Tunnel Hill, GA |
It started simply enough — a few friends visiting the farm, playing with the cows, and asking if they could come back and do it again. For Lyla Beckler, that was all the inspiration she needed. What grew out of those visits is a summer farm camp in Tunnel Hill built around one core idea: showing kids what agriculture really looks like up close.
“We wanted to show kids what it’s like to live on a farm and why agriculture is so important. We have a couple of farm animals on our farm, so we talk about each type of animal — plus a few others we may not have — and we do a lot of garden activities, just trying to get the majority of agriculture in its entirety,” Beckler said.
The lessons Beckler and her family put together are intentionally hands-on. The goal isn’t just to teach kids facts about farming — it’s to shift the way they think about the everyday things they may never have questioned before.
“We like to really focus on how much work farmers put into stuff that we use every day. We ask kids, ‘Where do we get our fruits and vegetables from?’ — and they’ll say the grocery store or Walmart. And we do, but there’s a lot behind that,” Beckler said. “We want to make sure kids understand what the people are doing behind the scenes when we’re using everyday things.”
Based on what Beckler has seen so far, the message is getting through. By the end of each camp session, she can already see a shift in how the kids talk — and think — about the world around them.
“This morning we were talking about what animals provide for us, and they were able to answer without us even bringing it up,” she said. “Seeing kids at the beginning of the week not really knowing anything about agriculture, to the end loving it and wanting to tell me everything they’ve learned — it’s really cool to see the kids excited about farming.”
What campers experience during their week, however, is only a fraction of what it takes to make it all happen. While camp runs for a short stretch, the farm itself never takes a day off. Long before any camper arrives — and long after they leave — the animals still need feeding, the garden still needs tending, and the work continues just the same.
“We start out planning everything — we try to do things that kids will remember, make snacks that incorporate the animals we’re learning about, and get our gardens ready. We even have to get certain animals sometimes because we like them small for the kids,” Beckler said. “It really takes a lot all year long. Feeding animals in the cold every morning and every night — the kids don’t see that, but we do it. It takes a lot.”
For Beckler, that invisible effort is part of the point. The farm camp isn’t just about one week of fun — it’s about planting something that lasts. And for the kids who leave knowing a little more about where their food comes from, it clearly does.