First week of camp

Monday marked the start of week #1 of official FARM camp! I am working this week with another FBE Rose. We are working with the "Sprouts," aged 4-5 (but a 3 year old snuck in this week!). The first day was a little overwhelming, but today was smooth sailing. We talked about seeds the first day, and today we talked about bugs and the food chain. For tomorrow, we will be doing a lesson on "reduce, reuse, recycle, compost," and the following day on fiber (as in wool), and finally we will finish up the week with a lesson on chickens, eggs, and cooking! Quite a challenge for a group of 10 young kids!

Today I also did a program in the afternoon called "Farmer for a Day." It was pretty fun, I just had a brother (9) and sister (12) and we had to do one garden project and one farm animal project. We chose to weed inside the TeePee in the Friendship Garden and planted clover as a cover. We also helped a farm hand set up fencing for the cows. In between all of these things, we visited with the baby chicks, piglets, big pigs, ox, bull, cows, laying hens, and goats. We wrapped up the afternoon with some freshly picked mint tea!

I have been realizing these past weeks how much I enjoy working on the farm, being with animals, being in the garden, and designing lessons for kids. My passion for sustainable agriculture and for good food is growing stronger and stronger. I am getting really into "homesteading" and have been trying really hard to start making lots of my own food. Tonight, I am planning on making yogurt with the milk from the farm goat, which I have been hoarding for a week now. We are learning to bake bread, to cook things from scratch that I had never EVER thought of doing, make our own tea, and to grow lots of our own veggies. I really enjoy this lifestyle and I feel so great about what I am putting into my body and how the food I eat isn't impacting the Earth in a negative way. It is something that has always been important to me, but I never realized how much I can actually grow and make myself.

Whenever I go to the grocery store, I feel conflicted and disgusted and confused and money-conscious, and now I am understanding what it really means to eat local, eat organic, and use my power as a consumer to do good! I also am trying to skip the whole grocery store experience as much as I can by growing food, shopping at farmers markets and local dairies, baking for myself, and going to farm stands. I am obviously on an extreme budget, which has always been the biggest deterrent to buying local and organic. I have decided to stop using money as an excuse because food is SO important and the way it is grown, harvested and processed has SUCH a huge environmental and social impact. By taking time to make a lot of food, hopefully I will saving enough to be able to buy organic and local ingredients.

I am about to cook a dish for an island-wide farmers potluck tomorrow night, so I have to go get started!