We had a great weekend and one of the highlights was the Farm to Camp Out event at Blue Moon Acres, an organic farm near our house in Pennington, NJ.
This was the first year that they held the event, but you would never know because it was so perfectly organized and beautifully executed. We signed up as soon as we received the email announcing the event because we knew our boys would love it. They had a great time and we even brought along my parents and nephew since they were visiting for the weekend.
The weather was perfect – a sunny, 80-degree day followed by a cool, crisp night with a full moon. The kids were in heaven with so many activities to keep them busy, including tractor rides, a corn maze, face painting, visiting the chickens and pigs, dancing to the live music, and playing on the swing set. There were a lot of other kids for them to play with as well so we actually had a chance to relax and enjoy an adult conversation or two.
The evening featured appetizers and dinner made with local ingredients, including many that were grown on the farm. Appetizers included fresh and grilled vegetables, chips and salsa, and homemade bread. For dinner, we were able to choose our own ingredients for grilled pizzas. The options for veggie toppings were seemingly endless and mine looked like a mountain by the time I was done choosing.
After dinner, a camp fire was lit and everyone was invited to join a professional story teller for songs, skits, and stories. It was pretty late for Declan by the time they started the fire so we didn’t get to enjoy the whole show, but we made it through two songs and one poem before he started fading fast. Declan decided that he didn’t want to camp after all because he wanted to stay with his cousin, Corbin, who was spending the night at our house. Russ graciously agreed to camp with Finnegan while I got to sleep at home in our warm comfy bed.
Finnegan was in heaven sitting around the campfire listening to the stories and eating his bag of s’mores ingredients before it was even time to toast the marshmallows. The s’mores bags were adorable and included peeps instead of regular marshmallows and chocolate that was made locally. Russ said that Finnegan obviously played hard on the farm that evening because he was asking to go to bed at 9:30PM and fell asleep almost immediately despite another little boy crying in a tent nearby.
I went back to the farm the next morning at 7AM to enjoy breakfast and help Russ and Finnegan take down the tent. Declan was still sound asleep so he stayed home with my parents. It was a foggy morning, which made the farm seem even more peaceful.
Finnegan had a huge smile on his face when I peeked into the tent and was excited to tell me about how he slept in his sleeping bag all night long. He slipped on his shoes and found some other kids to play with while Russ and I took down the tent and packed up camp.
Before leaving, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast of muffins, eggs, homefries, and fruit.
Finnegan also made some friends that helped him pick a few ears of corn so he could feed the pigs before we officially ended our stay at the farm.
We had so much fun that we can’t wait to do it again. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that Blue Moon Acres does it again next year because we will be the first family waiting to register. Finnegan has already started asking us non-stop (in that four-year old way) when we can go camping again. If we get another warm weekend and can find a dog-friendly campground, we’re hoping to give him his wish and camp somewhere at the Jersey shore. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Has anyone heard of similar events at other organic farms? For those in Northern California, I have read about great dinner events at Full Belly Farms on the Hither & Thither blog.
Travels With Curley 