Summer Farm Camp 2023: A Recap

Hello Friends and Farmers. Our fourth year of Summer Farm Camp at Topaz Farm is one for the history books. We had four weeks of camp (two in-house, two partnered with Catlin Gabel) and served 77 campers. Our gratitude is with our funders from the Juan Young Trust and Herbert A. Templeton Foundation for supporting our operations and scholarship fund.

Our mornings were spent learning the science behind our food grows with activities such as making seed balls, dissecting flowers, and exploring the worm bin. In the afternoons, you could find us under the craft tent painting bird boxes, sketching plant parts, and making seed art. Our campers got well-acquainted with the frogs, turtles, and ducks at the pond and picked baskets of sun-warmed blackberries.

In fact, all the berries were popular this summer. Our First Food Forest provided currants, raspberries, mulberries, and blueberries. Campers also enjoyed the string beans, lemon cucumbers, zucchini, turnips, calendula flowers, and borage from our Grow Lunch Garden. There were so many frogs, birds, and pollinators who joined us for our daily garden time.

We enjoyed the cooler summer temperatures. We never had to use our Heat Day plan even once! What a blessing.

Our summer season might be ending, but that just means we’re thinking about the autumn. We’re booking Fall Farm Field Trips right now! Schedule yours today to guarantee your spot.

Sincerely,

The Sauvie Island Center Staff and Board