The beans need picking, and the weeds need pulling.

That is why Matt Child, a soon-to-be-senior at Barrington High School, has stopped by the three-plus acre farm located on Federal Road, just west of the public safety building.

Matt is volunteering his time at the Barrington Farm School so he can accrue the hours of community service required as part of his membership to the National Honor Society. 

There are other ways he could fulfill the requirement but Matt chose the farm school because he likes the work. 

"It's great to help out," he said, during a visit to the farm on Thursday afternoon. "There are so many options."

Matt said people can focus on the agricultural work or they can spend time on the business end of the farm. He has spent some of his time helping grow hops at the farm and might be interested in partnering with a local beer brewer.

Matt eventually settled into a row of green beans, picking the ripe vegetables and also pulling out handfuls of weeds. He said he learned of the Barrington Farm School through the environmental club at the high school, of which he is a member. 

What is the farm school?

The Barrington Farm School started about three years ago by a small group of people. 

Tim Faulkner, Candace Clavin, Milos Mirkovic, Kelvin Misiurski, Suzanne Brushart, Daniel Penengo and others began working the farm with permission from the land's owner, Billy Vendituoli. The all-volunteer effort offers young residents a chance to learn more about farming and also keeps a healthy piece of land quite productive. 

Mr. Vendituoli, whose family has owned the property since 1897, passed away last year and the land is now part of his estate. It is not clear what Mr. Vendituoli's family will do with the property, but Mr. Faulkner and others would like to find a way to purchase the property or work with an entity that would purchase the land and allow the farm school to continue using the parcel. 

The volunteers have considered working with organizations such as the local land trust or maybe the town, but have not yet found a partner.

In the meantime, volunteers like Ms. Clavin, who ran a large farm for more than a decade outside of Syracuse, N.Y., will continue to work with schoolchildren and others to produce all sorts of tasty treats.

Mr. Faulkner said the Barrington Farm School first considered working with the local public school department but has instead settled on hosting student groups such as the high school's environmental club or middle school's green team.

What can you find at the farm?

A better question might be "What can't you find at the farm?"

There are rows of vegetable plants in the plot closest to Federal Road — beans, corn and tomatoes, to name a few — while a second field is thick with herbs. A row of lavender almost glowed purple in the mid-afternoon sunshine last Thursday.

There are bee hives located along the eastern edge of the property; volunteers teach beekeeping to the student and sell home-grown honey in the farm stand. (Some years the harvest has been so great that produce has been sold to local restaurants, such as Blue Kangaroo, Black Pear and Warren's Bywater.)

But some portions of the field have avoided the till. 

Mr. Faulkner said the Barrington Farm School needs a full-time tractor; one of the volunteers has his own tractor but is only able to bring it to the farm periodically. Without a tractor, it is difficult for the volunteers to keep up with the wide-spreading parcel.

The farm school does its best, and relies on a number of people to help out. Fourteen-year-old Robbie Sholes cuts the grass that surrounds the garden beds at the farm. His mother, Elisa Sholes, said she stopped at the farm stand a few years ago to pick up tomatoes and cucumbers for dinner and grew interested in the farm school's work. 

"It's a great program," she said.

Mr. Penengo, an English teacher at St. Andrew's School, has a plan for the farm. He has been volunteering there for a bit and would like to see the addition of a greenhouse on the property. A green house, he said, would allow volunteers to have mature plants ready for the fields when the weather warms enough in the spring.

"It's all from seed right now," he said. 

Mr. Penengo, who used to teach at a school in South Florida, said the Federal Road property holds plenty of potential.

Some of that potential drew Rhode Island Lt. Gov. Dan McKee to the property last week. Lt. Gov. McKee said his office has been focusing its energy on helping small businesses across the state as well as education. The Barrington Farm School focuses its work in both those areas, and Mr. Faulkner thought Lt. Gov. McKee might be able to help with the land acquisition dilemma facing the group.

Lt. Gov. McKee suggested the volunteer group explore open space grant programs. 

"The town could help," said Lt. Gov. McKee.

What's next for the farm?

Mr. Faulkner said the creation of the Barrington Farm School has been great. 

In addition to teaching students and growing vegetables, the farm school has hosted pumpkin picking for a Barrington pre-school, and provided countless students fodder for their community service projects.

"It's definitely a community resource," he said. "It's evolving organically."

While farm school organizers continue to search for ways to purchase the land, residents can still expect to see plenty of fresh vegetables, honey and other items for sale at the farm stand on Federal Road.

To learn more about the Barrington Farm School visit the group's Facebook page.