Summer days are filled with excitement as we welcome visitors to the farm nearly every day now. Here are just a few highlights from the previous week, and we hope you can join us at the farm soon…
Last week, we welcomed participants from Libertyville, Round Lake, Libertyville, Lake Villa, Wildwood and Grayslake to the farm for the Farm Tour and Wagon Ride. Together, we traversed the majority of our 95 acre farm by wagon, with Jeff narrating and sharing a seasonal update on the farm. We spotted deer, chicken hawks and arugula flowers (delicious!), and gleaned greens from the field for kitchens and animals.
The Grayslake District 127 Inclusion Camp is hosting sessions at the farm to seed, plant, and manage a vegetable garden, and maintain the vegetable and flower gardens at Grayslake Central. At the farm, they wash eggs to discuss the mechanics of an egg washing system. Many of these students are Jeff’s former ESF students, so they are becoming the teachers this week as we prepare for Summer Farm Camp.
Summer Farm Camp counselors are training and preparing this week to welcome students to Summer Farm Camp over the next four weeks. Students from ages 5-12 will spend a week at the farm exploring hands-on activities with animals and plants, creating natural crafts, and having fun together.
Jeff’s Summer Farm Interns are studying a buzzing business here at the farm, Gavin’s Honey. Gavin is lending two of his five hives to Jeff’s interns to learn the business of beekeeping. They will eventually learn the harvesting, bottling, and business planning side of Gavin’s Honey from both Jeff and Gavin.
Jeff is teaching the summer semester of Engineering a Sustainable Future with students interested in being outdoors this summer. They’re diving headfirst into summer activities like planting in education gardens, tomato care, harvesting green garlic, and washing produce for local food pantries. These passionate students are outdoors, working in the morning heat alongside farmers, and their tenacity and can-do attitudes inspire us!
All the while, our farm team keeps irrigation running, tractors seeding, hands busy harvesting, washing and packing for CSA, filling farmstore and wholesale orders, and making farm store deliveries.
Later this week, we welcome summer camp groups and student farmers from the College of Lake County for farm tours, hands-on learning and fun. Here’s to a great summer ahead!
Warmly,
The Liberty Prairie team
The Liberty Prairie team