The Heritage Village Pizza Garden located at 219 20 Street NE, East Grand Forks, MN   Link to My American Farm

An educational interactive display for school aged children to tour and experience where their food comes from, using a pizza as the theme. It is important today that children gain an understanding of their relationship to the agricultural industry; farmers in particular. The Heritage Village has partnered with Grand Forks County 4H, Polk County 4H, East Grand Forks (EGF) schools, the Grand Forks Horticultural Society to develop inquiry-based activities for youth.  The Heritage Village volunteers provide a pizza garden session at the annual Dakota Science Center Water Festival for regional 4^th graders in May. The garden is featured at Heritage Days in August. The pizza garden is on the Heritage Village, Dakota Science Center and Grand Forks Horticultural Society web sites. Due to the short growing season of the Red River Valley the pizza garden outdoor programming is limited to the months of May-September. Summer classes are held for EGF school and community summer programs. An out-of-school fall session is offered so that teachers can bring their students to harvest the garden and kick-off classroom gardening. During the school year classroom gardening teaching aids are used by school teachers to educate youth about the life cycle of plants. To eliminate barriers that keep youth from learning about gardening Heritage Village volunteers provide the tilling equipment, prepare the ground for planting and provide the gardening tools for the children to use.

The ½ acre circular garden is divided into pie-shaped wedges with walking paths between each wedge for viewing. Pizza ingredients are grown in the garden: tomatoes, herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, chives, parsley) garlic, onions, peppers (bell, chili/jalapeno), and wheat. The City of East Grand Forks has provided animal statues of cows, pigs and chickens which are enclosed in a fenced wedge, as if they are real. The animals represent sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, cheese, ground beef, chicken and eggs as pizza ingredients.

Learning Objectives:
1. to reconnect the consumer with the agricultural products used to make the processed food we eat,
2. to provide inquiry-based lessons for youth to learn gardening,
3. to provide educational sessions where youth learn the source of pizza ingredients, the nutritional value of the ingredients and tie the learning to a favorite food – pizza,
4. to educate youth about the importance of home gardening in our nation’s history, and

5. to educate the youth about the life cycle of plants using classroom teaching aids.