OOOO, they were talking about FOOD. Now this was Vashti's kind of lesson. Raising her hand, she said, "Well if you know what herbs and plants and stuff taste good, whether separately and together, then you can create better-tasting meals to eat. And that way you won't combine stuff that taste horrible together and make people sick." Because making sure people didn't get sick was always a good thing. Yup yup.

Emmy pricked her ears up at the mention of food. Oooh, might we be doing some sort of cooking or food preparation? I wonder... She realised the Professor had asked them a question, to which Emmy thought there was a pretty obvious answer... She raised her hand, and spoke.
"Well, for starters, half the world's cuisine couldn't exist without a good knowledge of Herbology - take Indian food for example, it's almost entirely vegetarian! And of course, if you're cooking a meal with freshly harvested ingredients, if you don't know your plants, you could accidentally poison someone... Unless you meant to poison them, and even then you'd need to know something of Herbology...!" Hmm. Not a bad answer, I think...

Dianna eagerly raised her hand.
"Well herbs can be used for adding more flavor for the food. And to garnish it like coriander." she said. Licking her lips she listened to the other students.

"You mean you can cross-breed edible plants to invent a new one?" Sage smiled with a nod. "Nice answer Selena, yes." Very creative.

"Of course," Sage agreed, "plants all have different effects and it's good to know those effects before one eats it." Another good answer over there!


Sage chuckled but nodded at Alex's answer, "Sure, if you know which plants are edible and so forth, you can easily grow your own food!"

"Yes, yes!" More nodding. Gold always came out with some cracking answers. "By knowing the properties of plants, we can toss aside the stuff that will be harmful to us.. and eat the rest! Eat the healthy stuff, right." He wondered how many of them hated healthy stuff..

Oooh. Nice!

"Herb! Well done for pointing that out," Sage grinned at the Gryffindor who came up with a very good answer too.

"I... I get the idea, yes." The Slytherin was on about growing poisonous foods to...!! "Sadly, some people would use their knowledge of Herbology for things like that, you're right." It was still a correct answer!


"Oh, good answer, Evelyn!" Sage said wit approval. "Not only are plants actually eaten, but they're also used as garnish! Food to decorate your... food."

"Adding two yummy tasting foods together to make an even yummier tasting food.. I like your idea Vashti," the Professor said with a smile in her direction.

And to round it off, another great answer! These kids really got enthusiastic when it came to food, didn't they..?

"Well done, for mentioned vegetarians," he agreed with her words, "due to the lack of meat in their diet, vegetarians live mostly of plant-food.. therefore a knowledge of Herbology and whats good for you would come in very handy!"

"You've all come up with some excellent answers!" Sage addressed the class once more, feeling braver as he looked at all the faces. He'd been too scared to make much eye contact during his very first lesson.. but look at him now!

"So, you know Herbology is important if you want to grow healthy, edible plants.. alot of that produce would be grown on farms!" He was a little surprised noone had mentioned farming in their anstwers. "What do you all know about farming then? Have any of you visited a muggle farm while at home?" Maybe some of them grew up on a farm like he had...?

Alex rose her hand after considering the question, "Some of us are purebloods so no I wouldn't say that I have, but I know Farmers are how muggles get fast majority of their fruits and and other supplies that can be grown." Alex told the Professor feeling slightly sorry for him, she knew Zane was probably one of the one purebloods that actually could go to a farm, and has been to one. He also seemed to want to freak the poor Professor out by talking about poisonous food seriously, she would to have a talk to him about freaking out their Herbology Professor, he was already terrified of Slytherins as it was!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waterloo

"You've all come up with some excellent answers!" Sage addressed the class once more, feeling braver as he looked at all the faces. He'd been too scared to make much eye contact during his very first lesson.. but look at him now!

"So, you know Herbology is important if you want to grow healthy, edible plants.. alot of that produce would be grown on farms!" He was a little surprised noone had mentioned farming in their anstwers. "What do you all know about farming then? Have any of you visited a muggle farm while at home?" Maybe some of them grew up on a farm like he had...?

Listening to the slytherin girl talk first, Patroclus was not pleased with the pureblood snobbery that was evident, Patroclus said as he raised his hand "Sir I would say that it is not only Muggles that use farms. I have witnessed many Wizarding farms whislt traveling as a child," the boys life experience of always traveling was coming in handy, "I think the desire to grow food is a desire that transcends Magical and Non-Magical boundries. Humanity has depended on agriculture and farming since the dawn of time, and buy the use of planting, ploughing and harvesting, the Human race has developed to what it is." Patroclus felt like he was giving an inspirational sppech, but it needed to be said, so he said it.

