Specialty Crop

Students enrolled in the Summit Innovations School’s Sustainable Agriculture course learn about many aspects of plant sciences, horticulture, gardening, greenhouse management, food production, and running a startup business as they grow fresh produce in a 720-square-foot greenhouse and outdoor raised beds. The students help run a four-season market garden from the school, sell cool-season greens and microgreens to the school district food service program during spring and winter, and offer fresh produce at the Slow Food in the Tetons markets.

“During the course of the year, students explore the current industrial farming system through the lens of soil health, chemical inputs, ecologic impacts, and profit per-acre, and compare this system with the regenerative methods that may have been around for thousands of years, but are only now starting to gain traction domestically,” says teacher Brian Hager.

“Each year, we take on a farm-design project locally, and work through the process of designing and introducing elements that decrease the need for off-farm inputs, while improving soil fertility and increasing the total diversity and productivity of the space,” adds Hager, a board member of Teton Botanical Garden, which is involved with Summit Innovations’ agriculture program.

Students who complete Sustainable Agriculture earn a career and technical education (CTE) credit for college.