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VIVIAN HENOCH

with stress,” she added.
“I like to tell them I find
it very comforting just
to get my hands in the
dirt and let the Earth
heal me. If there are
kids looking for their
places in the world, I
hope they can find their
placesin the garden,
because that’s where we
are all from.”
Slicing a “Kellogg
Breakfast” tomato —
one of several heirloom
varieties harvested for
a camp group gathered
for a tasting in the farm Pavilion, Wolfe
waxes ecstatic over her fresh produce.
“This is my all-time favorite tomato,”
she tells the campers. “Tasting it
changed my life!”
From Huntington Woods, a gradu-
ate of Michigan State University with
a two-year certificate in fruit and veg-
etable organic horticulture manage-
ment, Wolfe has worked on farms in
Petoskey and, most recently, on vari-
ous farms while traveling in Israel.
Working at Farber Farm in part-
nership with Hazon, both Wolfe and
Rosenberg will join the next cohort
of JOFEE Fellows later this month to
further their studies and build the
curriculum of Farber Farm.
“We all flow from the same princi-
ples,” Wolfe said. “We’re the first JOFEE
camp in the Midwest, which makes
this program really special. It’s amaz-
ing to see how supportive our own
Jewish community has been to launch
a program like this. The more we learn,

continued from page 12

to be here! We are creating life, and
life makes life!”

TAMARACK CAMPS

THE HEART AND SOUL
OF FARBER FARMS

TOP: Using lettuce and other veggies from the farm,
campers and staff do a taste test.
BOTTOM RIGHT Jessica Wolfe, farm program director,
and Alex Rosenberg, farmer-in-residence.
BOTTOM LEFT: A camper with a zucchini from the farm.

14

September 20 • 2018

jn

New to the Tamarack staff and newly
returned to Detroit where they both
grew up, Rosenberg and Wolfe are full-
time residents of the farm and run its
day-to-day activities with their own
Tamarack-style youthful energy and
enthusiasm for the work.
Certified in organic agriculture out
of a program in Washington State,
Rosenberg has traveled globally to
study farming techniques over the past
five years. “I started with the realiza-
tion of how unhealthy I was — never
having exposure to fresh vegetables
and never confronting how the food
I was eating was hurting me. Then
I took a different route, went to the
‘school of figuring it out.’ My transfor-
mation has been total: physically, men-
tally and emotionally.
“When people ask me how I deal

the more we realize that our ‘new’ food
consciousness is not really new. The
Jewish people were first shepherds of
the land. And here we find ourselves
inspired to connect back to our roots.”
In the first season, almost all the
produce from the farm is used for
programming. “Everything we harvest
goes into the bellies of the kids who
visit the farm,” Wolfe said. “We try to
get them to eat as many vegetables as
possible while they are here.”

FARBER FARM: NOW AND
NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Even in its initial phase, Farber Farm
represents a stunning transformation
of the campground, using some of the
infrastructure already in place in the
Smoklerville Pioneer Skills Center at
Camp Maas. This summer, new build-
ings and repurposed areas included:
• The post-harvest Pavilion, where
much of the new programming hap-
pens as campers pick, harvest, wash,
taste and prepare food.
• The Mud Oven, custom-designed
and built by a local artist, adds both
beauty and function to a new farm-to-
table experience of baking wood-fired
pizzas, pitas and breads.
• The Tool Barn and Hen House —
home to 13 exotic breeds of egg-laying
hens.
• The Hoop House, where seedlings
are nurtured.
• A Jewish Calendar Garden repre-
senting the seasons and the holiday
cycle of the year.
• A Sensory Garden serving the
diverse needs of campers and staffers
in Tamarack Camps’ Avodah Program.
“There will be many phases of
the construction and opportunities
for new development,” added Lori
Davidson-Mertz, Tamarack Camps’
annual giving director. “Upcoming
capital projects include a greenhouse
to allow our farm to grow year-round
and a learning center. The completion
of Phase Two will give Farber Farm
two iconic buildings that will become
a staple of farm education to the
greater Detroit Jewish community and
the national Jewish camping world.” •

Vivian Henoch is editor of myjewishdetroit.org,
where this story first appeared.