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From the wood used to make the raised garden beds to the fertilizer blanketing the newly planted seedlings, the small farm that will be tended by campers at Calleva Outdoor Adventures is all about sustainability.

About 45 volunteers came to an annual Earth Day event at Calleva's 160-acre property in Dickerson on Saturday morning to help prepare the farm for the summer, when it will be the focus of the nonprofit's new Growing Green camp. The program is an outgrowth of the popular Building Green camp that focused on sustainable building. Campers will tend the farm, harvest crops and prepare them for consumption, such as by canning fruits and vegetables. The campers will also care for chickens and goats, make yogurt and cheese and perhaps run a farmer's market on Fridays, according to Director Karen Seibert.

"It was an idea we've had for a while," said Calleva instructor Ben Ritter, who is developing the camp. "We feed a lot of kids here, and we want to feed them better and produce less waste. …They'll get to eat things they plant and see the whole process."

Several of the camp sessions are full, Ritter said.

The farm features crop beds that utilize different types of cultivation methods to grow vegetables and herbs such as cabbage, onions, corn, garlic and rhubarb, and a fruit orchard is in the works.

Nearly everything used on the farm is sustainable, from the wood that is milled in-house to the fertilizer produced with the help of the camp's horses.

At Saturday's Earth Day event, volunteers shoveled compost, planted seedlings, maintained trails and saw how biodiesel fuel is produced.

"I thought it was really cool how they made a house out of hay bales," Nicki Goldstein, 15, of Rockville said of the sustainable building where staff makes biodiesel.

"I'd be interested in learning to make one of those myself," said Jessica Biaett, 17, of Gaithersburg.

This was the second time Calleva partnered on the event with Potomac Community Resources, a nonprofit that serves adults with developmental disabilities.

"Their Earth Day program is really important because it's inclusive of all types of people," said Abby Lubran, volunteer and program coordinator at PCR.

"I like doing this kind of stuff," said PCR member Glen Mountney, 48, of Rockville. "You've got to keep the environment up or it's not going to be there anymore."