Geronimo at the Farm (first ever?)

Here I am at the Farm, leading what might have been the first-ever Geronimo game played there. And the photographer caught us just as baby Ollie was making his first-ever foray across the circle of chairs to an empty seat. Of course mom Hannah and dad Andy live at the Farm; Andy is the director of the Farm camp and just about as happy a guy as there is these days.

gardens at the Farm

It's been dry, relatively, and so the gardens at Farm Camp are not as lush as they usually are by this point in the summer. Nonetheless, Gail Morris (who is back at FV and working as program director/VC/coordinator there with Andy S.) tells us that three-fourths of the salad greens served as meals at the Farm are now coming directly from the gardens. Which is to say, the campers who attend Farm Camp are planting, weeding, picking, washing and then serving their own greens! Go green!

swimming at Farm Camp

Did you know that at Farm Camp the campers swim in the East Branch of the Neversink River? There's a pool (not deep - but certainly swimmable) just across the road from the vegetable plots. Andy Szymczak, I'm delighted to say, is the new director of the Farm Camp. Above you see him chatting with Jerry Huncosky. The air was warm and the water, well, the water was frigid. But the boys we spoke to just loved swimming in such clear water. Even with all the mucking around kids do when they swim and play in water, the river retained its crystal clarity. Amazing.

Morrie Hubbard was 101 years old

G. Morrison Hubbard , Jr., died peacefully, Aug. 21, 2010, at his home in Summit, N.J. He was 101. Born in 1909, he resided in Summit, all of his life.

Mr. Hubbard was the oldest camper from one of the oldest camps in the country, Camp Keewadyn in Salisbury, Vermont. Before he was 15, he had built up a writing paper business in eight surrounding towns and had about 200 customers. At 17, he had crossed the country with three other boys, in a second-hand Buick, returning home by working on a cargo freighter, the day before school started. It stopped at three Mexican ports and went through the Panama Canal.

Although his favorite camp was elsewhere, Morrie Hubbard was a good friend of Frost Valley. He came to us through Woody English, long-time chairman of FV's Board of Trustees. Morrie also sat on the Board of the Hyde and Watson Foundation for many years; Hyde & Watson has been very generous with Frost Valley--their many grants to Frost Valley have been honored in the naming of one of our large lodges. Back in early 2001, Morrie made a donation of $10,000 to our then-just-emergent farm program.

kid-grown local food

Have you visited our Farm Camp? No? Holy cow, why not? It's utterly remarkable. Click here for much more. Meantime, here's a message that went out to all the FV staff this morning from John Chartier, the director of the farm program:

The farm campers dug 150 pounds of potatoes this week! I am putting about 20 small bags of them in admin for you to buy. The rest we are going to either use at the farm or sell to parents at check-out.

In case you didn't know the money from farm produce/egg sales are used to fund the Farm's partnership with the YMCA of Madagascar. The YMCA of Madagascar offers agricultural programming to help the farmers there adapt more sustainable and productive agricultural practices. We have supported this partnership out of farm camper revenue the past few years and would like the $1500 that we send them this year to be 100% supported by veggie and egg revenue. Coming soon there will be sweet corn! I hope that you all enjoy the kid-grown local food.

over at the farm

Told my 2009 story - "The Six Legends of Bud Cox" - to the campers and staff at the Farm last night. This summer we've set up two new yurts (I still love typing that word) and so the program is a bit larger than in the past. But still very intimate. I mean, there's not much else going on over there in the East Valley of the Neversink. Yes, Straus, but it's quiet with mostly elderhostel groups (for whom the aforementioned Bud sometimes leads hike), and of course the road past Claryville is dotted with residents' houses but by 8:30 PM on a summer evening folks are gathering things up for the eve and heading indoors. The drive over there really is a trip into a previous century. While the farm operates in 21st-century style (hygiene, etc.) the look and feel of the place is....well...let's say, 1901-ish. That seems right and of course it's an apt date because that's the year the camp began - Wawayanda, I mean. Although farming was not the purpose of Charles R. Scott in 1901 when he took some campers with him to the wilds of Sussex Country NJ, I'll submit that tent-camping and tramping (hiking) was to Scott and 1901 as farming is now to the leaders of the Farm project at FV in 2009. It's the throwback, back-to-elements activity that induces some real thought about our connection to the land we stand on (not to mention the sky above us) that accomplishes what Scott wanted to accomplish in luring the urban and suburban boys away to the woods and big lake for the summer. So I'm saying: this Farm thing is really at the heart of what we are and do--which is to say, more directly: it's not peripheral, not an add-on, but really vital.

