Frequently Asked Questions

While our schedule might fluctuate a little bit based on the weather or exciting things happening on the farm, we will be following the schedule below.

8:50-9am drop off

9:15 Morning game

9:30: Morning chores

• We’ll be feeding the animals, weeding and watering the garden, checking for pests, and tending to the farm!

9:45 Snack time

10:00 Morning activity

• Morning activities might include making cheese, ice cream, or yogurt, harvesting and cooking with fresh vegetables, or taking a calf on a halter-training walk! These activities change every day of camp based on what’s happening on the farm and what’s in season.

12:00 Lunch/tick check

12:30 Off your feet time

• Time to get off our feet to relax and digest your lunch! Campers will have the opportunity to play low energy games, or work on their nature journals.

1:00 Afternoon activity

• Afternoon activity will invite campers into the garden or our surrounding ecosystem to do some planting, harvesting, and exploring! We’ll be getting our hands dirty pulling carrots, planting cabbage seedlings, digging potatoes, playing field games, tasting sweet strawberries, heading out to the forest, irrigating the plants (and ourselves on the hottest days), or even building a fire to roast some veggies over!

3:00 Afternoon snack/tick check

3:15 Afternoon chores

3:45 Closing game

4:00 Dismissal

Our sliding scale payment option helps make camp more accessible to more families in our community. Below is a short list of guidelines to assist you as you navigate the question of how much you can afford.

Tier 1 (Accessible Pricing): $325

Tier 2 (Covers All Necessary Camp Expenses): $400

Tier 3 (Supporting Community Education): $475

Consider paying more on the scale if you: Own the home you live in, have investments, retirement accounts, inherited money, travel recreationally, work part-time by choice, have access to family money and resources in times of need, have a relatively high degree of earning power.

Consider paying less on the scale if you: Have significant debt, have medical expenses not covered by insurance, have tuition/educational expenses, receive public assistance, have immigration related expenses, are a senior citizen.

The sliding scale payment model is an alternative to a charity model. It is an opportunity to look inward and take stock of our levels of financial resources. While we do ask you to reflect on where you fall on the scale, please don’t stress about it. Pay what feels right.

You will select a payment tier in your checkout form.

As we will be exploring a working farm, campers should bring weather-appropriate clothes that can get a little dirty, as well as close-toed shoes, a water bottle, sunscreen, bug spray, a change of clothes, a packed lunch, and some snacks.

Camp starts at 9 and goes until 4 Monday-Friday.

We do offer signups on a day-by-day basis. The prorated rate is $85/day. Signups for day rates will open in April, with priority going to full-week signups.

While we will be tasting food from the farm, children should bring their own snack and lunch from home. Campers will occasionally be sent home with some veggies, as we believe that enjoying the food they helped to grow is the best way to connect children to their food system.

We have a maximum of 18 kids every week. The small group size ensures that each camper can learn as much as they can on the farm and allows us to explore the whole farm property.

Farm camp is rain or shine, so it’s important to dress for the weather! In the event of a thunderstorm, we will be inside doing nature crafts, fiber arts, camp games, and cooking. On hot days, we will be drinking lots of water and playing water games to keep cool. If we ever need to cancel camp due to extreme weather, we will let you know as soon as we can.

Yes! Benedikt Dairy’s farm store is open to the public from 9-6 M-S, and 9-4 on Sunday, with some seasonal access to the fields for U-pick flowers and berries. Stop by with the whole family to visit the calves!

Yes, we do! We ask that you please make sure that your child meets our camper independence expectations before the start of camp, which can be found in the question below. Before signing your 5-year-old up, please read these expectations to make sure they’re a good fit for camp!

To ensure a safe and positive experience for all campers, we expect them to meet the following behavioral and independence guidelines appropriate for a school-age outdoor camp. If a camper is removed from camp for not meeting these expectations, no refunds will be issued. Please consider whether your camper meets these expectations before registering:

Group Participation: My camper can stay with their counselor and group during activities and transitions in an outdoor setting.

