The group of children sat whittling pieces of wood that had been split from a log. Hot coals had been used to burn a hollow into each block, and the children were paring away the excess wood to turn the block into a spoon. Squatting in front of them was Saskia Vanderhoop, who runs this remarkable program called Sassafras. She had brought in a bag of bright green boiled leaves, and passed it around for everyone to taste some. I couldn’t believe it when she told us it was milkweed! Boiled in two changes of water, it was mild as spinach but almost meaty in texture and flavor.

Everywhere I looked, there was something going on that I’d always wanted to try, or that I had never heard of but wanted to learn more about. Students learn to track animals through the woods and make fire by friction.Baking under the campfire was some pottery they had made in a previous class.

This is the summer camp I wanted to go to as a kid, had it existed — and I might still, since this summer there will be adult programs, too. Take the accumulated wisdom of native people the world over, add in Zen mindfulness and psychology, and shake well with a healthy dose of old-fashioned outdoor fun. You get Sassafras — ”nature connection, self awareness and community.”

Mrs. Vanderhoop and I sat to talk after the kids left for the day. She was born and raised in the Netherlands, married an American Indian, and lives surrounded by his tribe at the remote tip of a small, rural Island. In addition to running Sassafras and teaching salsa dancing classes at Island Cohousing and the Mansion House, she also studies the Wampanoag language, which is notorious among linguists for its guttural complexity. She and her children are surely among very few people in the world who speak both Wampanoag and Dutch. But for my benefit, she stuck to English:

“Kids need to be outside, they need to play! That’s how they learn to connect to nature and themselves.

“Especially boys, after a couple of days they get really grounded and start to see things and notice things they never would before. They’ll ask about a bird or a plant they saw from their sit spot, and these are kids who’ve been playing video games indoors their whole lives,” she marvels.

“All these kids go to school together, or they play hockey, or something — up-Island’s a pretty small place. We start getting strangers come summer, and you can really see the group dynamics after a couple of days. About the only really bad rainstorm we had, the group had been rather scattered. And they just came together to build a fire and make sure everyone was warm ... it was great to see.”

What if it really rains? Sassafras runs year-round; what if it’s cold out? Or if there’s lightning?

“We do have some indoor things we can do, like journaling and crafting,” she says.

“But the weather usually looks a lot worse from indoors: it might rain off and on, but not hard for long. We have lots of loaner clothes, because kids do show up wearing cotton. And being outdoors is still fun.”

Since she doesn’t make a fuss, the kids probably take the cue. Nobody has melted.

Though these Saturday Squirrels only attended once every two weeks, they took plenty of lessons home. Having drawn a picture of an unfamiliar plant, they took it home and hung it on the wall near the bed: each evening, it’s a reminder to check for ticks. They know how to recognize poison ivy, never cut towards themselves, and sheathe the knife if other people are too close. Sassafras teaches safety, and not just outdoor safety. One program, Girls in the Woods, is specifically designed to provide good female role models for young women, giving them the confidence to say no when they mean no and stay safe when they say yes. All of us, but girls in particular, periodically need a respite from the synthetic world with its treadmill of popularity. Presumably that’s why Sassafras has programs for everybody.

The weekend of the summer solstice, Sassafras is hosting a celebration. Running from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, the program will bring nature-minded adults together to “learn new skills and have fun outdoors.” After greeting the sun on Sunday (fitting) we have planned a traditional sweat lodge ceremony. I highly recommend this workshop for anyone who is interested in the outdoors, or traditional ways of living, or who is interested in meeting other nature-loving Islanders,” she says.

Sassafras’ remarkably reasonable prices are on a sliding scale; the kids programs, especially, can be cheaper than a babysitter. Barter is always an option too. Though Sassafras is a registered nonprofit, they receive no outside funding aside from occasional charitable donations. Saskia and her husband, David, do almost all the work involved: they are camp counselors and cooks and, if you ask nicely, will even help manhandle a bicycle into a car. (Dutch people are good at that.)

This Saturday, June 13, is Family Day for visitors: not only the Squirrels, but everyone who wants to come, is welcome starting at 1 p.m. So come on by and have a look: the kids will love it, and, even if you don’t have kids, you might just find yourself coming back.

To get to Sassafras: Take the bus to the Aquinnah town hall. Cross State Road to the old library building with its red paint and festoons of caution tape. That’s Church street; walk down it about a hundred yards to a sandy driveway forking off to the right, with a wooden sign that says SASSAFRAS in green letters. Walk down that driveway and keep going straight; they’re the second house on the right. Cell phones usually don’t work this far up-Island, but if yours does, and you get lost, the number is 508-645-2008. Their Web site is SassafrasMVY.org (not .com).