Common Ground Farm Open House & Earth Day Celebration

Date: Sunday, April 25th
Time: 11am-4pm
Location: Stonykill Environmental Education Center
79 Farmstead Lane
Wappingers Falls, NY
12590

Spend a day with your family at the farm! As part of Stonykill's Earth Day celebration on Sunday, April 25th, Common Ground Farm is opening its fields to the public so they can see first-hand the bounty the Earth gives us from Spring to Fall.

Scheduled are plenty of activities for young and old to get involved and learn about all aspects of local farm life: From potato planting while singing work songs and a family sing-a-long to paying a visit to the busy chicken coop and learning the weather and how it affects (in both good ways and bad) a local farm like ours.

In addition to a potato-planting and work-songs session from 12:00pm to 1:00pm in Common Ground Farm's fields of vegetables (near the red barns, next to the community garden plots), there will also be ongoing tours of the fields from 10:00am to 4:00pm, a family sing-a-long from 11:00am to 11:45am (at the fire circle, near the picnic tables), and a performance by the farmer band The Buff Orpington Trio (at the Manor House) from 1:30 until 2:30.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

• 11:00am-4:00pm: Farm tours in the fields
  Join our farmers and board members as they show you the highlights of our farm, greenhouses, chicken coop, and explain all about how our farm works and what we’re planting.
  
  
• 11:00-11:45: Family Sing-along
  Join farmer Creek at the fire circle for a morning sing-along.
  
  
• 12:00-1:00: Potato Planting Party and Work Songs* in the fields
  Join the farmers at Common Ground Farm for traditional work songs in the fields as we plant seed potatoes for the new summer crop—planting led by farmers Tim and Dan, work songs led by Creek!
  
  
• 1:30-3:00: Music Performance
  Featuring the farmer-band The Buff Orpington Trio at the manor house
  
  
• 2:00-4:00 Farm activities for kids
  Let your child play and learn! They will see first-hand how planting begins, with a seed planting project they can then re-plant to their own outdoor space! Led by Common Ground Farm Education Director Jen Clapp, at the picnic tables.
  Tours of the animal barn (sheep, cows, and pigs, oh my!) will also be available during this time.
  
  

*A NOTE ABOUT WORK SONGS

The farmers at Common Ground Farm invite you to learn and participate in a session of work songs as we prepare the soil and plant potatoes for this summer's harvest. Our farmers were featured at this winter's New York NOFA (organic farmer) conference, and they're eager to teach, sing, and care for our soil and vegetables with you!

All agrarian societies have made use of work songs—music used to accompany tasks—to help with timing, break up monotony, and inspirit the laborers. The topic of the song may relate to the work at hand. For example, "The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn" tells the story of a farmer that didn't plant his corn until June, then lost his crop when an early frost came, then was spurned by a woman he courted "...all because he wouldn't hoe corn"! "John Henry" simultaneously tells the story of a legendary railroad worker, keeps the rhythm of pounding in a chisel or drill, and serves as a communication between the 'shaker' and the hammerer. Many work songs contain interesting call-and-response forms which invite fun and creativity, such as the sea shanty "Bonnie Hieland Laddie". Don't miss this unique opportunity!