CITY KIDS SEE LIFE ON THE FARM FIELD TRIP OFFERS CHANCE TO LEARN GARDENING TIPS.

Byline: Peggy Hager Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Sixty-five children from South Los Angeles braved the wind and sand stinging their faces Friday to pluck potatoes from the ground at a field in Palmdale.

The potato picking was part of a field trip sponsored by the Los Angeles Country Farm Bureau that also included a trip to pet 4-H animals and a visit to a local dairy. The children were from Graham Elementary School.

``Most of the kids haven't been out of their area code ... most of them had told me that they had only seen animals on TV,'' said Noelle Shaw, teacher of one of the classes. ``They were just so excited to be on a farm. ... Even when we were traveling on the bus, I was listening to them talk, and they could tell how different this area is from the area (they came from).''

Shaw had contacted the Farm Bureau earlier in the year for assistance in installing a garden at the school. The school had a garden years ago but it had fallen into disrepair. The children in each grade level at the school sent in designs and the Farm Bureau helped get the garden ready.

``We have a salsa garden. One of the second grades has a Winnie the Pooh garden with carrots and flowers,'' Shaw said. The other grades at the pre-kindergarten through fifth grade school also have themed plots in the garden.

Gabriella Lopez, 9, took her paper bag and began filling it with potatoes unearthed from the ground at 50th Street East and Avenue P-8.

`I'm going to tell my mom that she could cook them so I could eat them,'' Gabriella said.

The group also visited with the 4-H Club animals at Bev and Aubrey Horwdel's Quartz Hill home.

``I liked it a lot because I got to touch animals and mostly I liked it because I got to see baby pigs and we got to see horses and chickens and goats. It was fun,'' Gabriella said. ``I never saw the pigs and cows before. I just saw them in cartoons at my cousin's and my friend's. When I went to the farm it was exciting because I finally got to see a real horse, real pigs, real goats. When I went to the zoo there weren't horses, they were only kangaroos.''

``I like when we went to the farm and we saw a lot of animals,'' said Pablo Valdez, 9. `` My favorite animal was the horse because I like horses and I wish I could ride one some day because my uncle has a horse. He has a brown one and a white one.''

Pablo picked up several potatoes hoping his mom would make them into french fries for him.

``I picked some big ones and one little one. I picked a root and ... then I saw a little potato next to it and I put it inside the bag,'' the youngster said.

``I felt kind of like I was happy, everybody was excited and I was excited, too,'' he added, noting the long ride wasn't so bad either. ``Even I wasn't bored because I had my friend next to me, he was my partner, and we played with my cards and a game.''

Peggy Hager, [phone]

peggy.grimm-hager(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color in AV edition only) On a field trip to Diamond Farming Co.'s potato farm near 50th Street East, students from Graham Elementary School in South Los Angeles watch as Kathleen Burr of the Farm Bureau shows how to dig potatoes.

(2 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) Antonio Hernandez, 9, from Graham Elementary School in Los Angeles unearths a potato at a farm near 50th Street East in Palmdale on Friday, part of a field trip the South Los Angeles students took to learn gardening techniques. The outing also included a chance to pet 4-H animals and a visit to a local dairy.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer