Long Lane Farm will be growing this summer, in more ways than one. Students plan to increase the cultivation area to a full acre, expanding into the surrounding land owned by the University.
“We only planted around one-half, maybe a little less, of the acre last summer, so the expansion just means we’re actually going to plant on the whole acre,” said Rachel Ostlund ’08.
According to Ostlund, who worked as a full-time intern at the farm last summer, the expanded cultivation area will increase the club’s produce in order to keep up with growing demand.
“Last summer it was stressful to know that every week, 11 people were going to come out to the farm and expect loads of vegetables, but at the same time, it was really motivating and exciting, since we’d work all week and then make some big, beautiful display with all our produce.”
Long Lane Farm is completely organic and produces over 40 different types of vegetables and herbs. This includes tomatoes, broccoli, kale, carrots, lettuce, kohlrabi, beets, corn, beans, eggplants, zucchini, pumpkins, and squash. New this year will be a garlic crop.
“We’re not adding so much as we are simply growing more of everything we grew last year,” Ostlund said.
Farm programs include the Community Supported Agricultural Project (CSA), which is made up of community members who support the garden. By paying a fee, they receive a share of the produce every week for 10 weeks. Each pays $350, of which $150 is a donation to make produce available to food-insecure people. Members also participate in the distribution process by manning the tables every week to help pass out food to the other members.
“Last year we had 11 families receiving half shares, but this year we’ll have 10 families receiving full shares,” Ostlund said.
According to Kevi Mace ’07, who helped out at the farm last summer, the group hopes to set up a farm stand in Middletown. The stands will be located in a low-income area of Middletown, and while they will not yet be able to accept food stamps, they hope to in the future. In addition, the CSA will continue to donate surplus food to St. Vincent DePaul’s Soup Kitchen, which they did every week last year.
“We want to put [it] somewhere in the downtown area,” Mace said. “We want to work on food security [and] target people who can’t afford to join the CSA.”
Mace will again be one of the three full-time interns who will run the farm this summer. In addition to the other two interns, Margaret De Bona ’06 and Owen O’Connor ’06, Emily Keeler ’07 will stay and work for part of the summer. Their salaries, $3600 each, will come from a variety of sources, including money from the CSA, one internship from the Environmental Studies Department, money from the WSA, and independent fundraising done by the club.
“We don’t really have any good source of funding,” Ostlund said. “Right now it’s all pieced together from different places, which is really difficult and fairly time consuming, especially since all the funding sources are only temporary. This year it’s been especially hard…at $3600 a piece, that’s a lot of bake sales.”
In addition, Ostlund said, they hope to set up a system to allow students in nearby cities to visit for a weekend, stay with a farm intern, and volunteer for a few days. They are also hoping to again receive help from students in the Middletown High School Vocational Agriculture program. Three high school students worked at the farm the previous summer for a six-week period.
“The girls working with us [last summer] were really great,” Mace said. “I think the feedback’s been really positive…there are a lot of people in Middletown that are really willing to help us [and] donate experience, machinery, and a lot of other things.”
The Long Lane Farm Club was started in 2004 and now has more than 50 members. Workdays at Long Lane Farm are usually every Saturday and Sunday, and meetings are every Sunday night at 9 p.m. in the Woodhead Lounge. Students can also email Ostlund at rostlund@wesleyan.edu to be added to the farming listserv.