Our newest Farm Market employee, Charlie Wainger, wrote this message last week.  If you haven’t had a chance to meet him, hopefully you will as he’ll fill in periodically when staff take vacations or we have a particularly busy day planned.

“I started working in the 21 Acres Market in May and I can’t believe it is already the end of June and the multi-colored tomatoes are on the table. Now the stone fruit and cherries spill onto the scale. Soon I’ll be tending to my own tomatoes at Hidden Valley Camp, a 60-acres overnight camp nestled in Granite Falls. The corn will be thigh high in July while the nasturtium and squashes flower. The herb spiral already dances with bees and the garter snakes sneak through the strawberries.

It will mark my 17th summer at Hidden Valley Camp right as the camp turns 70. I started in the 90’s as a camper and now I run the quarter-acre farm program, which allows campers from 7-17 to plant, harvest, and cook fresh produce. We collect rainwater, compost, tend to the chickens, and cook food in our new cob oven. Check us out at hvc-wa.com.” — Charlie

At 21 Acres we’re fortunate to have staff who really appreciate giving children experiences on the farm like the one Charlie describes.  Our 21 Acres farm camps are run by the amazing and extremely talented Andrew Ely. They are full for the summer with the exception of the last session, August 1-5, Pizza Organica! If it interests you for your child ages 7-12 be sure to register right away!