Emmy raised her hand again, impressed by the Gryffindor's speech, "Um, Professor? My best friend lives on a Muggle farm, so that was one of my favourite day trips when I was little..."

"I have been on a farm once and it was pretty awesome. Cows grazing the grass and a huge cornfield." she said as she lowered her hand.

"That's right, Alex.. farmers grow lots of produce which includes fruit, vegetables and grains which they then sell on, or keep for their own use."

The professor's eyebrows rose in surprise and a small smile played across his lips as Patroclus spoke up. It was a speech that would make any farmer proud.. and Sage being.. sort of a farmer? Yeah, he liked it a lot.

"Very inspirational," he grinned in amusement, "and you're very right, Patroclus. Farms are used by both muggles and wizards alike. Take myself for example.. wizarding blood goes back many generations, and the Dodson's of today.. they own and work on a farm." The Dodson farm. His ears burnt slightly.. he was never very good at talking about himself. "Many wizarding farmers use magic to aid them and help their farms thrive."

It was no good entering a 'who can grow the biggest pumpkin competition' alongside a wizard should you be growing it in the muggle way.


It was nice to hear someone knew someone else who lived on a farm, and Sage turned his attention to Emmy. "Trips to farms can be very fun, can't they?" Not so much when you LIVED on one, mind you. "And did you see what sorts of things they grew on their farm?" Or maybe she just wanted to see baby farmyard animals..


"Corn! Right!" Sage gave his hands an excited clap, "growing corn is popular on a lot of farms.. do you know what else is?" That was a question thrown out to all of them..

Alex thought about the question and raised her hand again, there was a lot that was known to be important that was used a lot, "Grain?" Alex asked slightly confused by the question why would this mattered excatly?

Oooh farms? Sarah had visited a few of those as a kid. The leetle animals were cute, but smelly, and she liked to hold them. Although she never really took notice of the sort of thing they grew there. Hmm.

She did however, know about something else. "Sir," she said, raising her hand in the air to speak. "I live near another sort of farm, where they grow watercress. You use that in food," although he probably knew that. "At least I think they call them farms..." Yeah. She was sure they did.

Nia raised her hand. "In the South, there's lots of bright yellow fields. They are growing rapeseed, I believe, to be made into oil for cooking. It's used as an alternative to olive oil." She thought of something else too, and smiled. It reminded her of something she used to do when she was younger. "Strawberries too, Professor!" she exclaimed. "Lots of them all in rows. We used to go to a 'pick your own' farm when I was little in the summer. Freshly picked strawberries, lush."

Emmy smiled, and replied, "Well, it was mixed farm - they grew crops as well as raising animals. Mimi and I used to help feed the animals, and then we'd weed out the kitchen garden..." she sighed remeniscently.

Farms! Abby knew a lot about them. Yep. New Jersey was the Garden State, after all.

"There is a lot of corn," she agreed, hand raised. "But farms also produce a lot of other veggies like tomatoes and potatoes. There're also plenty of fruits. Cherries, apples, the like." Apple-picking! Yay!

Oh, oh, oh! Gold's hand shot up, right into the air. "I visited a muggle farm, summer before last, sir," she said, enthusiastically. "Farms are basically dedicated to the production and management of food, but I know people there squeeze a lot of other things out of that, too. Like labour and transport, from the livestock." Ohmaiigosh, FARMMSS. "... and sometimes there's poultry and fish, sir."

"What I personally saw was that the workers there get up pretty early, every day," she said, her enthusiasm clear in her tones. "Oh, and the food was delicious! Nothing like you can get here. Eggs, and freshly baked bread, and sweet and sour yogurt, and cream and milk and homemade jam and butter. The people had huge appetites, and everything that was served was really healthy, really different. The taste, I mean. Milk and butter don't taste like that, when you get them from a store." OOPS. She had rambled again.

She paused, then said, "I was told there are a lot of types of farming. Intensive, collective, dairy and so on. Some farmers choose to grow only specific crops, some choose to rear only poultry, or farm fish." Fish-farming was still a fascinating concept, for Gold. "They often have to take factors such as the climate and the state of the soil in consideration, before they decide what they want to farm."

Gold's hand was still in the air. "Well, if it's a Dairy farm, sir, stuff like milk, butter, cheese and yogurt tends to be popular." Obviously. "I know potatoes and sugar-beet are grown in South-Eastern England. We also grow considerable amounts of wheat, oat and barley."

Wheat. YUMM.

