Land’s Sake

Continuing Ed, Day in the Life, Good Day, Lit, Math

Summer Camp

IMG_1243Summer Camp

Summertime…Or, Oops I forgot to sign up for camp! While most of you have camps already in progress, you just might be looking to fill in an odd week here or there. There are still tons of options – not to worry!

Camp Seekers.com

Campseekers makes summer scheduling easier by giving parents a targeted list of summer camp sessions that meet specific criteria.

You can search for camp by location, date and camp type (i.e. sports) to find camp sessions that meet specific criteria – you can then filter by activity (i.e. soccer) or age to find the camp sessions that best fit their summer goals.

Currently, Campseekers includes approximately 250 camps representing close to 10,000 sessions in the greater Boston area. It is completely free to become a member of Campseekers.

Land’s Sake

Our family has loved this camp for many years. Low-key, educational, fun and in the dirt. What could be better? From the site: Kids learn about gardening and farm ecosytems, care for our chickens and rabbits, explore, and create! From kindergarten to high school, our experienced and highly trained educators lead exciting, age appropriate activities all summer long.

Environmental Science Program

From the site:
The Envi Sci program combines fun outdoor activities with learning about the environment. Each year it builds on the “peer education” principle by having the student leaders design, develop, and deliver the materials that the students use. New students are encouraged to return and become leaders in subsequent years, continuing the thread of responsibility for care and teaching about the environment.

A typical activity would be a hike to an area of interest, often in Newton but sometimes elsewhere, such as the Arnold Arboretum. Other activities range from bicycle trips to night walks for learning about nocturnal wildlife. We go on a 12-mile canoe trip on the Charles River, and we take water samples to report on the water quality. The learning materials for each day may cover ecology, geology, botany, pollution issues, or other areas that the student leaders select.

Each year there is an environmental cleanup project in which participants get hands-on involvement with improving an environmental sit

Learnivore (Build your own camp)

Find an Instructor

Search and message instructors directly, or create a Request and let them come to you.

Get to know each other; and if the fit is good, schedule your lesson. Take a lesson (or two) online, at home, at your instructor’s studio.

Find Classes Get inspired. Just sign in, and you’ll be able to see every new class that’s created in your area in your activity feed.

 

There are also great city and town camps – check with your town – Newton Community Education is where I generally start.

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Chic, Continuing Ed, Day in the Life, Do Good, Finds, Geek, Good Day, Lit, Math, Real Life

Summer Programs for Teens

Summer camps are a beautiful thing, especially when they align with your values and you feel like you designed the curriculum yourself. Land’s Sake is a wonderful place that has offering for all ages. My children both enrolled in Green Power last year (as did at least a dozen of their friends) and it is fantastic!

Green Power: ages 13 to 17 

  • For 13 through 17 year olds
  • Date July 8 – August. 23, 2013; Monday through Friday each week, 8:30am-3:30pm**
  • Cost: $400/week; Land’s Sake Family Level Members and above receive a 10% discount, all Members receive a multi-week discount
  • Students are offered a share of the profit based on their performance and attitude each day.

The Green Power Summer Youth Program at Land’s Sake farm is focused on learning about sustainable agriculture, food justice, and community through hard work.  This work includes weeding, planting and harvesting on our organic farm, leading farm tours, maintaining our education garden, community service and cooking a community meal.  In addition to being a great learning opportunity, Green Power teaches the value of meaningful work by giving participants the chance to earn a stipend from the work they do at the farm.  Join Land’s Sake and work hard while having fun!

Student Stipend & Rules: Students are offered a share of the profit generated by the sale of produce at the Land’s Sake farm stand based on quality of their work through week. Land’s Sake reserves the right to drop a participant from the program if he/she is not contributing in a positive manner and placing an unnecessary burden on the other students and staff.

The Green Power program provides teens with the opportunity to grow food, care for animals, mentor younger children, volunteer in the community, cook fresh food, work hard and have fun!

For additional questions, please contact Douglas Cook, Education Director, at

GreenPower@LandsSake.org or 781.893.1162.

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsRtOTgVSI4&feature=youtu.be’%5D

Land’s Sake also has great programs for the younger set:

Farm and Forest: ages 7 to 12

Preschool Discovery

Kindergarten Discovery

 

Did I mention that I met the artist of the beautiful cards (at Newton Open Studios)

Larry Grob

who is married to the chef who makes the meals with the kids at Land’s Sake on Fridays? I know, small world.

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Chic, Continuing Ed, Day in the Life, Do Good, Finds, Geek, Good Day, Lit, Real Life

Maple Syrup at Land’s Sake

Maple Season Volunteers Needed

Would you like to learn more about and gain experience making maple syrup?

Are you excited to learn more about how Maple Syrup is made? Local farm Land’s Sake is looking for volunteers to help with sap collection and the syrup bottling processes.

