g n i w o r G
BUSINESS BUZZ
COMMUNITY by Michael J. DeCicco
The holistic farm, market, classroom, and kitchen known as Round the Bend Farm (RTB) in South Dartmouth is not easy to access – it’s down a winding end of Russells Mills Road at 92 Allen Neck Road
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ut the programs there are worth making the trip. Amid a slew of educational and farming programs, agricultural entrepreneurs, and farmland, an important component of the farm sticks out: the Elements Learning Collaborative. Elements is a nonprofit organization that since 2018 has provided children and families with holistic outdoor education, using sister nonprofit RTB as a home base. Elements’ co-founder Cristy O’Brien said the working farm and education center is “an alternative opportunity for schooling children and community members and connecting them with nature. Our mission is to provide holistic, joyful, and meaningful educational experiences for a diverse group of children and families.” The programs include the Elements Nature Program, a full-day holistic alternative to traditional nature learning for 4-10 year olds. There's
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also Family Days, for an entire family; Summer Camp; Homeschooling Discussions; and Elements at Home, a combination of virtual and downloadable curriculum. (For more information on these programs, visit elementslearning.org.) The collaborative's home, the 115-acre Round The Bend Farm, was established in 2013 with the financial support of the Bromley Charitable Trust and a plethora of other funders. It contains fields with a diversity of herbs, fruits, and vegetables, as well as grazing chickens, cows, goats and pigs. In the middle of the farm are two clapboard, wood-frame, pine wall board buildings connected by an open-air breezeway. One building contains a spacious and airy kitchen and dining area. The other features a post and beam auditorium-sized hall for classrooms and a market for the colder seasons. An Open Farm Day that offers tours
November 2023 | The South Coast Insider
of the farm every third Saturday of the month through December features for sale organic vegetables, fruits, jams, and prepared foods from the farm’s own crops, and meat from its own “agripreneurs’” animals – not to mention live music. Next to one of the chicken pens at the farms’ entrance, a canvas yurt can be seen among the trees. It is here where the Elements Learning Collaborative classes and camps are based.
Setting roots
Executive Director and Co-Founder Desa Van Laarhoven describes the farm as “a restorative community and ecosystem filled with vibrant and diverse people and other living creatures.” Its mission and goals, she said, are to act as a living laboratory to educate and empower people of all ages. “We believe in hope and abundance and strive to model
