Valley Gardens: Amherst camp connects kids with the earth

By Cheryl Wilson

Published on August 08, 2008

Half a dozen children greeted the pigs, Truffles and Cutie Pie, last week on the fourth day of their summer camp at Small Ones Farm in Amherst.

"I like doing the animal chores, feeding the pigs apples and berries and crackers," said Mason Alschuler, age 5. His mother, Ericka, said that Mason talks about the camp every night at dinner. "It was awesome fun," he told her. "This is the fourth camp he's been to this summer and it's the first time I've gotten that response," she said.

The camp just opened this year on the farm Bob and Sally Fitz bought in 2004 from Art Dahowski. "Farmer Bob" spent his childhood summers on a farm in Ohio and has wanted to own a farm ever since. But for decades he was tied to a desk in Westchester County, N.Y.

Finally, in 2002, the couple decided to search for a farm in the Amherst area. "I didn't care what kind of farm," Bob Fitz said. He learned about Dahowski's 63-acre orchard and decided to volunteer there to learn how to prune and care for fruit trees. "He's a master grafter," Fitz said of his mentor. Dahowski would graft two or three varieties onto one root stock.

When Dahowski decided to sell the farm, the Fitzes made an offer on the orchard.

They had always vowed that their farm would have an educational component but they weren't sure how that would develop. "We were driving through western Vermont and saw a farm for handicapped kids," Bob Fitz recalled. They decided their farm could include a camp. "It's the reason we named the farm Small Ones," he explained.

Sally Fitz is the camp organizer, relying on her background as a psychology professor. She has worked closely with teachers at the Common School in Amherst, where their older daughter went to school. The camp counselors are Common School teachers.

The Fitzes added animals to their farm because of the children. Dahowski kept emu, but they can be hostile to humans so they've found homes elesewhere. "We keep pigs in the kennel where the emu used to be," Sally Fitz said. "Truffles is the boy and Cutie Pie is his sister." The female is actually bigger than the male and tends to dominate, she added.

One of the chores for the campers is to harvest fruit drops from under the trees. They use an apple roller, an oval shaped tool with flexible wires that captures the fallen apples so the children can dump them into the slop bin. Bob Fitz said it was invented as a nut roller by a man in Georgia.

Small Ones Farm also has chickens, but there are only five left from the original flock of 22. "The others were caught by raccoons, a fisher cat and hawks," Sally Fitz said. Among the remaining chickens is one Araucana, a breed that lays blue eggs.

"I love that we get to collect the eggs," said Sarah Marks, age 61/2.

"I like feeding the pigs and going to the chicken coop," said Jake Schulkind. "My sister Abby, we're twins, she saw a chicken lay an egg," he said excitedly.

Garden is centerpiece

In addition to feeding the pigs and collecting eggs, the children work in their own garden. "The garden is the centerpiece," Sally Fitz said.

Inside a simple fence are areas specially designed to interest children. "We have a sunflower house and a raised herb bed," she said. "We use the herbs for tea and make pizza with the oregano and basil."

In addition there is a "petting zoo" of fuzzy lamb's ears next to prickly plants and feathery celosia. One corner has an array of hand-made weather instruments including a sundial and a rain gauge as well as a wind gauge. Yet another section has plants that attract butterflies, hummingbirds and bees.

Last Thursday the children, all aged 5 to 6 years, were making fairy houses from clay they had dug from a nearby stream the previous day. Fairies are very popular these days with young children.

"My fairy lives in the forest," said Sarah Marks. She had used pine twigs for trees to surround her clay house. Abby Schulkind also used ferns, which she proudly identified as ostrich ferns, in her house. "My fairy house is a zoo," her brother Jake said. "It has penguins inside and outside there is a tiger."

Snack time featured tiny berries, cheese and cherry tomato halves arranged on grape leaves and decorated with a small Johnny-jump-up flower. Tea was served in tiny cups.

The rest of the morning was to be devoted to harvesting garlic and gleaning squash from the fields leased by Brookfield Farm, a local CSA. "We will grill the squash for lunch," Sally said.

There are two age groups for the camp, the "Seedlings," ages 5 and 6, and the "Harvesters," ages 11 to 13. The age levels were chosen for two reasons, Sally said. Their children are McKenzie, age 5, and Marietta, age 11. Also, those age groups seemed under-represented among other area camps, she said.

While much of the camp time is spent in the garden or among the animals, the program also offers science exploration with bug collectors and magnifying glasses set up on the enclosed porch. Cooking is an important part of the program. After picking blueberries earlier in the week, the children made blueberry crisp.

Other farm offerings

The camp is only the latest venture for Small Ones Farm. It has been open to school groups since the Fitzes bought the farm. There is also a farm stand where they sell some of the 47 varieties of apples they grow, along with peaches, blueberries and plums. Kathleen Wang, director of the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, brought her class there last fall and is sending her son to the camp this summer. "They sell Asian pears, so crisp and delicious," she said.

There will be an opportunity to pick-your-own apples, probably the last two weeks in September, Bob said. Among the available apples is Davey, which is Farmer Bob's favorite. It's a sort of Mcintosh and the flavor is somewhere between a Mac and a Macoun, he said. "Davey's skin is less pink than a Mac, the bite is crisp and the skin is thin, to my liking," he said.

Sally makes and freezes pies for sale, using a wide variety of apples, including Spigold and Macoun. "I like the golds for pies because they have a sub-acid bite," Bob said.

The farmers hire professionals to prune and thin the trees and have started a fall fruit CSA with 38 members. Distribution is set to start later this month.

"Orchards are a good place for children," Bob Fitz said, explaining that in an organic orchard like theirs there is only one poisonous spray, a copper fungicide in early spring, so it is safe. He uses non-toxic traps for insects including luring pests to his 10 Red Delicious trees. That variety is out of favor with the public here, he said, although he has learned it does dry well.

Laura Marks learned about the camp from the Homeschooling Bulletin Board. "Sarah is having a blast. I can barely drag her away," she said.

The camp, like the CSA, is starting small with just six children the first week, although more were signed up for the second two sessions in August.

"We envision the farm as a place for children to be nourished  in body and mind  by what is grown here," says the farm mission statement. For more information on Small Ones Farm and the camp, check the Web site www.smallonesfarm.com.

Small Ones Farm Camp joins two other Amherst farms offering programs for children. For information on the Hampshire College Farm Center Camp email Leslie Cox at lcox@hampshire.edu and for the Stone House Farm camp check the Web site www.stonehousefarmbb.com.

Today's children are often so far removed from their agricultural roots that they don't know apples grow on trees and cucumbers grow on vines. Farm camps reconnect the next generation to the agricultural heritage of the Pioneer Valley.

Cheryl Wilson can be reached at valleygardens@comcast.net.