Farm Hands Camp
Spend a week exploring, learning and growing at Lakshmi Farms at our new Farm Hands Camp. Lakshmi farms is an 18 acre diverse sustainable farm, home to cows, sheep, horses, chickens, donkeys, honeybees and so much more. Our Farm Hands Camp is an opportunity to be a part of Lakshmi Farms for a week-- make friends of all shapes and sizes while helping out on our farm. Campers will have the opportunity to explore nature and sustainable farming while playing in our fields, caring for farm animals, digging in our garden, working on art projects, even eating food they helped grow!
Lakshmi Farm’s Farm Hands Camp is for children 6- 12 years old who are excited to explore life on a sustainable farm in Kentucky. Campers will be expected to help with the daily chores on the farm, in addition to enjoying plenty of time for art, exploration, and play. Campers learn compassion and responsibility from the animals we care for, and are rewarded by their antics and affection (and sometimes eggs!) Campers will also have the opportunity to seed, weed, and harvest in the garden, tasting the fruits of their labor in our daily farm meal. We also take plenty of time for making art projects, and of course making friends with the other campers and animals.
We are excited to be offering four week-long sessions, beginning with the week of July 3rd, and running through the whole of July. Each session follows a theme for us to explore throughout the week-- Soil, Plants, Animals, and Ecosystems. Each week we will welcome a guest speaker to the camp to teach us about a the weekly theme through the lens of making and doing. Of course we will be exploring parts of every theme each week (how are we going to learn about plants without soil!), but the weekly themes allow campers to delve more deeply into different aspects of our farm.
Sunrise at Lakshmi Farms
What does a typical day at camp look like?
Camp begins at 8:30 every morning. Campers check in, store their lunches on our fridge, then begin morning chores. Each day campers will assist in our morning animal chores, which range from mucking out the horse stalls, to feeding the chickens, to helping fill water troughs. They then begin their morning activity. Each day we have a morning and afternoon activity, which range from exploring and bug catching, to helping weed in the garden, or painting their own clay pots.
Wednesday and Fridays are special days: on Wednesday we welcome a guest speaker as our first activity to teach us more about the week’s theme. On Fridays we use this time to prepare a lunch to share together, featuring produce we helped grow in the garden.
Campers then eat lunch (brought from home, except for on Farm Lunch Fridays) and enjoy free time to explore and relax. After lunch campers begin their afternoon activity, which could be anything from conducting soil tests to tie-dying teeshirts, followed by collecting eggs. After the campers finish collecting our eggs, we play games and blow steam, or just relax. Some hot days we even break out the hoses and get a little wet! At 1:45-2pm parents pick up their campers,
On days that is a little rainy we will pull our boots on and stomp in rain puddles, and if the weather calls for thunder, we will do fun activities in one of the barn’s two classrooms.
What should my camper bring to camp?
Campers will spend most of the day outside, so it is important to be prepared! Please bring a refillable water bottle, hat, and sunscreen every day, as well as tough shoes for tromping through fields, clothing you don’t want mind getting dirty, and a bagged lunch. We will collect campers lunches every morning to be stored in our fridge, and campers will always have access to water. If the weather calls for rain, please bring rain boots, and a rain jacket.
Sample Schedule
8:30 - 8:45 Check In
8:45 - 9:30 Help with animal chores
9:30 - 11 Morning Activity( ie. farm exploration hike, learn about our honey bee hives, tie dye)
11 - 12 Farm Lunch and free time
12 - 1 Afternoon Activity ( ie. harvest in garden, learn about geology of the farm, paint water barrels)
1 - 1:15 Collect eggs
1:15 - 1:45pm Games and wind down
Camp Sessions and Registration Information
To register, please contact Prem Durham at prem@lakshmifarms.com
Week 1: Soil (July 3 - July 7t) 240$ We kick off our first week of camp with the foundation of any farm: the soil! We dig into dirt, learning about how Lakshmi Farms makes soil through composting, hunting for crystals and fossils in our fields, and getting to know the bugs and fungi that help maintain our soils.
Week 2: Flowers (July 10 -July 14 ) 300$ Week two we focus on getting to know our plant friends, helping Prem tend to her flowers, exploring the native plants of Lakshmi Farms, and harvesting our own flower bouquet to enjoy.
Week 3: Animals (July 17 - July 21 ) 300$ In our third week we delve into the animals of Lakshmi Farms— from wild beasties, to tiny bugs, to our hens and horses. This week is Wild!
Week 4: Ecosystems (July 24 - July 28 ) 300$ Our final week is a chance for campers to learn about the systems that make our farm tick: we learn about the weather systems as we watch the clouds float past, follow nutrients as they cycle through our crops and livestock, and learn more about 'ecological agriculture'.
Our Camp Philosophy
At Lakshmi Farms we believe eating is the culmination of a beautiful partnership between humans and nature. We farm in cooperatively with nature, working alongside native plants, animals, bugs, fungi, and microbes to create healthful ecosystem-- not just for ourselves, but our ecological partners as well. We believe farming is one of the most wonderful ways to explore the natural world, and we’re excited to share the creative process of growing flowers and tending the land with the next generation of growers and eaters at the Lakshmi Farm Hands Camp. We strive to create a camp experience that is fun and safe, and inspires campers to take a hands on role in growing and cooking their own food.
About Lakshmi Farms
Lakshmi Farms was founded in 2014. Located on a historic horse farm in Anchorage KY, Lakshmi Farms is now home to a small grass-fed dairy herd, a small flock of hens for eggs, goats and sheep for fiber, honeybees for pollination, horses for riding, and donkeys for company. We are also home to The Reynolds Garden Company, an acre of organically grown fruits and vegetables. Lakshmi Farms was founded in pursuit of inspiring the next generation of eaters and growers to love and respect the natural world.
About Us
Prem Durham is the owner of Lakshmi Farms. She grew up in Chennai, India, where her earliest memories are in the garden. After moving to Anchorage, Prem purchased Lakshmi Farms in order to share her childhood love of nature, art, cooking, and eating with her community. You can find Prem in the fields, pulling weeds, or in the barn, tinkering with her projects. When she’s not at the farm, Prem enjoys spending time with her children, cooking, and drinking chai.
Jo Lynn Baltzley, Tina Kingsbury & Ellen Sears, three nature spirited teachers will be hosting the farm hand camps, their love for nature and children are unmeasurable. They believe in investing in Humanity by inspiring children to love Nature and their philosophies are, " Unless we are willing to encourage our children to reconnect with and appreciate the natural world, we cant expect them to help protect and care for it." & " When do you start raising a child? One hundred years before they are born."