2022 Farm Camp Recap - Week 6 (July 11-15)
Monday - Welcome & Orientation
Cedars (Mr. Austen)
What an exciting and fun filled week we had at Farm Camp. I had the joy of guiding your children in the Cedars class..a name which a number of campers felt didn’t embody our group, so as the first order of business, we took the diplomatic route and voted to change our name to the Grizzlies (haha!) After a brief introduction to the democratic process, we began the day by discussing our “Classroom Agreements.” Rather than ‘rules’ set by an outside authority figure, these agreements allow the campers to take accountability for their actions, and set the tone for an enjoyable camp experience. Our agreements are as follows (ask your kiddo if they can remember or provide examples of one or more of them):
1) I will listen to my guide at all times
2) I will be kind to others with my words and my actions
3) I will respect all life on the farm
Once we decided on our agreements, we played a quick warm up game of “What Time Is It Mr. Fox?” after which we set out for a tour of the land which began at the heartbeat of our farm - the compost area. As a biodynamic, regenerative farm, we treat the soil as a living organism. Part of that process includes building our own compost in order to provide the ideal growing environment for our produce. Ask your student if they can remember the two colors that make up our compost and provide an example of each (hint - green/nitrogen: cow/chicken manure // brown/carbon: leaves, decaying plants etc). The campers then visited our laying hens and the weather station, toured the hoop house and investigated our irrigation system. After snack and a reading of “How Groundhogs Garden Grew” where we learned some gardening basics (ask your students the three things a seed needs to grow, the answer is soil, sunlight and water!), and then we began our scavenger hunt. We then made our way to the tasting room where we enjoyed lunch and learned the survival skill of knife carving! Ask your students about the ABCs of carving (A - Always ask permission / B - Blood Bubble / C - Carve off your body and away from yourself.) Water play was cut short as we were hit with a traditional Texas summer afternoon downpour - in my opinion, a fitting conclusion to our first day.
Oaks (Ms. Nora)
On our first day of farm camp we started off joined by the Willows for a lively game of What Time is it Mr. Fox?! After some running around, we headed back to our classroom under the shady cedar elm tree where we went over some rules and agreements that help keep everyone safe and happy. We moved on to our first activity, a scavenger hunt! After searching far and wide for the items on the list, we took a break for snack to cool down. In the mid-morning we decided it would be nice to make some sun tea, so we harvested herbs for it, and set it in a good, sunny spot before heading up to the tasting room. It was so hot. We took some time to harvest wood from nearby mesquite trees and then settled in to go over the ABC's of carving. After a break for lunch, we practiced carving the wood before heading outside to play in the water, but we were cut short due to big thunderstorm! We ended up getting wet after all!
Tuesday - Bug Day
Grizzlies (Ms, Tammy)
Bug day. We talked about many of the amazing critters around the farm, fire ants galore & my favorite of all - bees! Most of all, we learned not to fear bees and understand how & why they sting so that we can appreciate their important role of pollinating this planet so we can grow food. Then the kids used their bug box and searched for bugs to observe under the magnifying lid. The main bugs we observed were rolly-pollies, fire ants, and grasshoppers. We talked about what an herbalist is and what we do, then we walked around the farm looking for medicinal plants. We have a lot of different mints growing right now, peppermint & lemon balm that we harvested and placed on our drying racks. The kids tasted fresh mint & lemon balm. After lunch, up in the tasting room we made butter. We used an organic whipping cream, placed it in a mason jar and took turns shaking it until the fat separated and turned into butter. Our other class picked garlic from the farm, diced it up and then added it to the butter with some salt and we made organic garlic bread. It was delicious! Then we made popsicles from watermelon grown at the farm. We added fresh mint, organic coconut water & organic lime juice, blended it to made our juice. Lastly, water play!
Oaks (Ms. Nora)
On the second day of farm camp, we started with a game of fire in the forest to get our bodies moving. Then, we moved on to harvest some yucca with our knives, taking time along the way to talk about ethical harvesting and respect for nature. We also learned about all of the uses for the yucca, and how it is known as a master plant because of its generosity. After our harvest, we took a break for snack and Ms. Nora told the story of the golden apple tree. Next, we learned how to process and make cordage from the yucca fibers and tested the strength of it. Before too long, it was lunch time and we hiked up to the tasting room while singing a song. After lunch, we started cutting up garlic while the Willows made butter and then we combined our magic to creat garlic bread! Yummy! We also worked on some natural popsicles, made with mint, watermelon, lime and coconut water. Finally, we ended the day soaking wet with a water relay game.
Wednesday - Harvest Day
Grizzlies (Mr. Austen)
Wednesday was harvest day! We began the morning with a game of “Big Wind Blows” a ‘getting to know you’ game where the students share a fact about themselves and any other student who has either done the same thing or shares the same affinity/distaste for a particular thing (e.g. traveled to another state, favorite ice cream flavor is chocolate) blows across the game area to the swap places with the student sharing something about themselves. It’s a great ice breaker for the middle of camp to really get the relational juices flowing. This week, our campers’ job was to harvest cucumbers. We took to the field to help our farmers with the daily harvest and discussed how to properly plant cucumbers, how long they take to mature, when and how to properly harvest, and how we can utilize cucumbers beyond slicing and enjoying them. We hiked to the tasting room to make pickles using the cucumbers we harvested earlier in the day. Hopefully you and your camper were able to taste these already and have the recipe in case you’d like to make some at home!
