By Clare Salerno, VT Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets
Preparing a calf for show, butter making, dairy jeopardy, four square—these are just some of the fun and games in a week of Life on the Farm Summer Camp at East Montpelier’s Fairmont Farm. Fairmont Farm received a 2018 Working Lands Enterprise Initiative (WLEI) grant of $16,000 to upgrade Life on the Farm camp facilities.
Life on the Farm Camp brings many non-farm families to the dairy farm to share the love of farming with
their children. Farmers Bonnie Hall and Clara Ayer, the mother-daughter duo that lead the camp, feel it is important for the future of farming to give community members and neighbors a positive first-hand farm experience. Camp spreads positive images and experiences of Vermont’s dairy industry and provides the farm with diversified income.
It can be a challenge to make farms safe for large groups of 6–12-year-olds to play and learn. Because most of Fairmont Farms’ herds are at their other East Montpelier and Craftsbury farm locations, the camp location is primarily used for camp, a small herd of dairy show cows, dry cows and heifers, pigs, and the market. Part of the $16,000 Working Lands Grant funds were used to re-weld grates in the dairy barn, provide more lighting in the separate hay barn that is the main camp space, and install fans in the calf barn. Camp now uses a school bus for field trip transportation and provides portable toilets and hand wash stations. These improvements have made the camp experience safer and more comfortable for everyone—human and bovine alike!
With the Working Lands grant, Fairmont Farm streamlined their summer camp program and invited other local businesses to provide programming during afternoon workshops. Workshops have involved guests from Vermont Breakfast on the Farm and Dairy in the Classroom and Gladstone Creamery and Newmont Farm, who taught campers about their new on-farm ice cream shop and brought samples. Workshops range from science experiments, like milk art and butter making, to farm history lessons, and farmer bootcamp.
This summer, Fairmont hired Grace Dunham, an intern from Cornell University to help lead farm programs. Having this new staff member has helped camp leaders Clara and Bonnie manage camp as it continues to grow. They started the camp in 2015 and it has more than quadrupled in size with little to no advertising while needing to turn potential campers away because of capacity limits. This year, camp ran for 5 weeks, with all 28 spots each week full. Prior to the Working Lands Grant, camp was only 2 weeks with 20 campers each week. It’s been a busy summer, but Fairmont Farm wouldn’t have it any other way!
To learn more about what goes on at Fairmont Farm, visit https://www.fairmontfarminc.com/.
Caption: Life on the Farm camp staff Grace Dunham and Clara Ayer.
Caption: Campers demonstrate their expert calf handling skills as family looks on at the end of a week well spent at Life on the Farm camp.
Caption: A camper washes a calf at Life on the Farm camp. Fairmont Farm used part of a Working Lands Enterprise Initiative grant to upgrade the wash rack, which campers enjoy using as they get to know the calves.