2015 Summer Report Card
So How did we do?
I got back from Maine last week and finally had a chance to catch up with Josh.  The gardens are dormant and the last of the veggies are kinda done in the field.  The greenhouse is popping and a new crop of tomatoes, lopes and zucchini's are coming in.  What is really interesting is the tomatoes on the vine in the greenhouse.  Some of them are beautiful.  Some of them are splitting, some of them look beautiful but when you go to pick them they are rotting underneath.  We ended up tossing out a lot of tomatoes that otherwise looked promising.  But we are going to be picking tomatoes into November. With less activity in the garden Josh can spend more time correcting problems in the Greenhouse.

Last year we had crates of cucumbers and squash that we struggled to sell or to convert into pickles.  This year the harvest was a fraction of 2014.  I think it was a combination of trying to grow too much, not being able to oversee everything when problems arose, and planting beyond the garden in soil that was depleted. The sweet corn was not as sweet as we had hoped and the seeds were a gift that were a year old.  Next year we will be more selective on the seeds that we will buy and limit the acreage so that the bugs and deer are kept in check.  The lessons learned is that we need to stay within the garden fence, prep the soil more fully and try not to take on more than we can handle.  Farming is trial and error.  Leaning from success and learning from failure and....there is always next year.

The areas of tremendous success was with the potatoes, mushrooms, and with the abundant harvest of fascinated children.  Beyond the 40 campers that signed up for Harvest camp in week 7, we had more than a hundred more campers in the general camp help in the last weeks of the summer season.  So much more than interest, fascination is a more appropriate description.

And....Harvest clubs in our school year programs will begin on September 14th. Our goal is to have 20 to 30 children out each day from our after school programs from Monday thru Thursday and Friday will be devoted to bringing the farm to our programs that are too far away geographically make the trip in the limited timeframe of 3:30 to 6 pm.  Our goal is to run Harvest Club until the first week of December.  That is the beauty of a having a high tunnel. (greenhouse)

Unlike other farms, at Mountainside, teaching and learning outweigh the growing and picking.  The most learning is happening with yours truly, and this years mistakes will be shared along with next years corrections.

last post before the family reunion

So you might be tiring of potato picker photos but the potato patch truly garnered the most enthusiasm from my campers this year.  Everyone has seen corn grow.  Lots of people have a tomato plant on the back porch or in the family garden bed.  But... my kindergarten boys group seeing potatoes emerge out of the soil that I had just turned over, was akin to seeing gold doubloons on a treasure hunt.

The greatest benefit to having a vegetable garden at a summer camp is giving children a first hand, first time look at growing food.  Virtually every child who has visited Josh at the gardens this summer had seen something they had never seen before.  Heck I am 58 and I never picked a potato out of the ground until this year.  What is so compelling is the universal reaction of excitement.  Excitement is a strong word but it applies to what I have witnessed.

Granted, kindergarten boys digging in dirt mounds is always going to be a winner of an activity.  But I listened carefully to what the boys were saying and they said a lot.  When they found a pea sized fingerling the comment was "aww I found a little baby potato should we leave it in the ground?" Other comments went like this. "There is another one" "look at the size of this baby" "Oh my gosh there is a cluster of five I just found".  Most compelling was the fact that everyone was excited.  Not one child was bored or sat out.

Having been in the summer camp business there are a few universal facts I have learned.  1.  Swimming pools are essential to camp success. 2. You can never go wrong mixing children with a puppy. 3. Lasting memories are created when you expose a child to an activity or experience for the very first time. 4. With the right staff you can make any and every activity fun.  5. Campers enjoy seeing where their food comes from, especially those who do not grow up on a farm.

Summer is winding down.  This is the end of week 8 and Mountainside sends all of the summer camper home next Friday.  The good news is that the garden continues to grow and we will host Harvest clubs with our after school kids in 3 weeks.  Rock on.