Meet Our Youth Crew

Our youngest staff members this summer are our 7-person Youth Crew. They are a group of local teens who help out in all aspects of the farm. They harvest vegetables for our CSA and outreach market, weed the fields, maintain the learning garden, work at the Outreach Market, and much more. Here is a brief introduction to all of our Youth Crew! #AGsummerjobs

Emily Olick Llano

Emily first became interested in sustainability after taking an environmental science class at her high school. Her favorite part about working at Waltham Fields is seeing a farm in an urban setting. In her free time Emily enjoys playing soccer and plays center defense at Cambridge Ringe Latin High School. A fun fact about Emily is that she is half Colombian and can speak fluent Spanish.





Maureen Tendo

Maureen lives in Watertown but was born and raised in Uganda. Her favorite part about working on the farm is working at the Outreach Market in Waltham. She likes interacting directly with people and loves seeing them happy. In her free time Maureen dances. She enjoys free-style and African dance and used to be a part of a dance team in Uganda.



Leslie Kay

This is Leslie's second year on the youth crew. She enjoys weeding the most on the farm. It seems mundane, but she loves getting to be productive while working alongside the weed crew. When she first started working at Waltham Fields she was surprised by how many different types of vegetables and different varieties of one vegetable there are. Leslie is passionate about food access and sustainability. She runs for the Waltham High School cross country and track teams.

Beverly Kauma

Beverly likes the farm because of all of the different people she gets to meet. Her favorite part about youth crew is working at the Outreach Market. Before working at Waltham Fields, Beverly used to help out on her family's farm in Uganda where they raised pigs, cows, goats, and chickens to sell. In her free time Beverly enjoys swimming and she used to be a part of a swim team in Uganda.


Mithni Lagene

Mithni's favorite thing to do on the farm is harvest. She sees harvesting as the prize at the finish line after all of the other things they do. When she is not working Mithni keeps very busy; she sings gospel music at church and is the children's choir director. She also draws, writes, and dances whenever she can find the time. Mithni is from Haiti and can speak Haitian Creole, French, and English and is proficient in Spanish.

Devlynne Loder

Devlynne's favorite job to do on the farm is work in the CSA barn because she loves constantly being busy and interacting with the shareholders. When she is not working she likes to hang out with friends and loves to swim. She has always enjoyed cooking but since working here she has gotten a lot better at cooking with vegetables. A fun fact about Devlynne is that she plans on joining the Army after she is done with high school.

Gabby Dalton

This is Gabby's second year working on youth crew. Her favorite thing about the farm is the relationships you build getting to know everyone who works here. She says that before she started working here she didn't realize how much everyone relies on each other and how important each person on the farm is. Photography is Gabby's main hobby and she wants to be a wedding and family photographer.  Gabby is also learning sign language in her free time.

Waltham Family School Visit

Over the last two weeks we had two visits from the Waltham Family School. It was really great to have visits where parents and children get to experience the farm together. It is also wonderful to share our farm with families who are a part of the Waltham community.

We went on a tour of the farm together and talked about all the different vegetables we grow and our organic practices. Then, we visited the chickens and everyone got a turn to pet a chicken and feed it some grass or grains. We also got to make a delicious healthy snack with vegetables harvested from our farm and learning garden. The first visit we made a swiss chard salad with basil and homemade dressing. The second visit we made a cool cucumber and mint salad. Both snacks were delicious and made by the kids!

I love being a part of these farm visits because I get to meet all different people from our community. I am always talking about our farm, but each group brings such great energy that helps me be excited to share why I think fresh, local, organic produce is so important. Thanks for visiting, Waltham Family School! Hope to see you back again soon!

Week 2 Camp: Garden Explorers

Today marks the end of our second week of summer camp! It was a small group of campers this week, so we all worked together in one group. Each day we focused on a different theme that connected different areas of the farm to each other. One day was soil and compost, another bugs and pest, and another the life cycle of plants. Alannah and Autumn led the group together and included lots of exciting recipes this week. They made squash pancakes, a salad,  and pickles, to name a few. From learning about the importance of growing conditions to seeing the different elements in soil, it was another great week with young farmers on the farm. We are so glad we get to share our farm with children who are eager to learn. 

Week One Camp Comes to a Close

The week sure flew by! Our first week of summer camps on the farm has come to a close and we move forward into a new week. We wrapped up on Friday with a review of all the different activities everyone got to participate in and everything the kids learned about farming. When asked "did we give anything back to the earth this week?" one garden explorer remarked, "Of course! We composted!"

The farmers for a week concluded by creating their own mini farmers market. The produce was vegetables they harvested themselves from the garden, the customers were their parents and the educators, and the currency was sour grapes from the garden. I was able to buy some garlic for 4 grapes from one of the vendors. There was even some price competition going on between the farmers, what a great simulation! 

The garden explorers made some delicious pickles! They mixed five small cucumbers (chopped) with 4 tablespoons of sugar, let the mixture sit until watery, then added sprigs of dill, 3 teaspoons salt, and 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar. We enjoyed these pickles right away, what a quick fix for a pickle craving! So delicious and completely unprocessed. 

