Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm

Program Type: 
Academic Classrooms, Garden Classrooms, Farm Based
Grade Level/Age Group: 
High School, Middle School, Upper Elementary, Lower Elementary, Kindergarten, Pre-Kindergarten
Number of Individuals Program Serves: 
500
Year Founded: 
2015
About the Program: 

Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm (SWSF) is a not-for-profit, preschool through 12th grade school in Sonoma County, California. We are one of the only schools in the U.S. with a working Biodynamic farm that is integrated into the curriculum (preK-12). At the farm, students have the opportunity to learn many basic skills that are rapidly becoming lost in today's industrialized society. By tending soil, turning the compost, planting perennial gardens, harvesting vegetables for soup, caring for farm animals, and pruning and grafting, each student gains a deeper awareness of the natural world. The younger students play on the farm, sowing and harvesting and tending the animals.  In the upper grades, students practice plant propagation, study and cultivate healing plants, and learn about nutrition through cooking, drying and processing food. SWSF currently provides an affordable school lunch program to high school students, using local, seasonal, organic and Biodynamic produce from the farm. Thanks to the recent installation of an industrial kitchen, the lunch program will soon roll out to the rest of the school. 

SWSF is deeply committed to preserving and maintaining the farm and the attached open space. That commitment to the land was affirmed in 1983 with a legally binding Land Trust requiring the school to protect and nurture the land and the wild life refuge in perpetuity.

Program Members: