REA

T UNT S U R E
HON THE FARM
Manuscript completed in October 2020.
The Commission is not liable for any consequence stemming from the reuse of this publication.
Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2020
© European Union, 2020

The reuse policy of European Commission documents is implemented by the Commission Decision 2011/833/EU of 12 December
2011 on the reuse of Commission documents (OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. 39).
Except otherwise noted, the reuse of this document is authorised under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0)
licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This means that reuse is allowed provided appropriate credit is given and any
changes are indicated.
For any use or reproduction of elements that are not owned by the European Union, permission may need to be sought directly from
the respective rightholders.

Print ISBN 978-92-76-22227-9 doi:10.2762/712114 KF-04-20-523-EN-C

PDF ISBN 978-92-76-22182-1 doi:10.2762/594070 KF-04-20-523-EN-N
 A S
TREHUNT U R E
ON THE FARM
Hi, I’m Anna and this is my little brother Tom.

It’s the middle of the long summer holidays.

All our friends are away, and we are so bored!

1
 We are just rewatching our favourite cartoon for the millionth time,
when Dad comes in to say we are going out, to Uncle Jack’s farm.

‘Do we really have to go? We can’t watch our cartoons there and it’s smelly!’
Tom protests.

‘It’s a lovely, sunny day, and it will do you good to be outside

instead of looking at a screen!
Besides, I’ve got a surprise planned for you,’
says Dad with a wink.

2
‘What kind of surprise?’
we both ask, suddenly interested.
‘You’ll see,’ says Dad, laughing.

‘Come on, up you both get!

Shoes on and let’s jump in the car.’

3
 The road seems endless as we head out of the town.

I can see trees and green fields as we drive along, leaving the rows
of houses and apartment blocks far behind us.

Then we come round a corner and there it is, just as I remember –

the farm where Uncle Jack and Granny live.

4
Granny rushes out to meet us, hugging us close to her.
‘Hello, my darlings,’ she says, ‘Let me look at you – oh, you are both getting so big!’

‘Where’s Jack?’ asks Dad.

‘Oh, out in the fields as usual. Always trying out new things.
He will be back soon,’ Granny replies.

5
 Dad looks at us. ‘Well, you two are going to be busy too –
you are going on a treasure hunt.’

‘Is it a computer game?’ asks Tom.

‘No, a real treasure hunt where you try and solve all the clues and – if you are lucky – win
a prize at the end,’ says Dad.

Then he takes out a piece of paper and holds it out to us.

‘Come on, here’s your first clue.’

Clue 1 – What’s red and sweet and tastes good spread on your toast as jam?

‘That’s easy!’ I say, ‘Strawberries.’

‘OK,’ says Dad, ‘but do you know where they are?’

Suddenly it doesn’t seem so easy. Dad takes pity on us. ‘Over there,’

he points, to a field not far from where we are standing.

And so, the treasure hunt begins, with us running together as fast 
as we can towards the strawberry field.

CLU
WHAT’S R E 1
ED A
AND TAST ND SWEET
SPREAD O ES GOOD
N YOUR TO
AS JAM? AST

6
The field is full of bright red, plump strawberries, nestling between the leaves
of the plants. There is straw lightly covering the soil under and around the plants.
We pick a few and they taste sweet and juicy.

I’m wondering how many we can eat without getting in trouble,

when we notice a piece of paper tied to one of the plants.
It says, ‘Bonus question – How am I made into jam?’

Tom knows the answer this time. ‘Quick! We need to go back to the yard –
that’s where they make the jam.’

ION
N U S QUEST DE
BO A
AM I M
HOW JAM?
INTO

7
 We are running again, reaching the
farmyard out of breath and laughing.
Tom points to a neat, whitewashed
building in the corner.

8
 STR JA
AW M
BE
RR
Y

BERRY
AW
STR JAM

We peek inside and see a long

table where a man dressed in
white is working. He is pouring
strawberry jam into clean glass
jars and leaving them to cool.

At another workspace, Granny,

wearing white clothes too,
is carefully sticking labels
on filled jars.

9
 Granny looks up. ‘You found us then. Well, if you’re coming in,
you will need to put those on,’ she says, pointing at two white coats and
hair nets hanging on the back of the door, and two pairs of white boots.

Everything is much too big, but we want to go in, so we put on the hair
nets and the coats – turning up the sleeves and holding up the bottoms
so we don’t trip over – slip on the boots, and make our way into the room.

Everything is shiny, with metal surfaces and strange looking machines,

and it’s spotlessly clean.

10
COMPOST

11
 nt farm
Excelle berries
straw

‘It’s not what you were expecting is it?’ says Granny, reading my thoughts.
‘We have to keep everything very clean and follow some health and safety rules so that the jam
tastes good and we are sure it’s safe for people to eat.’

‘We have lots of customers now. Some Saturdays there’s a long queue at the stall at the market
in town. People tell us that the strawberries are full of taste. They are also organic. Do you
know what that means?’ asks Granny.

‘Not really,’ I say.

‘Organic means that they are grown without any chemicals or pesticides.
As a result, we can call the jam we make from them organic and put an organic label on the jars.
Can you spot it?’ she asks, holding up one.

Tom points at the green rectangle with white stars that looks a bit like a leaf.

12
‘That’s right. Well done!’ says Granny.
‘Here is your next clue.’

Clue 2 – What kind of queen lives on the farm?

It takes a moment, but then I shout out

the answer: ‘The queen bee!’
And this time we know exactly where
to go – to the beehives at the end
of the farmhouse garden.

CLUE 2 D
KIN
WHAT LIVES
U E E N
OF Q FARM?
ON THE

13
 A few minutes later we are there and, sure enough, there’s another
piece of paper next to the hives.

It says, ‘Bonus question – How do I help farmers?’

‘It’s something to do with the flowers,’ I say.

I spot Dad at the back door of the farmhouse and wave at him to come over.
‘Are you stuck?’ he asks, walking towards us. I show him the clue.

N
QUESTIO
BONUS O
HOW D ERS?
ARM
I HELP F

14
 Pollen
Pollen
Pollen
grains
Pollen

Seed
Ovule Ovary

‘Ah yes, when bees feed on a flower they get its yellow dust on their bodies,’
he explains.

‘And when they move from one flower to another,

they carry this dust – it’s called pollen – and it spreads –
or pollinates - between different plants.’

‘This spreading makes new plants grow. Bees are very

important farm workers – they are pollinators,’ says Dad smiling. ‘Without them
there would be no lovely strawberries!’

We look at the bees happily feeding on the flowers in the garden, and I
wonder at how something so small can be so important.

15
 ‘Time for the next clue,’ says Dad, holding
out another piece of paper in front of him.

Clue 3 – What’s long and green and will soon

be cut?
CLU
This time I really don’t know and look at Tom WHAT E 3
for help. His face is scrunched up as if he’s AND G ’S LONG
REE
thinking hard. WILL S N AND
OO
BE CUT N
?
‘Well, the grass on the farm is long
and green,’ he says finally.

‘You’re right,’ I say, ‘and it is cut during the

summer. So … we need to go to the fields
then!’

We run off down the lane towards the fields

that surround the farm, and there in the
distance is a red tractor parked in the lane.

16
17
 The tractor is huge, with wheels as tall as me. And there’s our Uncle Jack next to it, talking to
someone up in the cab.

He turns and spots us. ‘Hey, you two. Come here and give me a hug!’

‘These are my brother’s kids – Anna and Tom,’ Uncle Jack says, and we look up and see there’s
a woman in the tractor.

‘Hello,’ she says, smiling, ‘I’m Mary. I was just taking a look at your uncle’s new tractor.’

‘Can we go look too?’ Tom asks. Uncle Jack nods and we scramble up.

The cab looks a bit like a spaceship, with lots of different buttons and dials.

‘This is to check the soil, so we can make sure it’s full of good things – called nutrients – to
help the plants grow,’ explains Mary, pointing at a screen. ‘And this’, she says, indicating
another, ‘is so your uncle knows where is best to plant crops in a field.’

18
‘Are you a farmer too?’ I ask Mary.

‘No,’ she says, ‘I’m a farm advisor. Just like your teachers at school help you to
learn new things, I help farmers with things like taking care of the soil, and the
wildlife and hedgerows on the farm.’

I have lots of questions, but Tom is pulling at my shirt. ‘Anna, we need to get
back to the treasure hunt or we won’t get the prize.’

‘Off you go,’ says Mary with a smile, and we climb down and head into the
field.

19
 The grass is high and green, and there’s another piece of paper
tied to some stalks.

It says, ‘Bonus question – Do you know how I help others?’

I think for a moment. ‘The grass becomes hay when it dries out

and the cows eat the hay in the winter,’ I say.

‘I see you know a lot about grass,’ says Mary, suddenly behind us with Uncle Jack, ‘but did
you know that it also helps us by trapping a gas
that’s bad for us – called carbon dioxide – under the ground?’

‘What does the gas do?’ I ask.

‘Have you heard about climate change?’

she asks. We both nod.

N
QUESTIO
BONUS YOU
DO
HOW
KNOW HERS?
T
I HELP O

20
‘Well, the gas heats up our planet,
which leads to climate change.
That makes the weather change in
a way that is not normal, bringing
more floods and storms and dry
weather in summer. So too much
carbon dioxide is a really bad thing.
But farmers like your uncle are finding
ways to help us and the planet.’

21
 We have been walking across the field as we talk,
and now Tom has spotted something.

‘Look Anna!’ he says.

On the far side, under the trees, we can see Dad and Granny
sitting on a picnic blanket, waving at us.

22
 HONEY

STRAWBERRY
JAM

On the picnic blanket there are lots of delicious things to eat – freshly baked
bread with honey from the hives and Granny’s jam to spread on it, and bowls of
fresh fruit, as well as cheese, a jug of milk and a homemade cake.

23
 ‘Well done! You found all the clues and here’s your prize – a special picnic
tea,’ says Dad.

We tuck in, filling our plates, and as we eat we look around us.

It’s a peaceful spot, away from the bustle of the farm, with birds singing and
the sound of a small stream flowing nearby.

24
Tom suddenly calls out, ‘Did you see? There’s a bird going into that tree!’

‘Birds build nests here as it’s so quiet and no one disturbs them,’
explains Mary. ‘Your Uncle Jack has created a lovely, safe place for birds,
plants and animals here. This is so important for the environment.’

25
26
We talk some more and then are just getting into a game of hide and seek
when Dad calls out ‘Come on kids, it’s time to go home.’

Tom groans. ‘Just another five minutes,’ I plead.

‘We need to head back. Mum will be getting home from work and wondering
where we are,’ says Dad.

‘Can we come back again soon?’ I ask.

‘Whenever you like,’ says Uncle Jack with a smile.

‘But I thought the farm was boring?’ says Dad.

‘Oh no, not at all,’ says Tom seriously, ‘This is better than cartoons any day!’
And that makes us all laugh.

27
 Then it’s time to say goodbye to everyone and leave the farm,
as the sun begins to set in the sky.

We will be back again soon.

28
We hope you enjoyed the story. Tom and Anna learnt a lot
during their day on the farm. How much do you remember?
Here are some questions to test your knowledge.

If you get stuck, do ask a grown-up for help.

29
 Organic label
1. Did you see this logo anywhere in the story?
2. What does an organic logo on a jar or packet mean?
3. How many products with the organic logo can you
find in your kitchen? Look out for the organic logo
next time you are in a supermarket.
4. Draw a new label for Grandmother’s organic jam.
Remember to include the organic logo.

L
LABE
OUR
WY
DRA

Solar panels
1. Did you see any solar panels on the roofs
of the farm buildings?
2. What do solar panels do?
3. How do they help fight climate change?
4. Can you draw a picture of a solar panel
to explain to your friends how it works?

30
 Carbon dioxide and
climate change
1. What’s the gas that is mentioned in the story?
2. Why is it harmful?
3. Why do farmers allow some meadows to grow wild
and plant trees on their farms? How does leaving
fields of grass to grow help fight climate change?
4. Name three things each of us can do to help fight
climate change.

Soil
1. Who is helping Uncle Jack learn new ways
of farming?
2. One of the things that the farm advisor helps
with is taking care of the soil – why is this
so important?
3. What are the good things found in the soil
that help plants to grow called?
4. Have you ever grown anything? If you have
a garden or sunny windowsill, what about
trying to grow a sunflower or some cherry
tomatoes?

31
 Hedgerows and wildlife
1. Did you see any birds in the story?
2. What else can you see in the picture
as Anna and Tom play hide and seek?
3. Why is it important to have spaces
for birds, insects and plants like this?
4. Do you have an area like this near where
you live? Count how many different
insects, birds and plants you can see next
time you go.

32
https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries