Charlotte Soule ’25, Geology major, shares about their internship with Welcome Table Farm Walla Walla, WA
“A Summer Camp Day at Welcome Table Farm
Thursday July 20th, 2023 at Farm Kids Summer Camp began at 7:45am for myself and my co-instructors Katy Rizzuti and Keeli McKern. I arrived at Welcome Table Farm and greeted the many piglets that meet you at the gate with a couple of apples from the nearest fruit tree and continued down the way. Before the kids arrived at 8:30, Keeli and I prepared our “campsite” on the farm where the students keep their things, eat their snacks, and play games. The campsite is a mulched area with a stump stool for each student and their corresponding bucket they use for the week for collecting and carrying various things. Today we also prepared a cra station in the root cellar located on the farm.
Aer receiving all twelve kids from the farm parking lot, and 
feeding the pigs leover squash, we headed back to camp to drop off their backpacks, put on our nametags, and play a game to start the day. The game we played today was called Park Ranger where the kids had to think of an animal and when prompted by questions about their secret animal they had to try and run to the other side of the field without being tagged by the “park ranger” (Keeli and I). Once they are tagged they also become park rangers.
Aer the game came to an end around 9:15am, we filed into the root cellar where sliced potatoes that the kids harvested from the farm the day prior laid on the tables with pencils and ink. Today we made potato stamp prints. Each instructor was in charge of a color and a table. The students carved any designs they wanted into one face of a sliced potato with a pencil and then waited in line to print their creation. Students were allowed to print as many different designs as they liked, however, in case they only wanted to print one or two we also set up a table with homemade mulberry dye that Keeli and I harvested
from the farm. The dye, paintbrushes, and a flag were on a separate table as an alternative project. Students painted the mulberry ink onto the flag to make a farm camp sign to decorate the campsite, along with our other decorations such as the flower pressed bandanas, fairy letters, potato prints, and flower garlands.
Morning snack time came with conversations of fish, wasps, the kittens on the farm, and how many strawberries your neighbor has in their lunchbox. Aer snacks were packed away and the students were ready to get moving again, our guest speaker, Allison, and her colleague, Nicole, set up an activity across Yellowhawk Creek. Yellowhawk Creek is one of two creeks that run through the farm property and it is where most of our day at farm camp is spent. The Lesson Allison was teaching today was all about the life cycles of salmon. This lesson was paired with an interactive game where students rolled a die and moved forward in their theoretical salmon life cycle until they came across an environmental factor that didn’t allow them to continue on their path to spawn. Two students reached salmon adulthood and were so excited that they theoretically got to do something that only 2 out of 3000 salmon eggs get to achieve in their lifetime in the real world.
Afer this salmon activity it was time to wash our hands and sit at camp for lunchtime! Everyday aer lunch the students and instructors hike to a spot along the creek that has a host of activities to explore. Nets and mini aquariums were brought out and the students stampeded into the ankle deep flow trying to catch small trout and frogs. Fairy villages have been popping up along the areas of the creek we visit so some students continue to work on these almost hidden worlds. Other students sit on their towels in the shade and make water color images of flowers, fish, and each other. This time at the end of the day when the students are able to do just about any activity they can imagine at the creek is a great time to distress and find refuge in the cold water, especially these past few days as the temperature outside climbs into the hundreds. Once each student is sopping wet, fish are wriggling in plastic containers, and students fingers are stained from the blackberries that line the creek bank, it’s time to dry off and head to the entrance of the farm for pickup. We make the soggy trek back to the campsite where we pack up our bags, change shoes and walk up to the farmstand where family and friends wait for their beaming kids. Aer all of the students get signed out Keeli and I head back to the campsite to tidy up and prepare any things we need for the next day of camp. I bid the farm farewell for now, but I am already thinking about what we are going to do tomorrow during farm camp!”