Yesterday was the first day of our 2014 Summer Kids in the Orchard program.  It was a great day with LOTS of kiddo’s showing up!  We made fairy gardens, grass heads and enjoyed a cider float!

I have some pictures and a story to share with you all from our afternoon together.

The Story of the Apple Fairies

Apple Fairies live in our orchard and are essential to the success of all the things we grow here.  We need them to help the trees bloom, aid the bees in pollination and to take care of our precious fruit as it grows.  Today, you get to make your very own fairy garden to encourage fairies to come to your gardens to live and prosper like they do in ours.

First – take the container you selected and head over to the pool you saw when you parked.  From there, hop 100 times along the pumpkin patch to the dirt pile at the far end.  It is essential that you hop 100 times to get there – that’s what helps make the dirt magical and perfect for the fairies to flourish.  Once you’re at the pile of dirt, take the shovel there and fill your container so it’s full to about one inch from the top with dirt.

For the next step, carefully carry your containers to the picnic tables.  Count the apple trees you see along the way.

At the picnic table grab a bundle of popsicle sticks.  If you counted correctly you will have the same number of popsicle sticks as the trees you just counted (15)! Using the glue and yarn, build structures or scenery that you think your fairies will enjoy.  Feel free to leave your extra popsicle sticks on the table for others to use.

Now – we need to add some magical stones to our fairy garden.  Fairy’s like beautiful, colorful stones and the perfect ones can be found in an area where there is a lot of round rubber items.  Can you find where they’re hidden?  Once you do, pick five magical stones that you think your fairies will love.

Fairies often have guests from all over the country visit them!  Our favorites are the fairies that visit from the ocean!  Think about the tour we took when you first got here.  Go on the hunt and find one seashell so the garden fairies’ ocean visitor will feel at home when they visit.

The final addition to the fairy garden are some plants!  We have two succulents and one dill starter plant for each of you to add to your garden!  Be sure to water these regularly so they prosper!  Can you find Diane for these green goodies?

For this weeks garden snack – we unfroze some of our apple cider and I headed to our local creamery – Sassy Cow – for some delicious vanilla ice cream.  Yup – we had cider floats!

And…the kids LOVED them (the mom’s, grandma’s and aunts did too!)

For the second project we made grass heads!  We took a square planting pot – filled it with dirt.  Then glued on eyes and a nose.  The kids all put some grass seed in it – add a little bit more dirt and when they get home they have strict instructions to water them everyday!  Soon – grass should be growing out of the head and the kids will be able to cut their grass heads hair however they’d like.

The kids all did an amazing job with there fairy gardens and grass heads!

I’ll be posting soon what you can all expect to enjoy during week 2 of Kids in the Orchard!