Hamilton Pool Farms

One of the things I love most about Elder is that the medicine changes so beautifully through the seasons 🌿

Right now the Elder tree is covered in delicate white flowers that carry their own kind of magic. Elderflowers are traditionally used as a diaphoretic herb, helping the body gently sweat and move through fevers while also offering beautiful support for the respiratory system. They also make the most lovely cordials, teas, wines, and summer infusions.

And then later in the season… those same flowers transform into the deep purple berries we know and love.

Elderberries are one of my favorite herbs for supporting the immune system year-round, especially during times of illness or increased stress on the body. Rich in antioxidants and long revered in traditional herbalism, elderberry syrup has become a staple in our home.

There’s something so fascinating about watching one plant offer completely different medicine depending on its stage of growth.

The flowers.
The berries.
Same plant.
Different gifts 🤍

Reaping the fruits of their labor 🌿

Months ago, these students planted the tomatoes and basil growing in our garden. They helped w**d them, mulch them, water them, and care for them.

This week, they finally got to enjoy the harvest.

We turned those beautiful tomatoes and basil into a simple Italian feast: fresh Caprese made with garden tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, and balsamic vinegar.

We also harvested lemon balm from the garden, muddled fresh basil, and made a refreshing garden spritzer that quickly became everyone’s favorite.

And because we love a good experiment, we did a taste test.

I bought organic tomatoes from the grocery store and did a blind comparison to the tomatoes growing in our garden. The students tasted both and unanimously agreed…the garden tomatoes won by a landslide.

In fact, several children who were convinced they didn’t like tomatoes found themselves happily eating them straight from the garden.

There is something so beautiful about watching children experience the full journey of food.

Not just eating it.

Planting it.
Caring for it.
Harvesting it.
Preparing it.
Sharing it.

When children are part of the process, food becomes so much more than something that appears on a plate.

It becomes a story they helped create 🤍

Every summer, the bee balm calls.

Its vibrant blooms rise above the grasses, drawing in bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and herbalists too!

One of my favorite ways to work with this plant is as an oxymel: a simple preparation of fresh herbs, raw honey, and vinegar that captures the essence of the season in a jar.

As I harvest the flowers, I’m always reminded that medicine doesn’t begin in a bottle. It begins in relationship. In knowing the plant. Watching it grow. Noticing when it blooms. Harvesting it at just the right moment.

Bee balm is a beautiful ally for the respiratory system, offering support during times of congestion and seasonal illness. Its aromatic oils are warming, uplifting, and gently antimicrobial. Combined with raw honey and vinegar, it becomes both medicine and food—something that can be enjoyed by the spoonful, stirred into sparkling water, or drizzled over fresh summer vegetables.

There is something deeply satisfying about taking a plant from the garden and transforming it into something useful, beautiful, and nourishing.

This is the kind of herbalism I love most.

Rooted in the seasons. Rooted in the land. Rooted in relationship.

There is something profoundly different about learning when children get to live the entire experience 🌿

Months ago these students planted tiny kale seedlings in the garden. They cared for them, watched them grow through the season, harvested them with their own hands, washed them, and finally turned them into fresh strawberry banana kale smoothies.

This is what we love so much about Farm School.

Children don’t simply learn about food…they build a relationship with it.

They learn where nourishment comes from. They experience patience. They witness transformation and they discover that healthy food becomes a whole lot more exciting when they’ve helped grow it themselves.

From seed… to harvest… to nourishment 🤍

This is regenerative education.

Garden to Medicine Workshop is the first in what will become an ongoing series of herbalism classes,
rooted in working directly with the land.

This isn’t about pre-dried herbs or learning from a distance.

It’s about stepping into the garden, seeing what’s alive and growing, harvesting with your own hands, and turning those plants into beautiful, useful, and powerful remedies.

We’ll gather herbs straight from the land
L and work with them in their freshest, most vibrant state, creating teas and simple preparations you can bring into your everyday life.

This is how I love to teach…through experience, through connection, through actually being with the plants themselves.

And with the spring garden so full and alive right now,
it feels like the perfect time to begin 🌿

I’d love for you to join me.

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Farm School, every semester moves in rhythm with the season and every week carries its own theme within that larger arc.

This winter, we’ve been living into the themes of rest, patience, and tending what cannot yet be seen.

The children have been learning what happens beneath the surface in winter:
how seeds rest in dormancy,
how animals conserve energy,
how the Earth pauses…
and how even here in Texas, where the weather stays relatively warm, plants are responding not to temperature, but to light.

Last week, that learning came to life in so many beautiful ways 🌿

Some of our students created garden guardians from papier-mâché, inspired by old stories and folklore about how people once protected and honored their gardens through the quiet months.

Our Youngest students made bird feeders, offering a small act of care to our feathered friends during winter.

Our older students practiced winter garden stewardship: caring for tools, repairing what’s been used, and making their own tool box from reclaimed fence boards. Learning that winter isn’t a time of doing nothing… but a time of preparing.

This is what learning looks like here.
Seasonal. Hands-on. Meaningful.
Rooted in nature’s wisdom and carried in the body, not just the mind.

Winter teaches us that rest is not idle…it’s essential. 🤍

Winter at our farm nature school has its own kind of magic.
The pace slows. The light softens. The land grows quieter.

From the garden and the woods, to the warmth of the classroom, to the open space where children still run and play…this is a place designed for rhythm, belonging, and deep connection.

Winter isn’t a pause in learning here. It’s an invitation to listen, notice, and grow in quieter ways. 🤍