Grade 3 Local Farms

The Farming & Gardening block is a classic topic in Waldorf grade 3. But when you homeschool you can take the time to break it up into a Gardening block (which we are doing this year) and a Farming block (which we are doing next year). Zac's great-uncle is a farmer in Wisconsin and they've already talked about him doing a long visit up there to learn about the farm!

And we have tons of cool local farms by us in Southern Illinois as well. I'd like to start working on a list so I can plan field trips. Let me know if you know of others to recommend.

Speaking of local food, I feel like I also need to create a foraging list now! I'll just note that February is when you tap sugar maples, April is when you hunt for morels, and September is when the pawpaws are ripe!

May

McLaughlin Strawberry Farm in Murphysboro
PYO strawberries

June

Shawnee Hills Lavender in Cobden
PYO lavender

Greer's Lost Creek Blueberries in Carbondale
PYO blueberries

Zac, age 4, picking blueberries!

August

Cobden Peach Festival

Flamm Orchards in Cobden
peaches

Rendleman Orchards in Alto Pass
peaches, PYO zinnias

Zac, age 4, in the zinnia patch with Black Bear

September

Murphysboro Apple Festival

Farm Crawl

October

Bandy's Pumpkin Patch in Johnston City
pumpkins, corn maze

Mileur Orchard in Murphysboro
PYO apples

Zac, age 3, picking apples with his sister Natalie

We've also been to Rolling Oak Alpaca Ranch several times on field trips. Other places I'd love to visit include Red Gate Farm, a horse-powered sustainable farm in Marion!