Full Brains and Full Belllies at Farm Camp

By Breanne Bartok

What an incredible first week we have had at Farm Camp! Cuddling chickens, befriending bees, and identifying invasive plants – oh my!

We started off camp with getting our campers familiar with the new summer farm site, Western Washington University’s Outback Farm! Monday found us breaking up into Sprouts (for our younger campers) and Blossoms (for our older campers), touring the berry-laden Forest Garden, and getting comfortable in the main garden space. We read a book called Weslandia, about a boy named Wesley, who decides to grow his own garden over the summer, and eventually creates his own civilization from the plants he finds there! This prompted a discussion over the many ways we can use plants; yes, we can eat many of them, but what about the clothes we’re wearing? The hats many of us had on to shield us from the warm summer sun? From food and drinks to ink, clothes, and building materials, we began to think about plants as very useful garden friends!

We also learned how to weed together, preparing beds to plant radishes in for later camps to benefit from. Garden time today involved a scavenger hunt, which was specialized for the age groups – for example, Blossoms searched for “plants that like to climb,” which prompted a discussion on trellises and different ways we can garden with our plants. Many were eager to pick the cucumbers held up by string trellises in the greenhouse, but it looks like we might have to save those for next week’s camp! 

For snack time, we mashed up garbanzo beans with a mortar and pestle to make hummus – which was a brand new experience for many of our campers! We smelled it, felt it, and examined the hummus all throughout the process. Finally, we scooped the hummus on kale we had just picked from the garden, each camper decorating their salad with bits and pieces of our harvest. Some used spicy purple chive flowers; others enjoyed crunchy green beans and snap peas.

We finished up the day with a “Garden Stained Glass” project, freezing our freshly-picked floral arrangements between two clear sheets of contact paper to hang in windows as a reminder of Farm Camp!

But there were many more crafts to make, plants to pick and smell, and yummy food to mix. Now that we were familiar with the plants growing in our garden, it was time to learn about the other creatures who make their home amongst the plants. Tuesday was an exciting day for everyone – we got to meet the chickens today! Every camper who wanted a chance to interact with the Outback chickens was allowed to enter the coop, and many of the older campers got to hold the chickens. One or two Blossoms had such comfortable arms that at least one hen dozed off in their laps!

We peeked into their roost and saw freshly-lain brown eggs, and had a discussion on ways we can benefit from chickens. Most of the campers had eaten chicken before, but had not connected the feathery creatures they had just cuddled with the nuggets they had consumed. They excitedly participated in discussion, though, as we learned about our food system and the role our animals play.

We noticed many other Garden Friends on Tuesday, such as ladybugs, as well as Garden Foes, such as aphids. Though few campers could remember the names of invasive plants, they could definitely recognize the stunning flowers and choking vines of Morning Glory as they hunted for plants to weave into their Herb Looms.

On Wednesday, we continued learning about herbs and flowers, having started to pick and smell them the day before. Today was especially important, for today’s theme was Pollinators! We learned that in order for us to harvest so many scrumptious berries for our snack today, we need our pollinator friends to travel from flower to flower, turning buds into berries. However, since so many pollinators have been in danger in recent years, we were going to plant native wildflowers in the garden to grow tall and provide food for the bees. This led to a great discussion on how useful bees are in the garden, and why it is so important for us to take care of the bees. Yes, we can get honey from them, but they can get nectar and food from the plants we tend in order to keep their hive alive. By not swatting at bees, but giving them more ways to gather nectar and spread pollen, we were upholding our garden rules: Be a Good Garden Guest, Be Kind, Be Safe, Work Together, and Try New Things!

The last rule was easily implemented for our snack on Wednesday: Honey Seed Balls! The Blossoms scurried through the Forest Garden, filling a huge bowl full of blackberries, thimbleberries, gooseberries, white currants, and more. The Sprouts got a head start mixing the honey, cocoa powder, sun nut butter, and sesame seeds into a deliciously sticky treat! We washed well afterwards, but many campers ended up going home with chocolate still smeared across their face – a testament to their enjoyment of today’s snack!

The next day, their fingers would be stained again. This time, though, it was because of all of the grated beets that got their bright purple juice deep into our skin! We worked hard to prepare today’s lunch for our grownups, using our new garden skills to harvest more berries, kale, beets, chive flowers, green beans, snap peas, and more.

It wasn’t all kitchen work on Thursday, though! When asked what their favorite part of Farm Camp was, many campers excitedly professed their love for the chickens. We therefore spent some more time cuddling in the coop with our feathery friends, thanking them for laying eggs, which we would use in our Veggie Fried Rice for lunch.

By the end of the day, we had mixed dressing, massaged kale, grated beets, chopped chives, and steeped sun tea with herbs picked the day before. Some campers proudly showed off the Outback gardens to their grownups, and though many of them couldn’t quite name a lot of the plants we had learned about, they went home with full bellies and a better understanding of gardening. Ultimately, knowing that that big licorice-tasting plant is called fennel, or knowing the difference between worker bees and drone bees, wasn’t the goal. But if campers learned that we can get food from the earth and not just from the store, and that bees are our friends and not a scary bug to swat away, then they went home with more than enough to digest – on top of all the yummy food, that is!