Rappahannock County Farm Tour Sept 24th & 25th - join us at the Farm School!

Join us for the third annual 

Rappahannock County Farm Tour!  

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School will be open and ready for your visit both Saturday and Sunday from 9-4.

• Farm School students will be waiting to give you a tour, introduce you to the animals, and tell you about their school.
• You'll be able to pet the sheep, hold a chicken, gather eggs, and feed the pigs! 
• We'll be serving a delicious lunch made by our students using our home-grown meats and vegetables.  
• You'll also have the opportunity to hand-dye wool yarn and try your hand at spinning wool into yarn.
• There will be games, face painting, and more for children of all ages.
• Our Farm Market Stand will be open both days.

Tickets are $5 and may be purchased in advance on line:  farmtour.visitrappahannockva.com or at Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School on the day of the tour. 

Children under 16 get in free! 

At the Farm Tour website you are also able to get directions, check out the other 17 venues, look for special tracks (family friendly, horticulture, crafts, etc), and learn about the "All Things Rappahannock Market" at The Link in Sperryville.

Welcome Smithsonian Campers!

On Wednesday, 52 campers came down from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) to learn about Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School. These rising 9th and 10th grade students were part of the Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) camp.

Thank you 

to Mountain Laurel Montessori students who came out to give tours!!! The campers' favorite part of the tour was reported to be learning to catch chickens!

It is exciting to be right down the road from an institution doing amazing international conservation research and we are very happy to be able to share our school as a model of land-based education.

For more on SCBI: http:nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi

Our eggs join the best in the world!

If you are fortunate enough to dine at the world renowned Inn at Little Washington in the near future, you'll likely be eating food containing Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School eggs.  The Inn has many awards and accolades, including "the best inn restaurant in the world."  Now our eggs will be part of those delicious meals!

Our chickens have been cared for with tender loving care all summer by campers, counselors, and guides at the Mountain Laurel Montessori School elementary camp - thanks everyone! (see mountainlaurelmontessori.org for more information on camps).

Our chickens get to do what chickens love to do: scratch for insects in the pastures, take dust baths, and eat surplus vegetables from our gardens. We rotate the chickens throughout the farm, providing them with fresh pasture, and providing the pastures with nutrient-rich manure.  You should see the color of those yokes! - the way eggs should be.

Toddlers visit the Farm

Farm School student introduces a chicken

The Toddler Program students visited the Farm School for their end-of-year picnic. 

Animals, songs, and watermelon - a great combination!

Farm School students invite toddlers to fill pig water buckets

The pigs provided lots of entertainment

A Farm School student and a toddler look for eggs in the chicken tractor

Toddlers dance to rock and roll

Meet our rooster

Watershed Studies Trip: backpacking, swimming, beachcombing, and more!

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students spent a week-long adventure in and around Virginia Beach.  It was the culmination of the students' watershed study.  Having studied our individual water use and tested the water in the Farm School pond and local rivers, we traveled to the end of our watershed where the rivers meet the ocean.

Backpacking False Cape State Park - Day 1 (sun!)

Camping on the ocean

Reading original writing on Back Bay

Finding our watershed address: which way is North?

Backpacking False Cape State Park - Day 2 (pelting rain!)

Wet but doing ok

Watershed studies at the Virginia Aquarium

The marsh walk at the Virginia Aquarium

Watershed studies: identifying marsh grasses

the students found a live horseshoe crab

beach drawing

Ft. Monroe

Community Plant Sale

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students sell homemade food at the Waterpenny Farm Plant Sale

Farm School student spins wool into yarn

5th grade students take a trip to the Farm School

Farm School students have been studying the water quality of the pond and local rivers in the Watershed Occupation Project.  This week, they taught Mountain Laurel Montessori 5th year students how to test for dissolved oxygen, nitrates, and pH.

Farm School pond water testing

testing for nitrates

canoes for deep water sampling

testing for dissolved oxygen

a curious little turtle