The Grovestead
  •  Blog
  •  Events
    • Farm Camp
    • Workshops
    • Internships
  •  Publications
    • Durable Trades
    • The Grovestead Newsletter
  •  Farm Stand
  •  About Us

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

The Grovestead
The Grovestead
  •  Blog
  •  Events
    • Farm Camp
    • Workshops
    • Internships
  •  Publications
    • Durable Trades
    • The Grovestead Newsletter
  •  Farm Stand
  •  About Us
538
  •  Blog
  •  Events
    • Farm Camp
    • Workshops
    • Internships
  •  Publications
    • Durable Trades
    • The Grovestead Newsletter
  •  Farm Stand
  •  About Us
  • Camps
  • Games
  • Newsletter
  • Workshops

What is a Learning Farm?

  • August 1, 2019
  • No comments
  • 262 views
  • Becca

Eight years ago, when our oldest son was just one year old, we went to a regional park that was hosting a lesson on making maple syrup. The naturalist showed how to identify a maple tree in the winter, tap a tree, and evaporate the sap into syrup. What I remember most about this day was that Rory was in the front row the whole time. Surrounded by a bunch of elementary-aged kids, when the naturalist would ask, “does anyone have any questions?” it was Rory’s hand that shot in the air. We had the best time that day and lamented on the way home that the only maple tree on our Minneapolis lot was just a few inches in diameter. It would be decades before we could tap our own tree.

We would not have believed that one year later we would be settled into a new farmhouse complete with a sugar bush of 40-year-old maple trees, all ready to be tapped. But life is amazing like that, and so that very next year we constructed our first homemade evaporator and set out to give tree tapping a try. Good thing Rory had asked all of those questions!

What we experienced with tapping our maple trees has been repeated countless times on our farm since. We began knowing nothing about sheep, pigs, goats, honeybees, orchards, canning, tractors, or butchering… So we research, we read, we ask questions, we take classes, we apprentice and we give it a try. And we learn.

The learning is the very best part to us. We love this life. It is so fulfilling. Recently my uncle Mark was visiting and asked if we planned to scale up in any part of our farm to make it profitable. I thought about it for a bit and said, “I just don’t see us doing that, because if we scaled up in one area, it would mean cutting back in another area and the joy we have found is in doing a little bit of all of it.” We love learning the things our great-grandparents knew but were never passed down to our generation.

Uncle Mark sat back and in his wise and succinct way said, “I see. So basically you are farming knowledge.”

His words struck the heart of it all. I told him, “That’s it, exactly. I don’t see us ever becoming ‘a sheep farm’ or ‘a dairy farm.’ We are a learning farm.”

This has now become the heartbeat of our farm: We want to share all that we are so enthusiastically learning with anyone who is interested. And God has given us some creative ideas to live out this calling: on-site workshops, summer day camps, internships, and a quarterly newsletter. We even have an educational board game about farming in the works! We love to host and entertain and have many ideas and dreams for the future.

Welcome to our farm!

0
0
0
Receive a Once-Weekly E-mail with New Blog Posts:

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Total
0
Shares
0
0
0
Becca

I am a mother of five, married to a never-saw-it-comin' aspiring farmer in Southern Minnesota. As new farmers, I write about our transition from the city to the country with hopes of sharing our joy and gratitude for all that we are learning.



Durable Trades is Now Available!

Our new book about historical, home-based, family-centered professions was just published!

DETAILS & SAMPLE CHAPTER


Receive our Print Newsletter!

We publish a free quarterly newsletter to encourage Christian families and cover articles about farming, family, and faith.

SAMPLE COPY & SIGN-UP

You May Also Like
View Post
  • Workshops

Sword Casting Guy coming to The Grovestead

  • September 2, 2020
  • Rory
View Post
  • Camps

Grandparent Camp REVAMP!

  • February 20, 2020
  • Becca
View Post
  • Family
  • Games

Protospiel 2020

  • February 7, 2020
  • Rory
View Post
  • Camps

Farm Camp Promo Video

  • January 27, 2020
  • Rory
View Post
  • Farming
  • Workshops

Creative Ways to Use Our Farm

  • January 21, 2020
  • Becca
View Post
  • Camps

Farm Camp Registration Now Open!

  • November 21, 2019
  • Becca
View Post
  • Camps

Farm Camp 2019

  • August 8, 2019
  • Becca
View Post
  • Camps

Hatching Chicks

  • April 17, 2019
  • Rory

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts
  • More Social than Solitary: Family Genealogy
    • February 26, 2021
    • 86 views
  • Book Review at Countryside
    • February 23, 2021
    • 52 views
  • When One of You Has the Dream
    • February 12, 2021
    • 307 views
Popular Posts
  • Where’s the Beef? It’s time to build our own supply chains.
    • April 25, 2020
    • 22.3K views
  • Managed Intensive Rotational Grazing for Sheep
    • December 27, 2016
    • 5.2K views
  • Building a Top Bar Hive
    • May 23, 2016
    • 4.1K views
Mailing List

Be notified of events and goings on at the Grovestead!

Contact
The Grovestead
  •  Blog
  •  Events
  •  Publications
  •  Farm Stand
  •  About Us
Copyright © 2019 by The Grovestead. All Rights Reserved.

Input your search keywords and press Enter.