When I first heard of something called “Farm Camp,” it was the aughts. I was living in New York City, working at a magazine, and pretty well leading the glamorous life I dreamed of growing up on a farm in Indiana.
Farm camp? I scoffed. You mean parents pay money to have their kids do what I was forced to do as a kid in 4-H? My mom’s chore list, in her perfect cursive, flashed before me: Feed the calves. Weed the tomatoes. Dig potatoes. These stood between me and my allowance, between me and the pleasures kids in town got to enjoy, like going to the swimming pool, the mall and the movies.
Then I visited a farm camp on the East Coast and was taken right back to the joy of my childhood summers in Indiana spent out of doors. Today, in our region, several farm camps allow children to experience that same joy.
At Prairie Winds Nature Farm in Lakeville, Indiana, 8 year olds are digging potatoes under guidance of the garden intern, who’s showing them how to look for the yellow fingerlings, purple potatoes and red pontiacs, going through a row they had dug the day before.
“What do you like about farm camp?” I ask. “Riding the pony.” “Going out into nature. And farming.”
Small animals, garden, greenhouse, hay loft. Friends.
“And rolly-pollies!” The discovery of one distracts them from the potatoes—and the questions. Soon a worm and a spider appear and cause even greater excitement.
There’s a lot for children to love on Charlotte Wolfe’s farm. She and her husband began restoring native prairie and wetland on about 60 acres in 1994. Today it’s an educational farm that uses permaculture methods to produce food for humans and wildlife. It includes 85 acres of restored wetland, prairie, woods and fenced pastures. Signs greet visitors, proclaiming that a River Friendly Farmer of Indiana lives here, that the farm is a certified schoolyard habitat.
For almost 20 years, Farmer Charlotte, as she’s known, has run a farm camp here. This summer Prairie Winds Nature Farm offers eight weekly sessions, from June through August, with 60-70 campers each week. The farm also offers horse and pony programming, as well as spring and fall Community Supported Agriculture shares.
Wolfe bases her programming on the idea of “No Child Left Inside,” inspired by Richard Louvre’s book Last Child in the Woods. She and her team encourage children to experience the farm themselves, guided by their own senses, including touch. Their educational philosophy is rooted in children’s innate sense of play and exploration in the natural world. Adults are to model attention and respect, with a focus on what’s available to the children rather than what’s not.
The garden where the children are digging for potatoes is surrounded by a picket fence and monitored by a polydactyl cat, Mitten, who hangs out there to avoid the cats in the old dairy barn. Beyond the garden is the horse barn, where serious riding is happening inside with older kids signed up for horse camp; outside in a paddock, younger kids in farm camp take turns donning a helmet and riding a pony.
Three more children arrive in the garden. From ages 8 to 12 they’re able to roam “free-range,” so long as they stay in buddy groups of three, with the full farm, the woods, wetland areas and prairie available to them. Swimming in the pond is allowed only when at least one adult and one counselor, trained in water rescue, are on hand. “It’s a child-led environment,” a counselor explains. “The children are to figure out what they want to do and then come to a mutual decision about what to do next.”
“Are there any seeds that need to be planted?’ one asks. The green beans had been heavily picked the day before, and a hose beckons for watering. This self-led group expresses great interest in weeding.
The youngest campers are ages 4 to 7, and two groups of about 16 kids are present this week in July. Each group has an adult counselor and a counselor in training with it (at age 13, teens can apply to be a CIT). One group of these youngest campers heads toward what they call the classroom, located off on a sloping hill on the lower level of the farmhouse. Inside are aquariums, buckets, and shelves filled with botanical, mineral and animal artifacts.
Several children have said this is their favorite activity.
“You can hold all the snakes except the babies!” one boy says as we head inside. Last week, someone caught a garden snake in the raspberry patch. They put her in the classroom and over the weekend 15 offspring appeared.
A counselor reminds them that gentle voices and calm hearts are required so the animals feel safe. “Gentle hands and gentle hearts. Gentle voice,” a gentle voice repeats quietly.
“If you have a snake, find a seat,” the counselor instructs.
The most popular attraction is a corn snake named Ginger. Two boys go straight to the case, quickly remove the lid and skillfully pull her out. They take turns holding her, then hand her to a girl in a pink T-shirt that reads “Hello First Grade.” She has been waiting for Ginger. She sits down and cradles the orange snake in her lap.
There are leeches and salamanders too. Buckets sit on the floor, one full of water, because everyone must wet their hands before holding the salamanders. Everyone does.
The historic barn is another big draw for campers. In addition to barn cats, the barn features a real hay loft to climb in with real hay to play in. It dates to the mid-1800s and was relocated to this farm in 2005.
Alongside the barn a group of older boys, 11 and 12 years old, are hanging out around the pens of the rabbits and guinea pigs.
They offer me one, explaining how to gently hold it. These boys are veterans of Prairie Winds Nature Farm; one has been coming to farm camp for eight years, ever since he was 3. What keeps him returning?
“It’s fun. We can explore the woods and hold the rabbits,” he says.
“Yeah, we have freedom,” his buddy adds.
The rabbits, all females for the obvious reason, are named Cinnamon, Pepper, Hopscotch and Popcorn. The boys can’t remember the guinea pig’s name but decide on the spot to call her S’more.
It’s soothing to sit in the shade of the historic barn holding Cinnamon in my lap, and I linger. Soon, the boys forget about their visitor.
“What would these four play if they played football?” one says, about the rabbits.
“This one would probably be quarterback,” says a boy of the one he holds.
“This one’s fast, definitely a running back.”
“I feel like he would be safety.”
“Safety is boring. That’s like the most useless job!”
“No, that’s the best! They, like, defend each other.”
“And they get the most interceptions.”
Summer, on an Indiana farm.
Prairie Winds Nature Farm
21439 Osborne Rd.
Lakeville, IN
574.344.1753prairiewindsnaturefarm.com
