Overnight Summer Farm Camps: Where to Find Them, What They Offer

Does the farm life appeal to your child? Maybe its time to explore the possibility of overnight farm camp where kids live on farms and participate in running them.

Overnight summer farm camps teach children about caring for farm animals and sometimes about growing crops as well. Most farm camps assign children farm chores such as feeding, grooming, and corralling animals; cleaning their stalls; and collecting eggs. At some farm camps, children will cooperate in preparing meals from the farm's bounty.

One important value of attending farm camp is learning respect for the earth and its animals. A quality farm camp will teach sustainable farming practices.

But farm camps aren't all work and no play. Typically farm camps provide the same types of recreational activities available at all-purpose summer camps such as arts, crafts, drama, sports, and field trips.

From the mountains of Vermont to California redwood country, farm camp opportunities await. This sampling of overnight farm camps provides an overview of what some of the nation's farm camps offer.

Country School Farm, Becks Mills, Ohio, is located in the heart of Ohio's Amish country. A co-ed camp for children ages 6 though 12, Country School Farm is a 40-acre oasis of peace where children learn social harmony and develop habits like honesty and fair play. Children care for animals including rabbits, goats, ponies and fowl. They help with farm repairs, gather berries and herbs and help with meal preparation, and do other farm chores such as hay-gathering and corn shelling. Amid the farm work, kids are offered the experience of simply being on the farm.

Camp Hidden Villa, Los Altos, Cal., operates a farm and wilderness camp for 8^th to 10^th graders as well as more traditional summer camps for younger campers. The farm and wilderness session encourages children to form bonds with one another while living in a primitive campsite, includes a mountain backpack venture, and incorporates caring for the farm livestock. This camp offers camperships to students unable to pay full tuition.

Plantation Farm Camp, Cazacero, Cal., is a sustainable farm where children do farm chores twice a day in addition to exploring varied activities including bareback horse riding, kayaking, drama, fort-building, and arts and crafts. Children may churn butter, go blackberry picking or cook over the campfire. Children practice conservation principles. Corraling sheep and shearing them is the highlight of each session. The meals at this camp are made from farm-fresh, organic ingredients. Camperships are available.

Hawthorne Valley Farm Camp, Ghent, NY is a Waldorf-inspired camp. The camp is located on a 400-acre biodynamic farm in the Berkshire/Taconic foothills. The farm dairy processes milk into yogurt, cheese and quark while the vegetable garden grows produce for the farm and for market. Campers live, play and work together on the farm. They swim in a spring-fed pond and engage in age-appropriate summer camp that may include cook-outs, camp-outs, hikes, games, archery, arts and crafts and horseback riding. Meals are made from organic farm ingredients. Camperships are available.

Far View Ranch Camp, Bangor, Cal., provides the rural life of yesteryear to today's campers. Collecting eggs, taking a dip in the old swimming hole, meandering along trails, bottle-feeding calves... this 1000-acre Sierra foothills farm disconnects children from their electronics and reconnects them with nature.

Hameau Farm in the Big Valley, Belleville, Penn., combines farm chores, field trips, drama and crafts to create a rural summer experience that culminates in a farm show where proud campers parade their halter-trained charges before parents and compete for awards.

Farm and Wilderness Camps, Plymouth, Vermont, are a Quaker-influenced collection of summer camps introducing children to farm life and wildnerness activities. The various overnight camps serve children ages 9 to 17. Some are single sex and some co-ed. Campers slop the pigs, milk the cows, learn weather signs, and try their hand with hammers and axes. Adventure activities include swimming and kayaking. The camps may provide from 10 to 30 percent tuition camperships to campers unable to pay full tuition.

Journey's End Farm Camp, Sterling, Penn., is a family-owned and operated co-ed farm camp for children ages 7 to 12. This camp is equipped with a hayfield, creek, woods, fern patch, berry bushes and fishing hole. In between their explorations, children can interact with a variety of animals including cows, pigs, chickens, goats, rabbits and donkeys. Journey's End provides financial aid to the extent possible and otherwise tries to assist families to make attendance possible

One final note: a lot of camps use the moniker "farm camp" to describe their setting. Their programs may consist of horseback riding or arts, rather than farming. Check the programs section of a camp website to ensure that a prospective farm camp is really about farming.