We concluded a beautiful spring season by sharing memories with the support of our Wonder Wall, creating a mural to represent our big question of inquiry, “How does a garden grow?,” exploring the farm and pond area, and welcoming families to join us for a wagon ride around the farm. Where once there were blossoms on the trees, now we discover tasty fruit. We find ourselves saying goodbye to each other, for now, and to the passing season as we move into summer. The blossoms will surely return just as we hope to see those growing out of the program back for visits and many we’ll see back in the fall to see what comes of our growing apples and sunflowers. Farm Sprouts will forever remain a part of our farm community, by what they learned from their experiences and what they gave to the land and the creatures who call it home, from the tiny insects in the pond and the playful goat kids in the barn to the towering sugar maples in the forest. We are all a part of the tapestry that is being created at Tollgate Farm.
Thank you to our Sustainable Agriculture team for collaborating with us this spring and contributing their time, energy, and delicious produce to our program! The impact of knowing and working with the farmers who grow our food is tremendous. The kale grown for our “Sunflower Kale Smoothies” came from the program. They offer a C.S.A. program which offers shares of the produce they grow to the community.
Sunflower Kale Smoothies
1 cup frozen berries
1 frozen banana
1 cup chopped kale
2 Tbs. sunflower seeds (or sunflower seed spread)
1 Tbs. honey
1 cup coconut water
We enjoyed our smoothies on the pond deck with the story, The Flowers Are Calling by Rita Gray.
Many thanks to Roy Prentice, Norb Leppanen, Joe Mitts, and Nicole Simmons for their support with operations and animals. They are essential to making this program and all of our educational programs possible. They go above and beyond to support us. Their dedication, energy, and passion is greatly appreciated!
“Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.” – Richard P. Feynman