Life down on the farm

Alicia Robinson

When they’re not on a plate, cows and chickens are a rare sight in

Orange County today.

But there is one place they can be found, thanks to the devotion

of volunteers who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty and don’t

mind the smell of manure: Centennial Farm. And the farm honored those

volunteer docents Thursday at a celebration of the farm’s 15th

anniversary.

About 300 docents and other guests gathered at the farm where some

docents received pins representing the years they’ve volunteered at

the farm.

Centennial Farm is a working, four-acre farm complete with fruits,

vegetables and other crops and a variety of animals, from llamas and

goats to turkeys and peacocks. The farm has given tours to more than

570,000 children since it was founded in 1989.

“I think [the farm] was really started because Orange County was

an agricultural county,” said Lois Davis, a docent at the farm since

a few months after it first opened. “Now we have almost nothing left

except strawberries.”

Davis got involved after she saw a blurb in the newspaper

explaining that the farm was looking for volunteers.

“I thought, gee, it sounded like something that was right up my

line,” she said. “I was raised on a farm.”

Davis grew up in San Diego County on a farm that grew mainly

walnuts and apricots, and she still grows vegetables at her home in

Huntington Beach.

Her granddaughter, Angela Magliari, also of Huntington Beach,

started coming to Centennial Farm as a child and became a docent five

years ago.

“I love the chickens,” Magliari said. “You can hold baby chickens,

and I used to sit in the chick room for hours.”

Over the years many children visiting the farm have learned about

livestock and crops that they might not otherwise see. Educational

programs coordinator Evy Edelo makes sure that happens, scheduling

tours and running the farm’s more in-depth educational programs.

The one-hour tours serve elementary school children, but they’re

usually most interested in the animals, Edelo said. Fourth- through

sixth-grade students can make butter and learn about gardening in the

“ag-ademics” program, and a new longer program allows students to

grow their own vegetables and clean animal pens.

“The thing I really enjoy about my job is getting the rewards up

front,” Edelo said. “When the kids are done at the end of the day I

always hear the comments, ‘This is the best field trip I’ve ever had

in my life.’”

Those experiences are important now that Orange County is almost

entirely urban, said Jim Bailey, one of the farm’s founders.

“I think everybody ought to know where their food comes from, and

this is one way to do it,” he said.

Sometimes the children are puzzled or surprised by what they find

at the farm. Davis said she’s had students ask her if the jersey cows

were camels. But helping the students learn is what the farm is all

about.

The best thing about being a docent, Magliari said is “just seeing

the kids light up and being able to educate them and seeing them

understand what you’re talking about.”

Bailey said he’s proud of the farm and he expects it to continue

functioning for some time.

“I feel good that there’s some young people coming along that are

still interested in doing it,” he said. “It’s fun to do something

that everybody likes instead of something everybody hates.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.