Sap collection happens in the afternoons between 2:00pm and 5:00pm. Sap flow and collection are weather dependent, they will send an email the day prior to ask for help during that time.

Bottling syrup happens at the end of the boil. When they start to boil an email will go out asking for volunteers to help during a 2 hour period of time in the afternoon or evening when they will be bottling.

All are welcome to join, Land’s Sake Members are given priority if space is limited.

Also Remember:

After a season of collecting and boiling- celebrate with the annual

Sugaring Off Festival
March 23rd, 9am – 12 pm
Bill McElwain Sugarhouse
next to the Weston Middle School.

In mid to late March, after the sap has stopped running clear and pure, Land’s Sake hosts the popular Sugaring Off festival. Participants enjoy the season’s maple syrup, pancakes, maple sugar candy, music and student-led tours of the Sugar House and maple sugar process. Please check the Land’s Sake event calendar for date, time, and additional details.

There are several ways to participate in the Maple Sugar operation:

If you are a school, scout and homeschool group, sign up for one of the educational tours of the maple sugar operation.

If you are a middle-school student, have fun and get paid by learning how to make maple syrup in the After School Maple Program!

If you are a homeowner and have 6-12 sturdy maple trees on your property that we may tap, please contact Land’s Sake to continue the tradition of sugar-making from your property.

If you are interested in purchasing our maple syrup, please contact the farm for prices and availability. Maple syrup is also sold from June through October while supplies last.

For more information about all the exciting winter programs,
including After School Maple and NEW Winter Discovery Vacation Program, contact Doug Cook at Doug@landssake.org

http://www.landssake.org/about

Land’s Sake | 27 Crescent Street | Weston | MA | 02493

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Continuing Ed, Day in the Life, Do Good, Good Day, Real Life

A Camp With A Purpose and It’s Green, too.

sunflowers lands sake weston post capability mom

Hail to the Pollinators Pastel, Larry Grob Land's Sake Farm Weston MA
Hail to the Pollinators, Larry Grob

Green Power Camp – Land’s Sake Farm in Weston

This summer has been full of surprises, not all good, like the blue green algae on the Charles that cancelled my daughter’s sailing classes (okay, postponed them). On short notice, she needed a Plan B. Enter Teenlife.com (a great resource we have used time and again) and I pulled up a link to Land’s Sake (another family favorite for pick your own flowers, berries and veggies).

Here is the description from Land’s Sake:

The Green Power Summer Youth Program at Land’s Sake farm is focused on learning about sustainable agriculture, food justice, and community through hard work. This work includes weeding, planting and harvesting on our organic farm, leading farm tours, maintaining our education garden, community service and cooking a community meal. In addition to being a great learning opportunity, Green Power teaches the value of meaningful work by giving participants the chance to earn a stipend from the work they do at the farm. Join Land’s Sake and work hard while having fun!

Here is the dirt (pun intended) from the first teen’s week.

Monday: The teens got to know each other, learned about taking care of small animals (goats and chickens), and harvested part of the garlic crop. Messy work. My teen was covered with a soft brown dusting of dirt and really happy about it, too. We still have fresh garlic.

Tuesday: The group traveled to Jamaica Plain to Community Servings to help prepare meals for chronic and critically ill patients and their families. Land’s Sake farmers donated collard greens which were packaged that day as well. They listened to a podcast of Michael Pollan on NPR on the drive there and back. Did I say I love this camp?

Wednesday (the Fourth of July): They harvested bok choy, peas, and carrots for a CSA to be delivered to low income families through a partnership between Horizons for Homeless Children and Community Servings.

Thursday: They were leaders during the Kid’s Café Program. This program enables kids from Greater Boston Boys and Girls Clubs to come out to the farm. The teen campers took them around the farm – garden, chickens, bees, the magic tree, goats and going for a ride on the bicycle-blender!).

Friday: Chef Ellen Touart-Grob helped to plan, cook, and serve up a delicious farm-inspired meal including Chilled Pea Soup, Fresh Summer Rolls, and Herbed Pop-overs!

Doesn’t this sound wonderful? The program also pays the teens a percentage of the profit from Land’s Sake farm stand based on quality of their work through week. Love that, too.

Teen 2 is going to this camp next and I will fill you in on her week.

I forgot to add that I received a hand-written note in the mail, thanking me for sending my child to the camp from the new Executive Director of Land’s Sake, Ed Barker (and it was on a gorgeous pastel of the beehives of the farm. Really). I wanted to write a thank you note for the thank you note, but you know where that leads. So I will write it here.

 

Dear Mr. Baker,

As a mom of two teen girls, we have been in some pretty terrific camps over the years, but none so wonderful as the camp at Land’s Sake. The program is thoughtfully planned, wonderfully executed and combines good values, community service, education, work, fresh air and fun.

I have never received a handwritten thank you note from one of them. I applaud your lovely camp program, your wonderful staff, your fantastic farm and your good manners.

With great appreciation,

 

Nancy Brown

 

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