Growing 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. But 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 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 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 nature, redefine wealth, and value diversity,” she said.

The farm does this by hosting field trips with thousands of kids each year to teach them everything about sustainability and social justice.

“Sustainability means living in a way that is in harmony with nature and humanity,” Van Laarhoven explained. “Social justice is living in balance with humanity by being open-hearted and open to diversity and differences.”

She illustrated these points by noting the farm starts its tours with the Wampanoag Wetu (hut) which was built last year by Annawon Weeden of the Wampanaog Masphee tribe. Doing so shows young visitors that Native Americans were here before us and can still teach us the ways of nature.

In late September of 2022, the farm hosted a Powwow with Weeden to further connect the public to the culture and tradition of local Native Americans; a little over 2,000 people participated.

“I have learned so much from my Native American friends on how to be in balance with nature and all living creatures. Folks in their tribe who were different are revered and their opinions valued,” Van Laarhoven said. “I studied biology in college, where I believed diversity is key to nature’s success. If there was a group of diverse people who were given a problem to solve, if they truly listened to each other, I believe the problem would have many different and holistic solutions."

The farm's future, she said, will include a Manifest Love Food Truck, funded by the Red Sox organization's Jean Yawkey Foundation, that will travel the South Coast area this fall supporting RTB program partners with education and nutrition, and which will be led by Van Laarhoven’s brother, RTB Executive Chef and Kitchen Director Shawn Van Laarhoven. The truck is an outgrowth of the Manifest Love program the farm started during the COVID pandemic in 2020 to provide services such as bags of foods and advice on healthy eating to the 120 clients of its partners: NorthStar Learning Centers, the YWCA, Youth Opportunities Unlimited, and Sacred Birthing Village, which advocates for mothers of color.

“The biggest thing I hear from visitors is that they feel so calm and loved,” Van Laarhoven said. “A sense of peace while they’re here. Their senses are filled. It smells so good here, they say. Just listen to nature’s sounds!

“We’re proud that we’re living our mission – walking our talk,” she said. For more information, visit roundthebendfarm.org, or visit the farm yourself at 92 Allen Neck Road in South Dartmouth.