A Day in the Life: San Mateo Erdkinder, A Spring Day at the Farm

A Spring Day at the Farm

We worked at Green Oaks Creek Farm last Friday. One of the farmers gave us a refresher on harvesting strawberries.

This student gets to grips with the cart, transporting strawberry flats and baskets.



At lunchtime, we took our bag lunches up into the tree house.

We had a little down-time to play on the swing before getting back to work in the afternoon.

Here, we are weeding and chopping back some of the explosion of growth since our recent rains. The ornamental garden in used for weddings, and the farm is getting ready for a few of those coming up soon!

While we were weeding, we found a beautiful, furry caterpillar.

We had a great day!

This week in the Erdkinder

This week in the Erdkinder

We are moving quickly into wrapping up all of the harvest at the farm. The class spent the day harvesting carrots, beets and potatoes. It was remarkably hot out at the coast, but stunningly clear weather. The class commented on how they were harvesting produce that they weeded multiple times, allowing the crops to grow healthy. It was a great day.

 A bouquet of carrots!

 Harvesting beets

 Chris and Kevin driving the tractor. They turn over the rows so we can get at the potatoes easily.

 Harvesting potatoes---working right behind the tractor.

 Picking Sun Gold tomatoes for market. We ate so many that one of us got a stomach ache!


Back in the classroom, we have been learning about the Roman Empire. It has been a very interesting humanities unit and the class was impressed with the Romans' ingenuity and skill in building, architecture and problem-solving. These two pictures show the power of older students helping younger students with their work - one of the most important characteristics of a Montessori classroom.

A day in the life: Erdkinder

From 9/10-9/13/2013, the ErdKinder students spent four days working out at Green Oaks Creek Farm, located just south of Pescadero out on the coast. The farm feels like a little slice of paradise, and going to the farm is a foundational aspect of the Erdkinder program. Montessori specified in her work "From Childhood to Adolescence" that the perfect place to run an adolescent program is on a piece of farmland situated between the mountains and the ocean. Green Oaks Creek is as close to the authentic in interpreting Montessori's vision as we could wish to find within striking distance of San Mateo.

Here are some photos from our week on the farm...

The van is loaded before we leave!

Setting up the big tent - it took a LONG time...

Preparing chicken for the grilling over the fire pit ...

Our table set for dinner in the outdoor kitchen

Cleaning up from dinner!

Amending flower beds in the ornamental garden. The dirt was hard and dry and it was extremely demanding work. We learned about NPK and used bone meal, oyster shells and rabbit droppings to fertilize the soil.

The garden (where weddings are held) is starting to look better.

Adding the ground oyster shells and enriching the soil with calcium.

The next day, back to weeding in the fields.

Beautiful produce ready for market.

Resting at the end of a long, hot day.

Picking strawberries as usual...

Some much-needed downtime on the beach!

We found a shrimp!

Dinner over the fire - pork chops!

 It's the big clean-up the morning we leave. Sweeping the outdoor bathroom...

 Scrubbing stove

 Organizing all the toiletries by the tub

 Spider webs - be gone!

 Oops - we broke the counter :( But it's OK. It turns out it was already broken and the farm folks re-glued the crack! Phew!

 Cleaning up "Ralph" the composting toilet

Scrubbing the outdoor vanity

And lastly - feeding all of our compostable/organic food waste to the pigs .. who will soon be....PORK CHOPS!