**Please Note - Adventurous Eaters shares will be receiving a Japanese Honeydew Melon this week. Please adjust shares accordingly, as there are other melon options available. If you are like the farm crew, however, you may want one (or two) of each type...**
There is a steady familiarity to the tasks on the farm. The warmth of the sun melts and blurs the edges of days together, until we sometimes wonder if we’re harvesting melons on a Tuesday or a Saturday. Because we love what we do, this routine is comfortable rather than monotonous; still, the moments out of the ordinary make wonderful “bookends” to days and weeks and seasons. This week was filled with such moments, brought by 40 small extra hands, and soft questions, and silly songs. We hosted our very first full week of “Summer Camp on the Farm” and did our level best to convince each and every little helper that farming is the coolest job in the world.
Our campers picked blackberries, dug potatoes, and harvested tomatoes. They sowed cranberry beans and transplanted tomatoes and zucchini. With tiny magnifying glasses, they examined composting peaches and tested soil samples from around the farm. They circled around an incubator and welcomed newborn chicks emerging from cracked eggshells into the world.
Some were intrepid, running headlong into rows of sunflowers. Some showed care beyond their years as they cradled baby chicks. Some were patient and determined as they scavenged for monarch eggs in the milkweed patches. Many surprised us with their eagerness to taste lemon cucumbers, purple basil, and crisp radishes. Every one of them made us feel like superheroes.
We are so lucky to have had this week with them, to teach them about what and why we grow. Even more amazing, we learned how much they already know about the interconnected nature of the world around us, and its immense beauty and value. Future farmers or not, these youngest members of our Farm-ily will surely care for their community in a myriad of ways. For now, they have peppered our week with extraordinary moments, and through their eyes we were all reminded that farming really IS the coolest job in the world.
Eat well and sleep well, knowing the future is in good hands!
Ashley, Collin, John, Rory, Nate, James, Lex, Alexandra, Julia, Michelle, the black dogs, the fabulous hens, and the peeping new chicks
