want students to be both career- and college-ready in our district.”
The class grew annual organic vegetables, fruit and flowering plants, with proceeds benefiting D127’s agriculture education for, “the start up of next year’s sale,” she said.
“We also do a fall festival (with pumpkin and mum sales) where our entrepreneurship students and our agriculture students get to learn,” Schuyler added, but, “Our spring (sale) is our big one.
“We have so many students in Lake County that, even though Lake County is vast with our beautiful open areas, so few have been on a farm or have gotten to work with their hands in the soil,” she said. “This gives them that opportunity to do that.”
Savannah Stryker of Grayslake, 16, a Grayslake Central High School junior, was among the students staffing the fundraiser.
“I think it’s important to come and volunteer, because you get to help out your community and you also get to grow and support a small business that really does need the help and work of volunteers to keep growing and running,” Stryker said.
The event included wagon rides, sheep shearing, feeding the farm animals, tours, a silent auction and student performances.
Jen Miller of Grayslake, Liberty Prairie’s managing director and a farmer, acknowledged the work of the teens, plus approximately 100 other volunteers, “from all over Lake County, including Grayslake, Mundelein, Libertyville, Round Lake, Gurnee, Waukegan … Zion, all over.
“We are so grateful that they take time out of their busy lives to come to the farm and educate others about the importance of getting in your garden, getting outside, detaching from your phone and really enjoying our outdoor world,” she said.
