I don’t know if it’s Maine, or the crunchy little circle of friends I have, but everyone I know is deciding which farm camp to send their kids to, and which week, because you know if you do it early then they pick strawberries but later there are more other fruits and veggies and maybe more exciting things, and why not just pick a week in the middle? It’s all so much to debate.
So I think we’ve picked Broadturn Farm, mostly because the farmer was the midwife who delivered Henry, but also because they’ve got the best animals. Last Friday we went to get some straw to put down on our lawn after we seed it (and maybe after we do some kind of woodchuck relocation program because something is digging up our lawn like crazy). And the straw farm is right near Broadturn Farm, so we took a gander (ha!) on over to check it out.
Two boys, two lambs. All totally free range.
Hello, I’m a pig. Perhaps you remember me from one of your favorite movies.
The funniest part about the pigs was that the farm worker who directed us to them cautioned, “There’s an electric fence around their pen” and then added, “but it’s really low.” I made some joke about, “Oh, ok, so I’ll just toss the kids right over it then!” and he sort of looked at me oddly and said, “Yes.” I don’t know what the deal is with pigs, but the electric fence was seriously about four inches high. So, yes, I did just toss the kids right over it so we could get some close up pig lookin’.
I felt really sorry for this chicken. He was totally on his own, ostracized from all the others. What did he do wrong? Or maybe he just wanted some quiet time.
This little scene prompted Zuzu to spontaneously utter her first animal noise. “Ba-dawk!”
We were all quite taken with this big friendly dog, though I don’t know why he was penned in with cows and sheep. Maybe he is the watchdog. At any rate, he was enormous and very sweet.
Of course we went back to the lambs.
Some lovely indoor sheep that we discovered right before we left, mostly because one came out and yelled at us for being so close to her baby lambs. I’m still not convinced that mama sheep was real, as she sounded way too much like a human just saying, “Baaaa!”
And lo, the light did shine upon the sheep and the lambs, and call to them to lie in the hay and be wooly and regard the humans with great skepticism. And they did, and it was good.
I have free range black angus and a big friendly dog too!
Cartoon pigs! I want to go to farm camp, too.
Love Broadturn Farm, for sure. We’re Wolfpine Farm http://www.wolfpinefarm.com/ members for life, though. 🙂 I do like the experience of learning that these are the animals we eat. Seriously. It’s dark and all, but, as non-vegans, it’s part of the truth.
That’s pretty close to us, by the way, so maybe we’ll use that as an excuse to get together…!??! 🙂
Wolf Pine Farm looks lovely, but it doesn’t look like they have Farm Camp, so clearly you should send Maya to Broadturn with Henry the week of July 20.
I totally get what you say about knowing where the animals come from, but we’re still kind of skirting that issue. I mean, we’re not, we tell them, but we don’t bring it up on our own. Henry did say something about “no, not the chicken you eat, I mean the animal chicken” and I said, “they’re the same thing, honey” and he looked like he didn’t really get it. And still, I mean, I get it, but when I read things like on the Broadturn website that talks about culling the unproductive animals, a dark and ominous musical chord plays in my head.
My junior high school had a line in the student handbook about culling the unproductive animals, too.
Deven did Farm Camp last summer at Broadturn and had a great time. Just an FYI–Stacey runs the camp but from what I could gather, was not really active with the campers. She hired the folks who ran it. But…he still had a great time and often came home with a basket full of veggies/fruits that he picked himself. We’ve decided to try Turkey Hill this summer, just to mix it up a bit and see which one we prefer.