Growing up on the Farm
/We recently sat down with Manfred and Christina Gabriel and their son Allen to talk about the farm’s past and future. The Gabriels were one of the first families to attend Red Gate Farm’s programs twenty years ago.
What made you sign up Allen and his brother, Theo, for the farm programs, when they were kids?
Christina: I didn’t really know what kind of experience our sons were going to have when I brought them to the activities at the farm. But Ben and his staff always created such a feeling of openness, with constant invitations and offerings growing each year as the boys were growing: walks in the woods at night to see owls and spotted salamanders, celebrations of spring with frogs’ eggs and baby chicks, Halloween fun, sledding, and a big bonfire in winter. There were also Film Camp and Youth Corps, homeschooling days and the annual harvest suppers and picnics… All with the spirit of: have fun, work hard, explore, learn, repeat.
Manfred: Christina and Ben created some of the first farm programs, together. Christina would take the boys over to the farm and Ben would be like, “Okay, let’s go feed the chickens!” Allen can tell more about what it was actually like, but it was wonderful for us. And then we were homeschooling for a while, for a few years, and Chrstina and Ben together thought they could do a one-day-a-week homeschooling program on the farm. And that went on for several years, and it was wonderful. And the boys just came to regard the farm as an extension of their home. They felt just as home on the farm as they did on our land.
Allen, what are your earliest memories of being on the farm?
Allen: I remember being with my brother lugging the chicken water to the chicken coop from the spigot—which is not a long distance—but I remember putting in a lot of effort to just cross that little distance. I remember it being really hard, but feeling proud. I have a lot more memories of my homeschool days. That’s where I formed and strengthened some life-long relationships, and that was the time when I really fell in love with exploring nature and the outdoors. I learned so many things that I still actually apply—and now as a camp counselor, we go hiking in the same woods that I did as a kid.