The story-telling? Oh, it went so well! I'm getting better at telling this particular tale, but that's not it. It's the atmosphere, the set-up, the mood, the weather, just the right campfire, stars above, attention by the staff, right level of tiredness (not too much) among the kids. In the right frame, one can keep the attention of theswe 2009-era children for an hour straight. And I did.

Bill Abbott and Bob Messick (board members who'd stayed after the meeting) came over too and joined around the circle.

enjoying the quiet at farm camp

Last evening drove over to the east valley along the East Branch of the Neversink, some miles beyond Claryville on the road that dead-ends at the Tison estate and the start of the back trail up Slide....and told a story to the kids and counselors at Farm Camp. It had rained hard during the afternoon but by the time I arrived it had cleared--blue early evening sky with lots of mist hanging up over the river and its feeder streams. They managed to build a fire and the kids came out of their yurts, sat on benches in a circle, and listened to an hour-long story with an attentiveness I'm not used to. Even in the main part of camp, in order to get the pure quiet one needs for good storytelling, one has really to strategize. I've told stories around the campfire in the middle of a village way up the hill, only to have another village, in all innocence, walk back loudly and excitedly from evening program right through the quiet story. It's just what happens in a camp of 650 kids and 200 staff. But at Farm Camp....oh boy. The few residents of the valley were home, maybe one car passed on the road the entire time I was telling the tale, and the kids focused on nothing but the fire and the sound of my voice. In this photo you see staff and campers making a fire from sopping wet wood, a few of the yurts behind them, and far in the background the main barn (goats, sheep, cows, a horse, and pigs there), and the main farmhouse (years ago the home of the Erts family).

Don't know about this paradise within the FV paradise? Well, click here and learn about Farm Camp.

thank you, Ken

On September 15, 2007, we gathered at the farm (for those who don't know - it's along the East Branch Neversink road, past Claryville and a mile or so short of the Straus property) in order to dedicate the main building there (currently serving as a dining hall and meeting room - as well as bath facility for the kids in the summer, who live in yurts without bathrooms).

The building is now named in memory of long-time FV trustee Ken Estabrook. Ken loved his grandparents farm as a young boy and years later dragged his family off to live on a farm themselves. Overall he was a very successful attorney in the Westfield NJ area was very generous to Frost Valley with his time and money. His dream, all the years he was on our Board, was that we would create a working farm so that suburban and urban kids coming to summer camp would have the option of living on a working farm for two or four weeks.

Go here and read more about Farm Camp. "Among the animals living at Frost Valley's farm are: Pigs, chickens, sheep, rabbits, goats, cows, horses and of course birds. Farm campers will interact daily with the animals, performing chores, learning how to care for them, and understanding their importance in the ecosystem."

The Estabrook family traveled to Frost Valley for the dedication, and, over lunch which consisted almost entirely of farm-raised food, a number of Ken's friends shared stories about him.

I recorded some of these talks and hope you'll have a listen. You'll hear, in order: Fenn Putnman, President of the Board of Trustees; Jerry Huncosky, who is of course FV's CEO; Jenny Snyder, Farm Camp director; Alex Huncosky, Jerry and Patti's daugther and a veteran of Farm Camp; Ann Estabrook and finally Ken's sister who remembers their childhoods at the family farm.

Fenn Putman, President of FV's Board

Inside one of the yurts: Steve Roehm, Paul McGrath, Hunter Corbin, Lisa Ernst.

This is the building we dedicated to - and shall now be named for - the late Ken Estabrook.

Jerry Huncosky

Jenny Snyder

Alexandra ("Alex") Huncosky