Field Day at Meadows Bee Farm: Land-Based Stewardship, Youth Education, and Community

This field day will begin with a scenic drive through central Vermont to Meadows Bee Farm, located high in the Green Mountains. The focus of the day will be to understand the educational and community component of our programming and how this supports our work with the Young Farmers Badge Program. We will show how these two farms and our community center all work together as we teach young children 4-10 about agroecological agriculture, awarding them with up to 80 badges in areas like agroforestry, permaculture, herbal medicine, dairy, cheesemaking, beekeeping, biodynamics, traditional farm arts and crafts, and much more. Upon arrival, we will tour the farm’s ecological gardens, orchards, and ponds, and visit the micro dairy, livestock, bees, and prep room. We will take time here to see the badges we award to the children. Lunch, cooked in our wood-fired outdoor pizza oven, will be at our community gathering place, the West Townshend Country Store, part of the West River Community Project. There will be time to visit the café, thrift shop, post office, and commercial kitchen. In the afternoon we will arrive at the Field House, eco-farm and learning center, exploring the blacksmith shop, ceramic studio, library, livestock, and gardens.

Lunch is not included with any field day. Please either purchase a lunch option in Step 6 of registration or make other arrangements.

Travel Time: Please note that travel time for this field day, from the conference center, will be approximately 2 1/2 hours each way via bus. Please plan on arriving to the bus departure point at 8:00 am (after registering) to ensure a smooth check-in process. If you plan on driving to the field day in your own vehicle please contact Raphael at raphael@biodynamics.com to coordinate.