Watch Us Grow . . .

That was the theme of our Summer Sprouts program this year.  We examined the things that it takes to make a plant grow, how the plants develop and examine the parts of the plants that we eat.

One key reason that we offer our kids’ program over time (and not a one week stint) is that we feel strongly that children need to witness the growth for themselves…and have they ever! 

Lettuce seeds that they planted themselves have yielded countless mouthfuls as we’ve cut and let it come again.  Carrots have developed “shoulders” that the children know to look for before pulling these gems from their underground home.  Transplanted tomato plants that barely required their cages in early July now cascade over the tops of these structures and bear hundreds of flowers and fruits.

On the animal front, spring’s goat babies have literally shot up before our eyes in these brief seven weeks of Sprouts.  DC, our calf out of Destiny, is frolicking around independently and barely nursing.  Chicks have become chickens and are laying eggs.

As importantly, the children themselves have grown so much!  They have developed a sense of self-confidence and independence.  They walk boldly into the chicken yard and head to the feather-footed hen who they know will let them pick her up.  Entering the goat paddock has become an essential feature of each session as the children seek out their special four legged friends and embrace them with assurance. They are tender and playful, disciplining and guiding.  How wonderful that the two-legged kids allow these four-legged critters, standing at least as tall as their human counterparts with a tendency to nibble on dangling zipper pulls, to jump up with their forelegs and don’t even flinch.

I especially love the post-program whirl around the farm when the Sprouts escort their parents or caregivers around ‘their’ farm and ‘their’ garden pointing out the special things they’ve learned and correcting the adults when they don’t properly identify the cucurbits!

If nothing else, the kids learned patience—and the wonderful concept of anticipation.  They had to delay gratification—almost a foreign concept to a generation that expects and gets instant everything from electronic games to food.

‘Looking forward’ may have seemed like an eternity when we began sowing lettuce seeds in early July.  Would these tiny nuggets yield anything??? The time until we’d be able to reap the rewards of what we sowed was an unknown and was in the hands of weather which, these days, has been anything but predictable.  It seemed unlikely that anything would happen in our few weeks together but in reality the time passed and we were rewarded amply—in terms of quantity and taste. 

We turned milk into cheese, cheese to pizza, tomatoes into sauce, lemon verbena into frozen yogurt, chocolate mint into sorbet and zucchini into bread…

Seven short weeks later, where our food comes from and what it takes to grow things have been partially demystified.  We have only scratched the surface but in doing so we hope that we’ve imparted a joy and appreciation of the things growing in our own backyards.

We all need to take time out, slow the clock down a little and learn to appreciate things that take time and seek enjoyment in longer than an instant—when we remember to do that, it’s amazing how rewarding it can be!

Comments

[kasey kaufman]

What a touching description of life in the Sprout's Program! It's so important that our children understand the life cycle and appreciate that food comes from somewhere other than the grocery store! I'm a real believer, too, of how important it is to experience the mindfulness that comes from foucsing deeply on one thing at one time. It allows us to turn off the circuits that say--do more, work harder, get it down--NOW! Quieting our minds allows us re-charge and it gives us a gift that really lasts!

[George Bianco - Chairman Westchester Land Trust]

Very impressive and informative site. Rainbeau Ridge's educational efforts really help people understand why local farms are critical to our communities.

Keep up the great work!