Oaks (Ms. Nora)
Feeling silly and comfortable now, we started off with a game of Big Wind Blows and Woosh Ball, using our imaginations to create details in each game. After, we took a break for snack while Ms. Nora told the story of the Woman and the Black Dog. Then, we spent some time telling riddles and thinking hard about the answers, letting everyone have a chance to get us stumped with their play on words. At this point, we needed to get up and move so we took to the fields to harvest cucumbers for our afternoon activity. After that, we headed to the tasting room for lunch. Since we harvested cucumbers, we got to learn about how we might preserve them in the fridge, through pickling! We cut the cucumbers, added spices, water and vinegar and then shook the jars to mix it all together. Finally, we ended our day with some time on the slip n' slide.
Thursday - Color Day
Grizzlies (Mr. Austen)
Thursday began with a hike to the creek where we explored this unique micro-ecosystem and its inhabitants. It was an exciting adventure that got our bodies and minds moving. The lesson was centered around the life cycle and anatomy of two very important inhabitants of the farm - flowers (who provide nectar for the bees and butterflies that pollinate our produce) and chickens (whose manure we use in our compost and eggs we sell in our CSAs!) We visited our young hens (called pullets), learned some basic chicken anatomy (see if your student can remember what their combs and waddles are for) and fed our growing pullets before heading back to class for a snack. After snack, we harvested zinnias, marigolds, sunflowers and California poppies to use in our flower pounding activity (ask your kiddo to show you their creation if they have not already done so). We discussed the anatomy of a flower and what types of flowers attract different types of pollinators.
Oaks (Ms. Nora)
Our day began with a game of Bat & Moth, where we practiced using our non-visual senses and awareness skills to try to tag people blindfolded, one person pretending to be a bat and all of the others moths. After everyone had a chance to be the bat, we stopped for some hydration games before venturing out to the fields for flowers. Today, our project was about natural plant dyes so we harvested lots of marigolds. After that, we plucked all of the petals off and set them on the stove in a pot of water. While the water was heating up, we had snack and then used rubber bands to tie off some fabric for a tie-dyed handkerchief. Once our water boiled, we dropped the fabric in and headed back out to harvest edible flowers and tomatoes before going to lunch. After refueling, we cleaned and processed the flowers, ripping the petals off, and then spread cream cheese on crackers with a sprinkle of flowers on top! What a delicious, and beautiful snack. We ended our day with fun in the sun, water play.
Friday - Bird Day
Grizzlies (Mr. Austen)
Our final day of camp was marked by a group game where we combined with the Oaks class for an all-camper game of “Bird Survival,” where the campers had to utilize teamwork alongside strategy and athleticism to defend their “nests.” As a means of reflection on the last day, we all shared our “Rose, Bud and Thorn.” This is a method of retrospective analysis where participants share their “Rose” - positive outcomes, memories and successes of the past week, their “Bud” - goals or ideas that have arisen because of experiences at Farm Camp and their “Thorn” - a challenge or obstacle they overcame this week. Being able to hear the campers express themselves so openly and honestly was moving - we even have a couple future farmers in the group! We harvest on Wednesday and Friday for our CSA program and on Friday we harvested some tomatoes and peppers in preparation for our final farm to table creation - fresh salsa! The campers cooked some hot masa tortillas to accompany the salsa, a treat they enjoyed between their final trips down the slip and slide as they enjoyed the watermelon/mint popsicles they made earlier in the week (using farm grown ingredients for a fun and healthy treat! It was such a fulfilling week getting to know your children. They are all so creative, curious, kind, intelligent and *hopefully* more excited to continue expanding their knowledge and experience of the natural world and their place within it.
Oaks (Ms. Nora)
Last but not least, we started the last day of farm camp with a big group game of bird survival. There was so much laughing, and running around we didn't want to stop playing despite our red and sweaty faces. After all that energy spent, we needed a refuel so we took a break for snack and played some hydration games. While under our shady cedar elm tree, we did a rose/bud/thorn exercise and discussed our favorite parts, breakthroughs and challenges. Next, we talked about bird language and then took 10 minutes to do a sit spot and watch and listen closely for the birds around us. Afterwards, we discussed our findings and then packed our things to hike up to lunch. After cooling down in the AC, we pulled out the tomatoes we harvested the day before and cut them up, with onions and limes, adding all the ingredients together and blending it up into salsa. Next, we made masa dough with corn flour and pressed them into tortillas, and cooked them outside on a skillet. We snacked on homemade tortillas and salsa, as well as our watermelon mint popsicles from a few days before while playing in the water. What a sweet ending to a sweeter week! Thanks for coming to farm camp!
Hope to see y’all back for more- we still have some openings for the last week of July! We are also now registering for Nature & Farm School in the Fall.