WILDCRAFTER’S WORKSHOP
Heeks Farm Wildcrafter's Workshop is an immersive, hands-on camp where kids learn core wilderness skills—such as building shelters, firecraft, cooking outdoors, and making useful tools from stones and plants.
Ages: 9-12
Location: Our 75-acre farm in Rougemont
Time: 8:30 AM – 3:30 PM (M-F)
Dates: June 15-19, June 22-26, July 6-10, July 13-17
What is WILDCRAFTER’S WORKSHOP?
A program for kids 9-12 interested in nature knowledge, functional crafts, and wilderness skills on our 75-acre farm with forests, open fields, creeks, and springs. Each day is balanced between specialized skill instruction, free nature exploration, hammock time, and games.
-
Shelter building: tarp tents, lean-to, leaf hut, or anything else you can imagine with sticks, logs, branches, leaves, grass and mud
Fiber: make string and rope from native plants, learn useful knots, use vines and grasses to make baskets
Firecraft: learn the recipe for bringing fire to life, focusing on tinder collection, kindling, fire construction, and making fire from a spark
Cooking with fire: learn some basic techniques using rocks and sticks to cook food.
Flint knapping: learn the basics of making tools from stone
Plant and animal identification: learn how to id trees, plants and animals
-
Games in the field and forest: animal tag, capture the flag, sharks and minnows
Games in and around the barn: ping pong, foosball, 4-square, games with balls
Board and card games
Reading or relaxing in a hammock
-
50 acres of forests with trails
25 acres of fields
Creeks, springs, and pond
A barn with a kitchen and bathroom
Blueberries and blackberries to pick
weekly themes
-
the shelter
June 15-19
Focus: Engineering, knots, and natural architecture. The shelter is our first connection to the land. We begin the week by mastering the tools of the trade—tarps, ropes, and essential knots. Once we understand the basics of site selection, we move into the deep woods to build using what the forest provides.
The Craft: Master the taut-line hitch and square lashing; build leaf huts, lean-tos, and explore the basics of wickiups and teepee structures.
The Surprise: Using mud, pine needles, and grass to weatherproof our shelters, then enhancing our structures for stability and comfort by building bedding, furniture or kitchen areas.
-
Firecraft and cooking
June 22-26
Focus: Fire construction, heat and insulation, and cooking techniques. There is nothing more magical or useful than starting a fire. This week is all about the secret of the spark, the science of heat, and the joy of working with your hands. We move from the three-rock fire to the construction of our own miniature clay earth ovens.
The Craft: Master flint-and-steel ignition and fire safety; build a functional clay oven; learn underground roasting and open-fire griddle cooking.
The Surprise: We’ll head to the farm’s fields to harvest sun-ripened blackberries and blueberries, then spend the afternoon transforming them into delicious treats!
-
weaver's workshop
July 6-10
Focus: Plant wisdom, fiber art, and weaving. There is a world of resources hidden in the forest and fields. This week is about learning to see the plants not just as greenery, but as the raw materials for everything we need. We’ll spend our mornings slowing down to learn the meditative rhythms of processing fiber and weaving vine.
The Craft: Plant identification; master the two-ply twist to make cordage; and learn the foundational techniques to create a functional basket from wild vines or bark.
The Surprise: With baskets complete, we’ll head to the creek and the deep woods on a quest using our handmade gear to forage for natural treasures.
-
tools of the hunt
July 13-17
Focus: Flint knapping, glue making, and carving with stone. This week, we become tool-makers of the ancient world. We’ll learn to identify the right stones and plants to create tools that actually work.
The Craft: Practice the art of flint knapping to create sharp stone flakes and points; harvest and cook down pine sap to create pine-pitch glue; and learn to use stone flakes to carve spears. We’ll scout the forest for the perfect sticks to use for our wooden spears and atlatls.
The Surprise: The week culminates with attaching a stone flake or point to a wooden shaft. Afterwards, we’ll head to the range to test our tools for distance and accuracy.
sample daily schedule
Meet the Instructor
My name is David Heeks, and I am the founder and owner of Heeks Farm. I’m so excited to be starting the Wildcrafter’s Workshop at the farm. It has been a dream of mine for many years. I have 2 boys (17 and 14). I have volunteered as a soccer coach, a Sunday school teacher, a mountain biking coach, and led clubs at my kids’ elementary school. I started working as a substitute teacher during the pandemic at Central Park School for Children, including as a 4th-grade teacher for 2 quarters. I have a passion for the outdoors and enjoy backpacking. I most recently hiked 900 miles of the Pacific Northwest Trail (600 of which were with my son, who was 13 at the time).
When I discovered stone tools on the farm that were 10,000 years old, I began investigating our ancestors' technologies. Reading Jean M. Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear further sparked my curiosity. I’m not a survivalist expert, but I love learning new ways to use the natural resources around us to produce useful and beautiful objects. I love spending time in nature and connecting deeply with the wilderness. I'm always going to lift a rock in the creek to see what’s underneath. As a child, I used to venture into the woods to build forts, make fires to heat cans of soup, and hunt for arrowheads. I love cooking, playing board games, and reading in a hammock.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
$395 per week
-
We are enrolling 12 kids per week. We will have two adult leaders each week for a 6:1 student-to-leader ratio.
-
Each day, your child should bring a small backpack (no roller wheels or one strap sachels) containing a full water bottle, a sack lunch, snacks for morning and/or afternoons, sunscreen, insect repellent, an extra pair of socks, and shoes for creek stomping (closed toe shoes only). Your child is welcome to bring a book or sketchpad. Please note that your child will be walking around the farm with the backpack.
-
Please leave all electronic devices at home.
-
There are ticks everywhere in NC. I encourage you to treat your child’s clothes with an insect repellent and apply bug spray to your child. They are welcome to bring insect repellent and we will help them apply it if necessary. We will train all participants on what ticks look like and how to remove them properly, providing assistance whenever necessary. We will encourage children to check for ticks during the day, and we encourage you to conduct a thorough search after camp.
-
No. We provide all specialized materials, including flint and knapping stones, fire kits, safety glasses, rope, and craft supplies.
-
Camp is run from our main barn area, which provides campers with access to a flush toilet and hand-washing sink.