Farmers for a week made raspberry rhubarb jam. A sweet treat on the last day of camp! We used fresh raspberries from the farm's perennial garden and rhubarb from the learning garden. Combine 4 pounds rhubarb/raspberry mixture with 4 cups sugar, juice of one lemon, and 1.5 cups water. Heat over medium heat until it reaches close to desired consistency (about 30 minutes, it will thicken as it cools). We enjoyed immediately, but you could also keep it in a jar in the fridge. 

I hope all of our campers had as much fun this week as I did and I can't wait to see what this next week has in store! 

Bugs, Pests, and Pollinators

Today our theme was bugs, pests, and pollinators . We talked about all of the different creatures that live in our garden and on our vegetables and what they do for the plants. We learned about the importance of pollinators and how pests prevent our plants from thriving. Here are some of the activities we did today:

• searched for different bugs in our garden plots
• mad "stinky spray" to help keep pests away from our vegetables
• played a pollinator game where there was a relay race to move the "pollen" from one "flower" to another "flower" the fastest
• played "farmer, farmer" a fun running game where all of the kids pretend to be bunnies trying to run across a farm without getting caught
• made squash pancakes for snack
• did a bug scavenger hunt

Both groups made squash pancakes today, here's the recipe:
4 small summer squash (or zucchini) grated with a cheese grater
1 tsp salt
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 scallions (or onion)
1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
oil (or butter) for the pan

Combine all ingredients except the flour and baking powder. Squeeze out some of the extra water the salt brings out in the squash. Add the flour and baking powder to the mixture. Form small pancakes and fry in olive oil, vegetable oil, or butter until slightly brown and crisped.

Soil Exploration

Wednesday was a day of soil exploration in the learning garden. Both the farmers for a week and the garden explorers focused on the importance of soil for the plants we grow and how much soil can vary in different places, even within our farm.

Some highlights for the garden explorers were sprinkler time, collecting soil from different areas around the farm, painting with vegetables and fruits, play time/exploration in the woods,and feeding the chickens! The farmers for a week got to learn about how much soil can do for us and the different components of soil. They particularly enjoyed the soil test experiment they did where they mixed soil with some water and dish soap and watched it separate.

It was definitely a hot and humid day, but we all enjoyed the day and got lots of time in the shade and with the sprinkler.

Both groups made hummus for snack! We dipped carrots and watermelon radishes into it. Here is the recipe if you want to make it at home:
Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas
3/4 C tahini
3 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 C coriander/cilantro/parsley

Put all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

Farm Camp 7/14

As the day started to heat up another successful day of camp came to a close. Our farmers for a week and our garden explorers had a busy day in the learning garden and around the farm. I spent the majority of my day with the farmers for a week, here are some of the things we did today:

• Talked about the life cycles of plants and identified different stages in the learning garden
• Visited the perennial garden
• tasted some raspberries
• harvested some herbs for our snack
• Everyone got to hold a chicken and we collected their eggs
• For snack we made an egg scramble with swiss chard, oregano, thyme, and chives
• we used our solar powered outdoor kitchen to scramble the eggs
• Played seed speculation
• a fun running game the involves figuring out which conditions are best for a seed to grow
• Planted sunflower seeds
• Dissected a squash
• Watered the learning garden
• Played drip-drip-drop

The garden explorers made an egg scramble today also, but theirs had dill, kale, basil, garlic, lambs quarters, purslane, and plantain… delicious!

See everyone tomorrow!

First Day of Education Programs

What a beautiful day for all of our camps to start! Today was the first day of garden explorers, farmer for a week, and 4H/farm corps. I spent the majority of the day with our 11 garden explorers, and boy did we explore. Here are some things we did today:

• Everyone got their own farm journal to use all week
• Learned about the parts of the plant and played a game about what we learned
• seed, root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit
• Harvested swiss chard and used it in a salad we made for a snack
• we even made a homemade salad dressing
• Each garden explorer adopted a plot to take care of for the week
• Watered and weeded the learning garden
• Spent some time with the chickens, some people even chose to hold a chicken
• Sang a farm song
• Started the process of growing alfalfa sprouts by soaking the seeds in water

It was a very exciting to have the learning garden full of kids! I look forward to a week of fun! I'm going to try to post everyday, each day I will spend time with the garden explorers and farmer for a week, so the pictures may be more of one group than another depending on the day. See everyone tomorrow!

Fermentation Workshop

We held a wonderful fermentation workshop at the farm with Boston Ferments! Everyone got to sample some fermented food made by our instructor Kimi, make their own sauerkraut, and learn about the fermentation process in general. As someone who has never fermented anything before, the main thing I walked away with was to not be afraid of fermenting. I never thought fermenting could be so simple. It can be more complicated if you want it to be, but for a beginner like me I was put at ease by the simplicity. All you really need is some salt, water, and vegetables.

