If you strolled into MoCon last Thursday evening expecting the usual, then you might have been surprised by the fresh cuisine ranging from pumpkin pies to stir fries and chicken kebabs. These dishes were part of MoCon’s first-ever Local Farmers’ Dinner to celebrate the fall harvest.
The array of food was prepared from fresh produce supplied by various local farms, including student-run Long Lane Farm. “It was fantastic,” said Peter Gilchrist ’10. “A lot of the food was of higher quality and you could see it was fresh.”
For some, though, the quality of the food was almost secondary to the statement being made by the banquet itself.
“I was glad to see students, and especially Aramark, banding together to support local farms,” said Emily Greenhouse ’08.
The idea for the dinner originated when Senior Food Service Director Bridgett Stapleton and the dining team looked for ways to highlight dining services’ changing attitude towards local foods. She said the University is planning to buy more local produce this year than ever before.
“If you don’t celebrate it at one event, the message tends to get lost,” Stapleton said.
She also saw the banquet as a unique way to promote and educate students about the University’s own student-run farm at Long Lane.
“They are doing great work and this helps create awareness on campus,” she said.
Long Lane Farm, though not big enough to provide all the food supplies for the banquet, contributed to the dinner with the likes of potatoes, carrots, cabbage, sage, and hot pepper. It was a task made possible, in part, by students’ hard labor over the summer.
“This summer we decided to build about 100 beds, and were able to get 90 done,” said Emily Keeler ’07, one of a few students who worked at the farm over the summer. “We did not plant as fully as we could. It is not even a matter of labor, money, [or] seeds. It is mostly about planning ahead of time.”
The plan for the summer was to double the cultivated area from a half to a full acre.
In addition to Keeler, three full-time paid interns, Margaret De Bona ’06, Owen O’Connor ’06, and Kevi Mace ’07, worked at making the goal a reality.
The success of this plan was an illustration of great progress made since the summer of 2004, when the farm consisted of merely a circular bed with perennial herbs and tomatoes. While focusing mainly on increasing the quantity of the crops already grown at the farm, the students still managed to introduce new items such as hot peppers, a selection of heirloom potatoes, dry beans, and cabbage to the variety.
The increased production allowed for another first-time adventure: a chance to set up a farm stand outside the Community Health Center in Middletown’s North End over the summer.
“That part of Middletown doesn’t have access to fresh, organic local vegetables [and] we wanted to sort of try to connect with the community,” Keeler said.
At first, the stand attracted people who specifically sought to support local farmers, but over time, the dynamics changed as regular shoppers got excited about buying fresh, healthy vegetables.
“People were very excited about it,” said Sally Smyth ’07. “The whole idea was to provide fresh produce at competitive prices.”
Student farmers unanimously stressed that the purpose behind the farm stand was more outreach-oriented than financially motivated.
“We didn’t make much money and it was not the most productive way to move the produce, but it allowed us to do food outreach in Middletown,” said Mace, who has been farming at Long Lane since her freshman year.
According to Mace, the expansion of the farm is not over yet. The next step forward will be to plow and plant a full second acre of adjoining land with compost crop.
“This is to make us more self-sufficient,” she said.
Increasing compost is a high priority for the farm as it helps provide nutrition to fertilize and condition the land.
Growing areas of cultivation, though, also guarantees growing financial challenges. According to Smyth, who has been active at the farm since she was a sophomore, access to alumni for donations is very limited, and while the Student Budget Committee (SBC) does provide money for projects, the burden of finding support for the summer internships falls on the students.
One idea being considered for future long-term stability is the notion of turning the farm into an NGO, a non-governmental organization.
“My hope is to try to establish the most sustainable institution [and] having to worry less about the financial aspects,” Smyth said.
For the immediate future though, the discussions at the farm will revolve around the upcoming autumn festival—Pumpkin Fest—on Oct. 8. The tentative plans include facilitating workshops as diverse as beekeeping and converting cars to biodiesel fuel. Complete with grilling burgers, various bands and numerous games, the event will mark yet another celebration of the fall harvest.
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