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.
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