Zinnia Collective Field Trip: Connecting Land and People

It’s been almost a month since our field trip with Zinnia Collective to the Lake Country Land School, located in Glenwood City, Wisconsin.  Still, the colors and sounds from our time there linger with us. We thought you would enjoy these images and a short recap to inspire your dreaming on next year’s garden and peak your interest in a possible return trip next summer.

The highlights of our day included a walk through the brassica fields home to the Ultra Cross Collard, a cross of African-American heirloom varieties bred for climate resiliency. The Land School is growing these collards for market as well as for seed, as part of the Lake Country School Seed Library and the Heirloom Collard Project.

Next, Dawn led us through a prairie walk, exploring the ripening seeds in the Land School prairie, intentionally burned in early spring and now teaming with life.

The afternoon found us in the zinnia beds, cross-pollinating a wide mix of zinnia varieties with the ‘Green Envy’ zinnia, then tagging and bagging these blooms for seed keeping. The Green Envy seeds will be collected by junior high students from Lake Country School later in the fall and replanted in an isolated bed next spring to further refined for selected traits. 

Thanks to everyone who was able to join us for the day, and much gratitude to the Land School staff for their generosity and collaborative spirit.