For their May meeting, 13 members of the Great Bend Garden Club traveled to Heartland Farms, a beautiful 80-acre homestead in rural Rush County near Pawnee Rock.
They were greeted by Sister Jane, one of the Dominican Sisters of Peace who live and work at the farm. The group enjoyed a morning of learning about and observing the organic gardens, a building built ecologically of straw bales, specialty chickens which are raised for selling farm fresh eggs, a herd of inquisitive alpacas with a newborn baby alpaca, and a meditation area in an unusual, acoustically-perfect silo. There was opportunity to learn of the shearing of the alpacas, the carding of the wool and production of the alpaca yarn on site.  A number of items made from alpaca wool and yarn skeins were available for purchase at the farm.  Of special interest to the Garden Club members was the process of organic gardening practiced at the farm.
The day’s field trip was planned by member Pam Sweeney. The next meeting will be in September with another field trip to the Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands and Wildlife Center planned by Mary Kummer.