We used fresh produce from the farm; some napa cabbage, bok choy, and radishes. After chopping everything up we mixed in some salt and the massaged the water out of the vegetables. Once we squeezed the vegetables enough we put the mixture into a jar and we were all finished. All I have to do is keep the jar in a semi-cool space for 3 weeks or so and I'll have some sauerkraut.

Here are some of the recipes from the workshop:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byz3um1bLIr-c0RMUTNkVjNLcWs/view?usp=sharing

Cambridge Adventure Day Camp Visit

Today Cambridge Adventure Day Camp visited our farm for 2 hours of food, fun, and learning! There were 46 kids that we broke up into 4 groups and rotated through different activities. I lead a tour around the farm where the kids got to see all of the different vegetables we grow, learn about our bees, taste some raspberries from our perennial garden, see our growing compost pile and talk about how the plants grow. Alannah was our chicken expert today. She helped the kids dig up some worms for our ever-hungry hens and talked about some interesting facts about the chickens. Did you know our hens each lay one egg a day? The learning garden outdoor space was Alex's station. She and the campers pulled up lots of weeds to help our vegetables grow better. Some of the things we are growing right now are squash, peppers, husk cherries, basil, and tomatoes! The weeding and watering is really going to help everything thrive as the weather gets warmer. The final station, cooking, was probably the fan favorite. Autumn and the kids harvested bok choy, scallions, and garlic together then everyone took turns helping to wash and chop everything. The fresh veggies were then stir-fried in our outdoor solar-powered kitchen space in the learning garden. Even though bok choy was new to a lot of people, most enjoyed the snack and got to see the reward of growing your own vegetables.

The sun was definitely full-force today, so we managed to squeeze in a little sprinkler time between stations. After 2 hours of farm fun everyone was ready to enjoy their lunch in the shade. These visits are always a blast and I think everyone leaves learning some new things about farming!

Notes from the Learning Garden: Farm Visits Galore!

July has been a busy month in the Learning Garden. We decided to try something new this year by leaving the whole month open for Farm Visits (our 2-hour program for groups of children preschool through 8th grade) and we have been thrilled with the response from a variety of schools, camps, and other youth groups!

Farm Visits at Waltham Fields Community Farm vary a bit depending on the learning objectives of the group and the number of children attending, but will always include the following three things:

GARDEN WORK

We want to make sure that all of the children coming for a Farm Visit have a chance to get their hands dirty!

This morning, with the help of a group of campers from Education Francaise Greater Boston, Learning Garden educators Aleta and Kristin hilled potatoes. Yesterday, eight and nine year olds from Cambridge Adventure Day Camp finished preparing and planting a melon patch! Check out the CADC blog for some fabulous pictures of their time at the farm!

Freshly-hilled potatoes (left)



LEARNING ACTIVITY

Our new melon patch (below)

Another portion of our program time is spent doing an activity that involves interactive discussion about a topic pertinent to the learning objectives of the group visiting the farm. For a group that is learning about soil, we often take a walk out to the compost pile and do an activity called Earth Apple to illustrate the percentage of Earth's surface made up of soil on which we can grow food; or Compost Cake to illustrate how food scraps, lawn clippings, and leaves are turned into fabulous soil for the garden! For a group interested in learning more about farming in general, we will often do our very favorite activity: From A Farm/Not From A Farm Relay! Participants are always amazed to discover that most of the objects and products they use every day come from farms!

Mystic Learning Center group discussing whether or not band-aids come from a farm

SNACK PREPARATION

A trip to the farm just wouldn't be complete without a snack made from fresh fruits and veggies! Our favorite healthy snacks to make with Farm Visit groups are Hummus and Plant Parts Salad. Here are the basic recipes, but feel free to embellish depending on your own taste buds!

Harvesting zucchini for dipping in hummus (below)

Hummus

Ingredients:

16-oz can of chickpeas
1/4 cup liquid from can of chickpeas
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp tahini
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
Other herbs/spices you like



Directions:

Drain chickpeas and set aside liquid from can. Combine all ingredients in blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Enjoy with cucumber and zucchini slices or your other favorite veggies!

Plant Parts Salad

Ingredients:

Leaves: lettuce, spinach, or other greens
Stem: fennel, scallions, or kohlrabi
Root: beet, carrot, or radish
Seed: peas or beans
Fruit: zucchini, cucumber, or tomato
Flower: broccoli or nasturtiums

Salad Dressing

2 tbsp fresh herbs (such as basil, cilantro, oregano, parley, etc.)
or 1/2 tsp dried herbs
1 tbsp vinegar (red wine, white wine, or balsamic)
4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper

Chopping broccoli for plant parts salad (above)

Directions:

Mix well and serve on salad!

As I read over this post I can't help but think that I am not doing it justice, but there is really no way to describe how amazing it is when a child is gobbling up zucchini slices and hummus as if they were an ice cream sundae and exclaiming that he "could eat it all day long;" or after planting and weeding in the garden when another participant says, "I am going to be a farmer when I grow up!" Those are the moments when we really know that we are doing something right.

Happy gardening!

- Jericho, for Kristin, Rebekah, Aleta, and Paula