The kids and I visited the Williams Island Farm on Friday and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Williams Island Farm is an organic farm that sits on 20+ of the 450 acres that make up the island. Aside from having a CSA, the Williams Island Farm provides food to local restaurants like 212 Market and Lupi’s. They also sell produce at the Main Street Market on Wednesdays and the Brainerd Market on Saturdays. We were there as part of a work share. We helped them harvest and in return we got a box of food to take home with us.
Up until now, any trips to Williams Island (and Sequatchie Cove) were forbidden by my husband because he was afraid I’d never come back. He knows I’m just a few steps away from full-blown hippie and putting me in a situation where everyone is living together and farming organically might tempt me too much. We made the agreement that this would be a trial run and as long as I didn’t come back smelling like patchouli I might be able to go back.
We made our way to the boat ramp behind Baylor at 8 in the morning and met Richard (or Farmer Richard, as the kids called him).
A short boat ride across the river and we were walking up the path to the farm. Richard made a list of how many bundles of each vegetable we needed to pick and showed us where to go and what to do.
Gracie and I set out to pick carrots, but she quickly decided that Wesley’s job of picking beets looked like more fun. She wandered off to argue beet size with her brother and talk Farmer Richard’s ear off. She was also quick to shed her shoes so she could run through the fields and every mud puddle she could find (takes after her mother).
It was supposed to take around 4 hours, but, with 6 adults and 2 kids, we managed to get it done in around 2 hours. Then we loaded up a box with carrots, kale, chard, beets and turnips, and headed back to the boat.
I feel I must mention that anything that starts with a boat ride, involves mud, and ends up with food counts as a great time as far as the kids are concerned.
Want to give it a try?
- Find a morning Tuesday through Friday that would work for you.
- Email them at williamsislandfarm[at]gmail[dot]com or give them a call at 678.876.0130.
- Show up ready to work.
Sunflower picture via their website. You can see lots of great pictures of the farm here.
book I picked up on my last trip to McKay’s, I got to flip through 100 pages of orange butterflies, trying to figure out what this one was. The three white spots on the top of her wing helped me pin her as a Gulf Fritillary. I’m loving this book because my butterfly identification skills up to this point consisted of ”if it’s orange, it’s a monarch” and “ooo, look at the pretty butterfly.”
or a good book , but playing I Spy has saved me many times when I’ve forgotten to bring something along.
, by Karen Liebreich, Jutta Wagner, and Annette Wendland 
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