Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 9, 1995 TAG: 9510100027
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STACY JONES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's true. Apples are part of the rose family.
That's just one of the fun facts that Danny Johnson shared with visiting 5-year-olds recently as he introduced them to the wonders of his job - farming.
With the Peaks of Otter in the background and a 15-foot Johnny Appleseed looking on, the co-owner of Johnson's Orchard in Bedford County did his best to entertain and educate a fidgety crowd of 58 kindergarteners from Mount Pleasant Elementary School.
His performance would do Lee Strasberg proud.
``Boys and girls, my name is Danny, Danny Appleseed - Johnny's brother,'' he proclaimed. ``What we've got here is a wonderful thing,'' Johnson said, pointing to his head. ``We've got a television set in our heads. It's called imagination.''
He then proceeded to weave tales of apple picking, talking apples and such. The kids loved it and they loved Johnson. His quick movements, animated voice and rubber face brought the world of red delicious and Macintosh to life.
Seated at picnic tables with their sneaker-clad feet swinging in the cool fall air, the youngsters ``oohhhed'' and ``aahhhed,'' laughed and shot their hands into the air whenever the friendly farmer posed a question.
One little boy, his hair tousled from the breeze, seemed dumbfounded when Johnson mentioned yellow apples. ``Yellow apples?,'' he mumbled to himself, his eyes distressed. ``Yellow apples? Apples are red.''
Later in the tour, ``Danny Appleseed'' would set him straight.
While the farm experience is fun, the main goal of bringing the kids to the farm is to learn, said Teresa Walthall, a teacher at Mount Pleasant.
``A lot [of kids] think apples come from a bin in the supermarket,'' she explained. ``Kids don't really understand all that is involved, the process of how it gets there.''
Johnson wants to change that.
``The idea is to teach,'' he said. ``We have to let the younger generation know where their food comes from.''
After Apples 101, the students went to watch a cider press in action. In a cloud of yellow jackets, Johnson and a farm hand fed big, red apples into the mouth of the press. The pack chanted ``Come, cider, come,'' and seconds later, it did.
``Good, kinda sour,'' offered a girl in blue jean shorts, her mouth puckered, after tasting the liquid.
``This is apple juice,'' exclaimed one boy, unconvinced that he was drinking cider.
Next on the list: animals - Nubian goats, pot-bellied pigs, cattle, chicken and sheep.
``Yuck,'' screamed a 5-year-old with a red sweatshirt tied around his waist. It seems the local insects were getting to this city boy. Once the animals were in view, however, the gnats and other inconveniences such as droppings and barnyard smells were forgotten.
``He is so silky,'' a girl in pink said of a 5-month-old silver-laced wire dot chicken. ``She is soft,'' concurred her red-headed friend.
And so it went, for nearly an hour, as the troupe gawked at barnyard critters and learned their roles on the farm.
When Flopsy and Mopsy, two African pygmy kids - as in baby goats - came home for lunch, the kindergarteners knew exactly what was going on. ``I think they're drinking milk,'' said one in-the-know boy after seeing the pair scurry under their mother's belly.
The youngsters finally filed into the orchard, plastic bags in hand, yanked an apple off the tree and then headed for the waiting yellow buses. Compared to the exotica of the farm animals, the apple-picking was anticlimactic. Still, the kids were happy and so was Johnson.
``If they learned anything here, then we've done our jobs,'' he said.
by CNB