Chris raised his hand with ecitement. He looved the idea of seeing a farm one day, now that he heard more about them. "Well Professor there are some farms that are like ochard-type farms. These farms raise and tend to tree plants such as Oranges, tea, apples, and apricots." the Head Boy nodded happily. He wanted some fruit now.

Hmm... couldn't he pick a topic on something she actually knew about?

For once in her life, she actually agreed with Lufoy. She was a pureblood...and knew nothing about farming. She'd seen pictures though! Yea, when her father was cracking jokes about people with farms, he had pictures. Pretty much all she knew, however, she doubted that the Professor would find any of those jokes funny.

...or acceptable.

"Don't farms like...smell? Really bad?" she asked after hesitantly raising her hand. At least those farms that had a lot of animals did right? Did vegetable farms smell? Or, fruit farms? Fish farms? Was there such a thing as that?

"Yep, lots of grains are grown on farms," Sage confirmed, slowly pacing back and forth infront of the class, "the more popular ones include wheat, barley, rice and oats," he informed, listing them off on his fingers.


"Watercress?" Sage contemplated the answer before nodding, "not very popular on many farms, but you're certainly right.. watercress is grown on some farms, yes."


"Nice answer," Sage said, offering the Ravenclaw a smile. "Rapeseed is indeed grown to produce oil. I think it makes the landscapes look pretty when it's in season.. the bright yellow.." A dazed look crossed his expression for just a moment, before he continued. "And fruit, yes!"

".. and vegetables, you're right!" The professor nodded, "potatoes, carrots, peas, cabbages and turnips are just a few of the veggies that are typically grown on farms."

The pacing stopped and Sage looked around some more.

"Now today, I'd like us to all have a little go at our own farming. We're going to try our hands at soil preparation, sowing and finally harvesting." He took a second to make sure that they all looked like they understood.. "So first, I'd like you all to grab a hand spade and stand at a little patch of ground."

Sage found his own little patch of ground that he'd prepared at the front. "Does anyone know about preparing soil for vegetables?"

Simon looked at the Professor. "I do." He smiled. "I've done it before and I must admit I found that I enjoyed it." He said as he looked at the Professor, he had no idea if he wanted him to tell the Professor how you do it or not so he decided to not say another word.

Hm? Soil preparation?

"Well, the soil can't be too packed up together if the plant's roots are going to be able to spread around," Abby said, reaching for a spade. "So, you'd have to loosen it up, right?"

Whaaaaat?

They were going to be FARMERS!?

Destiny did NOT want to be a farmer, not today anyway, for she had left her overalls in her trunk! If she'd have known they were going to be farmers, she would have brought them AND a straw hat. If you are going to pretend to be something, might as well go ALL OUT and dress up, right?

Right.

Moping, since she was NOT an authentic farmer, she picked up one of those fancy farming tools and made her way over to a patch of dirt. Hearing the question, she raised the hand holding the tool over her head, "The soil needs to be PULVERIZED!"

That sounded fun.

Keefer loved gardening, even if it was only the de-gnoming part...

With both hands in the air, he said "Professor, the best garden soil for vegetables is deep, loose, and well-drained, both internally and on the surface. It has to have plenty of organic matter and be free of weeds and diseases. Obviously such soils are hard to find, but with proper preparation and management, not-so-great soils can be productive as well." He rushed through this speech, as if the words couldn't wait their turn to come out in their excitement.

Snickering at what Destiny said, Evelyn walked over and took the what looked to be the BEST spade out of all the others that were left before moving back over to stand next to Destiny.

And juuuust about to speak about the soil for a vegetable garden, someone pretty much beat her to it. Beat everyone to it actually. Eesh. "You have to make sure it isn't too wet." she said, moving her foot over the ground. "Or...too dry for that matter. Probably would be good to make sure there aren't any serious rocks in the soil either."

Mmhmm...it was still weird they couldn't just, place a seed in the ground and watch it grow. Gotta do allllll this work, and if you don't pay attention, it would be all for nothing since your garden would pretty much fail. Bahaha! Probably why her mother didn't garden.

Amy knew how to, but she didn't enjoy it much, the gardener of the apartment blocks had always done it and even though Hope had loved it, she'd prefered to sit in her room, drawing hope in the garden or listening to her ipod. Mud wasn't her favourite thing about the outdoors

Alex finally rose her hand again, "You have to make sure the soil is fertile for what you want to plant as some soil can grow things like Oranges and other trees better and other soil can't handle growing anything at all." Alex stated simply, it took her a while to think of an answer for once.