Join our mailing list:

by VT-Ecuador Semester students…

News from Trollhaugen Camp by Marion Lang This week we finished up our "cordura" backpacks and our antler-handled knives, which slid smoothly into leather, covered wooden sheaths. We had a very hilly bike ride to Green Mountain Orchard where we picked 13.5 huge 800lbs crates of apples. Then we loaded our backpacks with apples and biked back over Putney Mountain to Newfane. On Friday Elizabeth came to teach us circle dancing in the big Yurt. It was the first time for most of us and we all found it fun trying to keep up with the steps and sometimes just letting go and flowing with the music. On Saturday we paddled down the Deerfield River's release in canoes. It was exciting, as most of us had never been on white-water before. We learned to catch eddies and at the end we canoed down a big rapid called Zoar Gap. Every single one of us (except the teachers) flipped our canoes somewhere during or shortly after the rapid! It was scary losing control of our canoes but it was also an incredible learning experience once we looked back at the rapid. On Saturday night we had a lovely evening of music with our neighbors, Johanna and Bahman. It was fun to play music and sing together as a large community. We have just finished choosing big jobs for the semester. These are large responsibilities which each student remains with and develops throughout the semester. The list of big jobs is as follows: Hannah - Food Processor Issac - coordinator, logistics, navigator Emil - mechanic, energy, weather Marion - mail, scribe, flight manager, treasurer Charlie - photographer, organic Farmer Ashandra - gear manager, food manager Donovan - wilderness master, water Eric - hygiene, shaman, medic Ari - Spanish Guru Community News During the past week we were privileged to have two wonderful guest speakers and one guest teacher share with our community. Our first guest, Bill White, spent the afternoon talking about how he runs his business and relates the strategies of Aikido to everyday life. Thank you Bill! Later in the week Misha spent an evening with us sharing his vision for Kroka as well as telling us the story behind the name. Both speakers were extremely inspirational and their talks have inspired many group discussions. After a beautiful slide show about exploring the mountains. Mathias taught us the basics of backpack designing, making and sewing. Light is right! Thanks Mathias! Thanks to Green Mountain Orchard. At their farm we picked 10,800 pounds of apples, in return we got 200lbs of apples to take home for processing (apple sauce, cider, apple butter, pie, and dried apples). Kroka Expeditions would like to thank families who are willing to increase their tuition and help meet the program's budget. Thank you Carla and Kerst for offering a Camphill van . This is a $50 savings per family. That will take us to and from the airport.

More NEWS!!! In about two weeks we will be leaving for Ecuador. We will be staying in various indigenous communities and would like to bring some useful gifts for them. We already have a few here at camp, but would really appreciate more donations from the community. A list of suggested donations… Small common tools such as: draw knives, knives, sharpening stones, small gardening tools… School supplies such as: colored and regular pencils, beeswax crayons, paints, sharpeners, rulers, scissors, world maps, erasers. For more information please call Lisl. (802) 365-9786.

Recipe of the week!!...by Hannah Week 2 rolls around at Kroka and yet another one of our delicious (and vague) recipes finds itself in this column for you to attempt in your kitchen! This particular recipe, which we like to call Apple-Crumble-Pie-Stuff, involves taking a buttered brownie-sized pan and filling it up with sliced apples. Next, a doughy mixture should be created by stirring together flour, sugar, and butter, until a nice pleasant substance has formed. This is the part where you should get creative because you can vary the ratio of flour to sugar to butter as you see fit for such a pie. Once this mixture has been made, it can be crumbled over the top of the apples until they are covered. Then, cinnamon and sugar can be added on top until the surface of the pan is lightly coated. Lastly, you stick it in a hot oven until the top is golden brown or to your liking and… VOILA! Eat up and enjoy!

Environmental Fact!… by Issac After completing an environmental footprint quiz, we determined that if everyone lived as we do here at Kroka, it would take nine tenths of a planet to sustain the population of the earth. We completed the same exercise with the twelve of us living in a city and determined that it would take three and a half planets to sustain us. Ufff!