Listening and Following Directions: My camper can listen to and follow instructions from camp staff.

Self-Care: My camper can independently manage basic self-care (e.g., using the port-a-potty, eating, changing into water play attire, dressing for the weather, applying sunscreen, and bug spray.

Peer Interaction: My camper can engage positively with other campers, including sharing, taking turns, playing large group games, and resolving minor conflicts with guidance.

Emotional Regulation: My camper can manage their emotions and behavior with age-appropriate support from staff.

Outdoor Comfort: My camper is comfortable being outdoors all day and can handle a variety of weather conditions.

Note: If you answer “No” to any of the above, please contact lydia@novafarmschool.com to discuss these expectations in greater detail, and determine if this program is a good fit for your camper. Any campers who do not contribute to a safe, respectful, and inclusive learning environment will meet with the Farm Camp Director to discuss concerns and work together to form a behavioral plan, and the child’s family will be notified. Any child who engages in threatening, intimidating, or intentionally harmful behavior toward any person or animal will be immediately removed from program activities. The family will be notified, and the child may be asked to leave Farm Camp. Tuition will not be refunded.

Although Benedikt Dairy sells fresh raw milk, campers won’t be consuming any unpasteurized dairy products, in accordance with state law. When we do use milk from the farm, we pasteurize it beforehand. You are more than welcome to buy a bottle of milk to try at home, though!

We want to be able to offer this experience to as many kids as we can so that everyone can experience the magic of farm camp! With that in mind, we do have a limited number of scholarships available. This year, we are also implementing sliding scale pricing at 3 different tiers, which you select at checkout. Reach out to Lydia@novafarmschool.com for more information.

Yes, we are an approved EFA vendor. If you’d like to sign up for camp through EFA, check out as normal and select the EFA option as your payment method. You will receive an invoice to submit to Classwallet within a few days. Please take care to include your child’s full first and last name at checkout.

Yes! We offer a 10% discount on additional weeks at farm camp if you are sending multiple children or signing up for multiple weeks.

We do offer before care for $15/day for 8-9am and aftercare also for $15 between 4 and 5pm. If you are interested in signing up, please reach out to lydia@novafarmschool.com and include your name, your camper’s name, and which dates they will be signing up for before/aftercare.

We often have parents asking what specific activities their child will be doing every week. While we can give a broad overview and examples of the types of activities we offer, we try not to promise that any activity will definitely happen on a particular week.

Last year, we found that themed weeks with specific planned activities limited us in our ability to offer children the opportunity to participate in some of the more spontaneous, fun events that happened to be going on around the farm. For example, we didn't get to participate in the farm's huge garlic harvest last year because we were trying to ensure that all of the activities we had promised that week were able to happen. Working farms are constantly changing places, and we want to give children the chance to fully participate in the exciting things being done every day! So, after a lot of deliberation, we decided not to do specific themes each week. Instead, we are tailoring each week to the interests of the children.


 At the beginning of each week, we will be doing a huge variety of activities including forest exploration, garden work, cooking, spending time with the animals, crafting, and outdoor survival skills. This will give us a sense of the group's interests, and will help us create a plan for the rest of the week. Every group is drastically different, and we find that kids have the most fun and learn the most when they get to lead their own exploration. If your child is excited about learning to make cheese (for example), we are so excited to help make that happen whichever week they come to camp! The amazing thing about having a small camp (maximum 15 kids every week) is that every child gets strong input into the things we do!

As farmers, we are also beholden to the seasons and the weather. Earlier in the summer, our cooking projects will center around dairy products and using the greens, strawberries, and other early season crops available to us. As we move toward July, we will have the first cherry tomatoes, broccoli, corn, and raspberries. August is abundant, and brings the later-maturing vegetables and fruits like peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, grains, cabbages, flowers, and much more.

Likewise, the types of activities we do in the garden change based on the seasons. Earlier in the summer, we focus mainly on planting. As the season goes on, we shift towards weeding, watering, and pest control (it's incredibly satisfying and fun to feed the garden pests to the chickens!).