Asheville Farmstead runs programs that focus on the Seasons in which they occur. The Sprouts program teaches pre-K youth about interacting with nature and other children. They create nature art, eat from the garden, water plants, explore the forest, and use their imaginations. Camp Farmstead offers summer camps that focus on weekly nature themes while campers play games, create art, prepare food from the garden and generally enjoy being together outside. Students are instrumental to the success of the farm and often volunteer at the Farmer’s Markets to sell their products. We grow much more than local food at Asheville Farmstead, we also grow ourselves. Families are strongly encouraged to commit to an entire year of programming, so that they can see the complete process that the Seasons provide. We envision that many families will return year after year, and the students will build upon their previous understandings as their develop new skills and abilities. There are so many educational and extracurricular opportunities for youth in our community, but few of them offer the child-centered, year-round, nature-oriented programming that is available at Asheville Farmstead School. Too many of our youth suffer from what Richard Louv calls nature-deficit disorder, as they are glued to their screens and immersed in organized competitive activities. Asheville Farmstead offers the chance for the next generation to make connections to the food chain, to each other, and to the Earth in ways that were part of our ancestors’ daily routine. Today the values of our forefathers are cycling back to the present, and our school embraces those values by leading children on an exploration for that timeless knowledge and those not-quite-lost skills.
