The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WALLA WALLA—Blue Mountain Land Trust and Welcome Table Farm have teamed up each summer to offer week-long day camp sessions to learn about life on a small organic farm. Farm Kids engages children in grades 1-4 to explore and discover local food systems through hands-on activities and games. Let’s not forget exploring the wonders in Yellowhawk Creek at the end of each day!

Three sessions will be offered this year, starting with “An Abundance of Flora and Insects,” July 12-16. Explore life at its most beautiful through investigation of blooms, propagation, and pollinators. Understand the blooming stage in plant life cycles, seed production, and edible crops. Many flowers provide habitat and food for insects. Let’s catch and identify beneficial specimens that help our foods and flowers grow.

July 19-23, “Critters on the Farm” will allow campers to explore the food chains and nutrient cycles of the critter’s wild and not-so-wild living on the organic farm and surrounding wilderness of Yellowhawk Creek. Help with pig chores and feed the goats. You will even learn to identify an animal by their scat!

The final session, “Farm to our Table” allows campers to work with the farmers of Welcome Table Farm in the fields. Get your hands in the soil to plant seeds, weed, and harvest. Discover how local farms feed our community through seasonal crops. Learn skills that will be helpful in the home garden while having fun with new friends. Kids will achieve a sense of satisfaction from hard work and a job well done.

The program is open to children in grades 1-4, and runs from 8:30 a.m through 1:30 p.m. Each week-long session costs $215. To register, visit https://tinyurl.com/afn9uyyk

The Blue Mountain Land Trust would like to remind parents that safety is their top priority. BMLT will proceed to host Farm Kids with adjustments as advised by Walla Walla County Public Health. If the county changes and camp is no longer sensible, the program will be canceled.