“We found some squash that looks like it’s ready to pick!”

“There’s a jackpot over here!”

An exuberant group of tweens spends each Friday morning trawling through the junior gardeners’ plot at the NOPL at Cicero LibraryFarm as part of a 14-week nature camp. On July 17, they were counting radish seedlings, harvesting fistfuls of peas and beans and looking for their unofficial toad mascot, Bomber.

“He dive-bombed out of somebody’s hand,” explained camper Adriana.

“This is the third year we’ve had a junior LibraryFarm activity going on,” said children’s librarian Nicole Hershberger, who helped LibraryFarm Coordinator Adrienne Canino develop the curriculum for the 14-week nature camp.

Hershberger leads a dozen or so kids in learning basic plant biology, ecology, food systems and garden care. Much of their education takes place outside, either in the LibraryFarm plots or elsewhere on the library’s property.

“The goal is to get kids comfortable with gardens and comfortable with the outdoors in a way they might not be,” Hershberger said. “We’re trying to get a balance between the educational aspect and fun so it’s not too much like school.”

Last week, the group tested the air quality around the library by examining the particles stuck to pieces of Vaseline-smeared acrylic that the kids had placed in strategic locations. While some of their samples were “not too gunky,” thankfully for library patrons breathing the air on Knowledge Lane, others snagged pollen, dust and insects.

One camper, Julissa, said, “When my mom said nature camp, I was like, ‘yes!’ right away because I love nature.”

When Hershberger rounded up the troops to go into the library to fill out their nature journal — a repurposed wallpaper book — the children asked for more time outside.

“These are the kids that are going to be environmentalists in the future,” said branch manager Jill Youngs. “The kids aren’t here because they have nothing else to do — they’re here because they already dig this stuff.”

LibraryFarm Nature Camp takes place from 10 to 11 a.m. every Friday through Aug. 14 at NOPL at Cicero, located at 8686 Knowledge Lane. There is still room for about five more campers, so call 699-2032 or visit nopl.org to register.