The Green Fork is the official blog of the Eat Well Guide. Click here to Find Good Food.

Last week, we were treated to a lovely guest dish about the growing green food movement, as evidenced by the booming popularity of foodie books, by maverick young farmer, blogger, filmmaker and organizer Severine von Tscharner Fleming. This week, Severine’s got some ideas for eco-moms looking to expose their children to some greener experiences this summer. Tomorrow, we’ll have a post from one of our recent interns about WOOFING and other ways for full-grown people to make the most of their summers. (Photo courtesy of Morguefile.)

You know them, you’ve seen them. They are a wonderful motherly demographic of ‘domestic humanists.’ These Whole Foods shopping yummy mummies are buying green things: they have switched their light bulbs, insulated the hot water heater, switched to the 7th generation laundry soap. They still drive cars, swipe credit cards and may not care, themselves, to reform the global economy. But, bit by organic bit, they are bringing a softer, kinder, greener set of values, products and practices into the American household. And most important of all, on the seat of that car, and in the prow of that shopping cart, licking the organic milk mustachio off of round little cheeks, sits the beneficiary generation of this trend. Behold the purpose of this narrative, the inheritor of all this thoughtful tending: the eco-kids!

I’m talking about little people: Age twelve and under people. Dirty fingernailed, hyper curious, spunky, punky little people. People who have a lot to deal with, having been born into an Inconvenient Truth about Peak Oil, deforestation and the end of empire. But thats not the point. The point is that these kids are eating good food, and if their mothers have read Alice Waters, then maybe they’ve also read Richard Louv’s book, “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.” These kids are drinking milk from triple-layer (non-recyclable) tetra-pak juice boxes right now, but their mothers, whose own window sills might very well be crowded with melon seedlings, are thinking hard about meaningful summer activities for those tots. And with good cause.

Recently, as trees grow green and Spring’s upward gestures spread outwards, domestic humanists in my own circle of community have been calling me up on the telephone, and on the email, and they are all looking for the same thing: FARM CAMP.

Farm camps are summertime educational programs which integrate animals, agriculture and nature study into outdoor activities to build teamwork and leadership skills. Farm camps are found in every region of the country, but below are a few really good programs that you might have a look at.

Farm Camps around America:

The Farm School in Massachusetts

The Country School Farm in Ohio

Hawthorne Valley Farm in New York

Terra Firma Farm in Connecticut

Kona Biodynamic Farm in Hawaii

Appel Farm in New Jersey

To find more, try searching the Eat Well Guide via “advanced search,” entering key words like “children” and “education.” Google is also your friend! And, if your child is not ready for a sleep-away camp, consider a day trip or family farm getaway.
Day Trips:

Seaview Game Farm in British Columbia

The Gill Farm in Alabama

Muller Lane Farm in Illinois

Pie Ranch in Northern California