Our Field Trip to Oz Farm

October Harvest and Welcoming Fall in the Classroom

The Forager School focus evolves with the seasons - we bid farewell to September sunshine, and set out for a first adventure to explore harvest on the farm and delve into all things fall. Students participated in a first field trip to a well-known local gem, Oz Farm, located just north of Point Arena. We toured the lay of the land, harvested enough apples to feed a small village, and brewed a specialty tea consisting of foraged herbs (mint and lemon verbena), apples (of course), and perhaps a few too many pinches of aromatic spices. Students had the opportunity to use their forager baskets and collect forest-farm treasures. ‘Magic’ beans, heads of sunflowers, clutches of multicolored leaves and painted lady flowers, peculiar sticks, rocks, half-eaten asian pears and hard green apples - best of all, the entire smorgasbord made it back to the classroom for deeper consideration. We arrived the day after rain and the orchard was unforgettable!

Foraging in Early Childhood

Having grown up here, there’s a certain degree of intuition involved in developing curriculum at The Forager School. The more time I spend with our students, the more I understand the interplay between childhood and foraging. Foraging in early childhood is a method of child-centered learning, it is also quite literally foraging for materials, artifacts, and content to continue to pour over throughout the coming weeks. It’s a collaborative and wonderfully unpredictable process. This is what it can look like to embrace a child-centered philosophy inspired by the natural world. As teachers in this context, it is all about knowing when to pivot and attune; answering behavior with flexibility instead of restriction. When we listen for the natural rhythm, it’s always the right pace.