Reaping What We SowBy Karen Culpepper, Camp Treetops Director

The farm and garden have always been a staple of life at Treetops. For generations, campers have taken part in (and loved) barn chores, garden harvest, composting, and community morning work. But several additions and enhancements to the program this summer inspired in campers even deeper connections to their food, the animals, and the natural world.

The newly renovated camper kitchen and the wood-fired ovens constructed and donated by an NCS alum (see page 31 for details) provided a wealth of opportunities for cooking fresh, nutritious foods. Campers learned to start the fire and monitor the temperature in the ovens, then baked in Junior camp was a festive evening of song, carrot cake (made breads and scones, muffins and pies, pizza and calzones. The from our own) and community. camper kitchen was busy every day, with children making jam, ice cream, butter, and goat cheese. (Milking and caring for our goats Both the Children’s Garden and camper kitchen provided a focus was also a new and valuable experience this summer.) Campers for further integrating farm and garden activities into other program frequented the gardens and patches of wild thyme and mint for areas, notably our crafts. For the camper kitchen, children made flavorings, herbs, toppings, and stuffing, and they got creative with cutting boards, built rustic stools, and sewed pockets on cooking salsa, pesto, aioli, and dipping sauces. They even invented a recipe aprons. For the Children’s Garden, they created ceramic gnomes for a salve to soothe the itch of bug bites. And campers loved every to hide among the flowers and prayer flags of colorful vegetables bit (and bite) of it. felted from wool. Campers made and painted wooden cut-outs of the Treetops and NCS animal logo that they carried in the Farm Likewise, the Children’s Garden became a popular location Fest parade then assembled near the Children’s Garden. for a variety of activities. Not intended as a production garden, it offered campers the chance to learn, experiment, and take During the last week of Camp, as a kind of Treetops last hurrah, ownership. Campers weeded and watered, sampled edibles, and two Super girls had a harvest meal that they’d been planning all planted seeds of their own choosing. They checked to see which summer. First they set the table with fresh flowers, a beautiful direction the morning glories opened and tried different kinds of tablecloth one of the girls had woven, napkins they’d stenciled mulch. A beautiful place in its own right, the Children’s Garden with our Roots logo, and ceramic napkin rings decorated with became a favored venue for reading, playing music, and drawing barnyard animals. They ate and drank from plates and cups they’d and painting. A birthday celebration there for the scarecrows made made in the pot shop. The menu included a frittata made from our own eggs, onions, and kale, with bread they baked in the wood oven and butter they’d shaken themselves. They harvested their As part of the annual fall shuffle, my office moved from the This morning it is raining, a rarity this summer and fall. But salad of cukes, peppers, and lettuces straight from the garden, and East End of the Main Building to Glass House. At my desk on this wet day I see something new: a huge blue heron flies upstairs, I am blessed with a large window that looks out directly over head, wide wings flapping through driving rain, for dessert they feasted on crab apple cobbler they’d baked with over the meadow and pond beyond. soaring over the meadow, then away. fruit picked from our trees.

With a turn of my head, I can watch students identifying A room with a view is a very good thing. A change in We may have harvested thousands of pounds of veggies, greens, herbs or tasting edibles in the Children’s Garden. Morning perspective, even better. flowers, and herbs throughout the summer; but the gardens in turn glories wind their way up the trellis, with a deep blue sowed in us creativity, devotion, hard work, and community in September sky to match. Horses amble across the pasture, quantities hard to measure. as trees on the ridge begin to glow orange. Lisa Rowley

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