Farm Camp
Granor Farm Camp is a weekly summer program for children ages 5-10 years old. Each day, campers get dirty in the fields, work together problem solving in group projects, learn to cook with food they harvest, and create process-based nature art. They are asked to work with our farm staff and think creatively about what to make with the produce we grow. Campers learn about the food they eat and discover a love of trying something new, leaving Granor Farm with new friends, great ideas and lots of knowledge about how farm life works.
Our Camp team includes teachers with over 20 years of experience working with children, counselors who attended our program as campers, and a crew of farm managers who work at Granor Farm every day.
Our program includes activities that involve exploring the farm, Granor produce, cooking and group projects. Each week of camp will have a farm-related theme ranging from The Food We Grow to Playing in the Dirt. Continue reading to learn more about these themes.
Registration for Granor Farm Camp 2024 is NOW OPEN, click the button below to reserve your spot.
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Activities at Farm Camp
Exploring the Fields
It is our goal to immerse the campers in the agricultural process at Granor Farm. The campers will help harvest, weed, water, clean, and manage pests. Campers love to find the wild collection of bugs that hide among the plants. Our farm staff will have assignments each day to be divided up and accomplished.
Arts & Crafts
Each day campers will have opportunities for creative exploration. With nature and farm-based themes, campers use paint, wood, pinecones, rocks, or whatever else they find around the garden to craft and create beautiful pieces of art. These process-based crafts teach campers various creative and fine-motor skills as well as help them become more observant to the world around them.
Cooking
In addition to learning how to skillfully harvest vegetables
from the fields, we want our campers to learn how to use the food we grow in
delicious recipes. Together with our in-house chef, campers will learn about
new recipes, help prepare the food, and hopefully develop a favorite way to
prepare and eat yummy vegetables. At the end of the week, campers will go home
with a new collection of recipes to share with their families.
Game Time
Supervised and orchestrated by the Granor Farm Camp Counselors,
we offer a variety of games and activities each day. Camp favorites include Bug
Bingo, Drip Drip Drop (our rendition of Duck Duck Goose), Capture the Flag (or
Zucchini), and on some days tattoos and face painting. Hanging out with their
counselors provides our young campers with the wonderful opportunity to build
strong team building skills and new friendships.
Themes by Week
The Garden We Grow
In addition to all the vegetables and herbs we grow at Granor Farm, we also know that flowers are an essential part of a thriving ecosystem. We will learn about the types of flowers we grow, which ones are edible, which ones attract the bugs we need to nurture our plants, and even learn about the important role weeds play in helping or hindering our soil and plants. Expect to eat some flowers, make delicious teas, and learn to make natural dyes! We will leave this week with a new appreciation for those colorful plants all around us.
The Food We Grow
This week at Granor Farm Camp, we will dive into discovering the types of foods we grow here at Granor Farm, how we grow them, what tools we use and what we do with them once they are ripe and ready for harvest. We will explore the fields, plant our own foods, cook using the fruits and vegetables grown here and create craft projects with a fruit and vegetable themed focus. Expect to go on scavenger hunts, dig in the gardens, eat fresh fruits and vegetables, and use vegetables like art tools! We will be sure to have fun all while learning a ton.
Playing in the Dirt
There is a lot going on in the soil that supports all the plants growing at Granor Farm. This week, we will get down and dirty in that soil. We will talk about what kind of soil is best for different types of plants. We will discuss all those creepy crawlers moving around underground and learn which ones are good or not so good for our vegetables. While we won’t eat any bugs this week, we will create dirt inspired foods and craft projects. Expect to make paint out of mud, go on a bug scavenger hunt and leave being able to identify a few new bugs.
Science & Farming
A farm has its own ecosystem. What is Granor’s? This week at Farm Camp, we will learn about how the air, water and sun all work together to play a huge role in making our plants grow (or not grow). We will talk about watering schedules, crop rotations, how farmers decide where and when to plant our seeds and learn to identify signs that a plant might be getting too much of one thing or not enough of something else. Expect to cook using the power of the sun, craft using shadows and wind, and to experiment with what is the perfect amount of water or sun for plants. This week will surely be fun for the scientists in your family.
The Farmer's Life
What is it like to be a farmer at Granor Farm? Nothing would get done without the hard-working team of farmers that work here every day. This week, campers will get to know the Granor farmers and work alongside them in the gardens and fields. We will talk about the clothes they wear and why. We will learn skills for the right way to use farming tools and the proper way to weed and harvest. This week, expect lots of scavenger hunts, crafting using tools we find around the gardens and fields and lots of delicious foods made from scratch…think homemade butters and grinding your own flour!
Camp Directors
Laura Piskor
Laura is a Michigan native who spent her childhood in the woods of Leelanau County. She currently lives in the south suburbs of Chicago with her husband, Pat and three children. Laura is a Montessori trained teacher and spent the last dozen years teaching in the classroom. She is also an avid gardener and loves to cook the fruits and veggies that come straight from her backyard. Laura always looks forward to spending her summers with Granor Farm Camp and especially loves watching campers dig into their crafts and gardens.