Swallowtail Waldorf School and Farm

The joy and freedom experienced by children when they visit our 26 acres Swallowtail farm is what brings many families to our school.

At the farm, students engage in sustainable agriculture and learn about native habitats. Activities supplement the classroom curriculum, particularly animal science, physics, chemistry, and botany.

From festivals and campouts to quiet meditative moments, the farm serves as a place for our students and families to connect to the earth and to one another. Because we own our farm, our students have the opportunity to return to the same piece of land time and again, growing with it season by season, year after year. Freed from the rush of achievement and business that characterize modern life, they have the rare opportunity to slow down and fully experience the natural cycle, actually feeling the time it takes for a seed to sprout, or a single row of beans to be harvested.

While the tasks of their days vary, the nature of the work remains constant, challenging students both physically and mentally. Students fold into the rhythm of the farm, and may be asked to remove blackberries in the pouring rain, dig post holes in the cold wind, or pull weeds on a hot September day. They develop grit, confidence, and strength of will in performing these routine farm tasks.

The environment of daily farm work presents them with problems requiring novel solutions - for example: “How do you move rotting straw bales down the hill if they fall apart when you lift them?” In solving these problems, the children work as a team, brainstorming together, testing their ideas, and re-evaluating when something doesn’t work.

Far more than any single bit of academic knowledge, it is a person’s character that sets them up for future success. On the farm our students develop the power of quiet observation, the ability to work well on a team, to persevere in the face of adversity, and to creatively solve problems.