Grades 3 and Up
Marlow, NH
Community at Kroka
Kroka Village is home to a working farm where students are integrated into the daily rhythm of animal care, garden and grounds work, and community life. Our flock of 130 chickens provides us with daily eggs, and our two dairy cows provide us with nutritious milk. Our workhorse Brita hauls firewood and children alike in her wagon and loves for her thick coat to be brushed. The gardens and greenhouses are filled with produce growing for our programs throughout the year. The Kroka farm is integrated into life in the village, and our daily chores with students and staff allow us to share and contribute to the amazing growth that happens each day.
The Kroka Farm
Sharing and building community at Kroka is the center of everything we do. Our days will fall into a rhythm of meaningful work on the farm, cooking, processing, and feasting on food. We will play and explore in the fields and forest, go on a picnic with the horse and wagon. We will make pizza in an outdoor wood-fired clay oven. We will follow the process from cow to cheese, from wheat to pizza, from tree to fire, from manure to soil. Students, teachers, and Kroka staff will live and work together outdoors, connecting to the archetypal life processes through authentic experiences.
Read a recent article from Circle of Seasons, a school that visited in spring of 2016, about their Kroka farm trip.
Day 1
You will arrive at Kroka in the evening. We will share a delicious supper and settle into life in the Kroka village. Before bed each night, we will celebrate our time together with stories and songs.
Day 2
We will start the day by contributing to the chores around Kroka’s farm and camp. These tasks include cooking breakfast for our classmates, gathering water, feeding the farm animals, and working in our vegetable gardens. After breakfast, we will divide into small groups and cycle through various projects on the farm. So many chickens! We will feed and give water to the chickens, collect and clean eggs, and move the chicken wagon to greener pasture. We will also visit, socialize, and care for our new chicks. Brita, our Norwegian Fjord, loves to be brushed and fed carrots. In return, she may take us on a wagon ride or help us deliver wood to the village during our morning chores. Milking cows, cleaning their stalls, giving them water, and watching Violet, our herding dog, take them in and out of the pasture.
Day 3
Similar to our previous day, we will begin by involving ourselves in chores and eating a delicious breakfast prepared by the students. After our morning of farm work projects and a hearty lunch, we will work on a traditional craft. Then, we will travel down the road to Orchard Hill Breadworks. Here Noah the baker will teach us all about baking homemade pizzas in a wood fired oven. In exchange we will help him stack the heaping pile of firewood that feeds his pizza oven!
Day 4
Our day will begin like all the others, with chores on the Kroka farm. After breakfast we will leave the farm and take to the woods, exploring the many ways of life within the forest behind Kroka village. We will identify trees and learn about wild edibles as we make our way to the Beaver Pond, where canoes await! After a day of canoeing and exploring the beaver dam and lodges, we will return to Kroka Village where a farm-fresh feast awaits from the fruits of our labor.
Day 5
After chores and breakfast, we will say goodbye and your group will depart.
