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While some youngsters lounge away the last days of summer on a couch with a bag of Cheetos in hand, a few are outside toting shovels, wheelbarrows and chicken feed.

They are the campers at Calleva Outdoor Adventures' Growing Green camp in Dickerson. Founded in 1994, Calleva now offers 46 camps during its 13-week summer session.

Growing Green, designed for 9 to 15 year olds, was introduced last summer with 140 registered campers. More than 110 registered this summer to work with 60 youngsters in a camp called Building Green, said Julie Clendenin, Calleva's outreach.

Growing Green Director Ben Ritter teamed with Calleva farm manager, Allan Finneyfrock, in January 2009 to plan a garden on an acre of Calleva Farm's horse pasture. The men worked together and with Growing Green campers, from April to October 2009, raised and harvested crops ranging from peas and carrots to hot peppers and kale. Ritter and the Growing Green team also helped raise chickens, which yield about 10 eggs per day, as well as roosters and pigs.

Campers become farmers in the program. On the first day of each week-long session, Ritter explains the farm's rules and demonstrates how to pull weeds and pick produce. Each youngster assumes a role on the farm and completes an activity during the week.

Campers also select a vegetable from the garden each day to supplement their lunch.

"I have kids that haven't tasted some vegetable, but they'll eat it because they helped grow it themselves," Ritter said.

Thursday brings a field trip to the Claude Moore Colonial Farm in McLean, Va., a replica of an 18th century farm, complete with costumed actors using period tools and heritage breed animals. The campers will sleep over at Calleva that night and prepare for a Friday farmers market where they sell the bounty that they have spent the week tending.

The camp costs $495 for five days, according to the Calleva website. The final 2010 session is running this week.

Ritter always has been interested in organic foods and making meals from scratch, he said. As a father, he advocates passing along the benefits of healthy eating and sustainable agriculture to the next generation.

"I'm definitely aware that most kids don't have any idea where their food comes from," Ritter said. "It bothers me when kids are really picky eaters, and I think it's just because they haven't been exposed to the right kind of foods and vegetables."

Campers from urban areas might be seeing food come out of the ground for the first time in their lives, Clendenin said.

Growing Green is not for couch potatoes; every camper gets put to work. Even youngsters who are compelled by parents to attend find a farm activity they enjoy, Ritter said.

"I'm never ordering people what to do, I always give them options. Feed pigs or stay here and pull weeds," he said.

Anna Velazco's 9-year-old daughter, Lily, attended a session of Growing Green and already looks forward to next year.

"As soon as she saw the farm she said ‘I'm going,'" said Velazco, of Washington, D.C. "It's adult work; it's not watered down for kids. She feels very grown up."

"I love farming and I love being outdoors and getting-messy stuff," said Lily, whose favorite activity was herding chickens.

Ritter hopes to create a Community Supported Agriculture program at Calleva Farm, where families or individuals would pay a seasonal lump sum for a weekly share of the farm's crops. Subscribers also would share the farm's risk, he said.

"Some weeks they might have a lot more than they can eat or some weeks it may not be as much."

But for now, Ritter is content to teach campers about good food and farming.

"Whether it's eating something that they've picked or moving the cows to a new pasture, something's going to get their attention and they'll enjoy it."

Staff writer Meghan Tierney contributed to this story.