Farm Camp Summer 2015
Every summer I sign up my kids for camp. They’ve done hockey camp, horse camp, art camp, clay camp, theater camp, cooking camp, and camping camp. This summer, I packed them off to farm camp at Angelic Organics. I signed up through the Rock Valley College Whiz Kids Program which made the camp more affordable for us. Only then did I realize I’d committed myself to a 50 minute drive there and back, twice a day, every day, for fifteen days. Since chauffeuring is not my favorite summer activity, I wasn’t sure I’d made the best choice. I’m taxi-mama during the school year after all!
Once camp started I completely changed my mind. My daughters started teaching me about sustainable, organic farming. Plus they learned new skills, like how to:
- milk goats
- make butter and ice-cream
- hold a chicken
- collect eggs
- clean coops
- bake zucchini bread
- feed livestock
- can pickles
- groom a horse
- water the cows
- harvest vegetables
They came home smelling like they’d rolled in manure all day, their clothes covered in everything from chicken pee to horse slobber. In short: they had the time of their lives.
Goats love to eat burdock.
Kids love to hold chickens.
The best part? They went to bed early and exhausted.
The drive? Well that’s what audio books are for.
Sorry to hear that Carol. Our county says we can have them as long as we don’t get a rooster. We’re seriously considering it since eggs have gotten so expensive and the fresh ones are so amazing! Weighing the pros of fresh eggs vs. the cons of building and maintaining a coop. We’ll know more in the spring and I’ll definitely post about it.
So is raising chickens in your future? We wanted a backyard coop so bad, but our homeowners association said no because they thought the chickens would attract rodents and predators. Even free eggs couldn’t convince them.