“What City Kids Learn on My Farm” 

When they became empty-nesters, Larissa Phillips and her husband decided to give urban children and their parents a chance to spend a week on their 15-acre “hobby” farm. The idea was to provide an opportunity for the kids to learn directly, from experience, facts about life that they could not possibly learn growing up in New York.

In an essay in The Free Press, Phillips talks about how the program works.

“Here are some things I have taught the kids who visit my farm,” she writes. “Animals don’t care about your feelings and sometimes we kill them to eat them. It doesn’t matter how desperately you want to find more eggs, the hens aren’t going to lay on demand. Tomatoes aren’t ripe in June. The stalls aren’t going to clean themselves, and stings aren’t really a big deal. And there will always be poop.”

There is nothing in the essay that would shock anyone with any common sense. But it made me feel like there is some hope left in the world if there are still people like Larissa Phillips and her husband pushing back against the madness.

You can read the whole thing here.