Good Earth Farm & Nature Weavings

 It seems that "farm school" is all I post about these days! I have more to share, but it's taken me three days to get these photos to upload with blogger, for some reason, so I'm feeling a bit discouraged, without the time to get to the bottom of it.  My sister and my niece are here, so I have some lovely photos of hers to share, which will hopefully happen in the next day or so...Until then, another Friday at farm school, with minimal notation I think...

The day began with chatting around the fire, helping Farmer Dan peel garlic clove for planting.

The day's afternoon activity was nature weaving, so the morning walk included collecting grasses, leaves, sticks, seed pods, berries and flowers in their baskets.  I had done this project with my girls and my niece a year ago, and it is such a nice way to celebrate the changing of the season.

While they were on their walk, I tended the potatoes in the fire...

Lunch prep included chopping toppings for the potatoes, and making graham crackers for dessert.

Basella berries make for a wonderful edible dye for the crackers.  (I think basella is sometimes called malabar spinach. It's a new plant to me, and I hope to grow it in the spring.)

These sugar-coated graham crackers were unfortunately the second load of sugar for the day, after the caramel apple snack from a parent.  My sugar-sensitive older child found refuge after lunch away from the fort-making, up in a tree.  I was glad to see that she could figure out a way for her to take care of herself when she wasn't feeling up to interacting with all the other kids.  Eventually my co-facilitator, Molly, made her way up to join her, which was really really nice for Eliza.

Then on to the nature weavings! I had collected lots of "Y" sticks, so the kids all chose one and got down to winding the twine around the two arms of the "'Y". It was a little tricky, but we had a lot of grown-up help to hold sticks steady or help with the twining.

Once the sticks are strung, the weaving can begin, using the bits of nature from their baskets.

The farm held a fall festival on Saturday, so we wove the weavings into the fence to decorate.  This project was so successful for everyone - some of the kids kept at it long after we had started cleaning up, and a few of the adults managed to make their own with the leftover amaranth and grasses left lying about.