Outdoor Adventures - 7/17/24
Hello Camper Families, Miss Alex here!!
The week has already been FULL of adventures and we’re only halfway through - Whew! Our groups have been busy learning the basics of the ropes course, taking care of our farm animals, and, of course, adventuring into the great outdoors!
Our “theme of the week” is Outdoor Adventures! Campers get to experience the adventurous side of the farm by practicing wilderness skills as we construct fires for cooking, build shelters, take nature hikes, and explore the forest.
Every morning, campers will help our farm by completing animal chores. This includes feeding our animals their grain and hay, filling water to avoid the Summer heat, and learning about what each animal needs to survive. Nick, Sophia, and Carley are our amazing Animal Experience team - They work hard to teach the campers everything they know about our animals and agriculture!
This is my FAVORITE activity of the week!! Stone Soup is a story that teaches campers the value of sharing and caring for each other. There are many names and variations of the fable but it goes along the lines of - A hungry stranger came to an old village with only a stone. He then found a villager who only had a pot, a kind old woman gave a few vegetables, another villager gave a few cups of broth, and finally some barley. - In the end, the hungry stranger was finally rewarded with Stone Soup, which he decided to share with the entire community!
Campers gather around the campfire, and follow the story of stone soup while doing it in REAL LIFE! After telling stories and jokes, playing team-building games, and finding toads, everyone is rewarded with delicious Stone Soup!
Stone Soup Recipe -
2 - 32 oz. containers of vegetable broth
1 White onion
2-3 Carrots
2-3 stalks of Celery
Half a head of Green Cabbage
1 Cup of Quick-cook Barley
2 Bay Leaves
Salt & Pepper (To taste)
1 clean stone (Optional)
Cups + spoons
Help campers cut and prep veggies…
Chop carrots, celery, ½ head of cabbage, and 1 white onion.
Combine all the ingredients in a cast iron pot over a fire, and cover it with a lid.
Carefully place the pot of soup on a tripod over the fire
Let soup cook for at least 20-30 minutes.
Read the story of Stone Soup and enjoy your hearty treat!
What does it mean to be a community and help our neighbors in need?
Another activity the peppers participated in was building shelters in the forest! They used tarps, ropes, and sticks to make something everyone in the group could huddle in. Other campers, opted to participate by finding toads, and snails or looking under logs for creepy crawlies.
Working together, campers found their way through our survival maze! Group leaders made a 12x12 square grid on the ground with tape, then we created a secret path campers had to follow while taking turns and going step-by-step. Some groups even opted to go silent to use non-verbal communication, hand gestures, or poly dots…Talk about teamwork!
We all have something we love, right? Myself - I love getting flowers or interesting rocks from campers and having them with me to remind myself of camp spirit. To keep these items close to our hearts, campers weaved two pieces of leather together to create a satchel. Some even went on a hike to find things to put in their new bags!
Each week our campers create a project to present to their families and friends at our Farm Show! At Bowers Farm Camp, we have our group leaders create a “driving question” for each week of camp. This question is what we ultimately want our campers to learn from their week at camp… For Outdoor Adventures, our campers are asked to create a collaborative project answering the question - “What does Adventure mean to you?”
Come see what your camper had to say/make/do on Friday, July 19, 2024 at 3:15 - 3:30 pm!
Enjoy this super special moment of the past 2 days - Our Orange Pepper group found a bell pepper just their color in our hoop house! Picture perfect.
