5-college Potluck recap

Last night, we had a fun gathering of mostly Mount Holyoke and Hampshire students for a potluck. As we ate and shared delicious home-cooked food, we discussed about the Real Food Summit coming up at Yale on Nov. 3-4th. In addition, we shared projects that are currently happening on each of the college's campuses revolving around the food movement. Below are the notes from the discussion:

Attendance: approx. 30 students from MHC and Hampshire

Agenda/Minutes:

Cooking/Greeting/Eating/Mingling

Group sharing on what the other five colleges are doing

Group breakup answering questions about Real Food Summit at Yale in November and action steps afterwards

Group discussion about what was discussed in the smaller groups

WHAT DO WE WANT TO BRING TO THE SUMMIT?
(These are questions and things to share with the other colleges in the Northeast)

Hampshire:

Integrating and bringing local food (BETTER food) to Dining Services

Hear about how other schools are networking

How do other schools interact with Dining Services, Student life, and how connect that to life after college

Share with other school our present actions with the farm, co-op, etc.

Mount Holyoke:

Hear about how other schools are dealing with seasonality (i.e. what do we eat when it’s not in season?)

How are other school funding for their farm/garden and food in dining halls?

Increase and connect with the surrounding community about local food

How can relate our space and what we’re doing on campus to the larger picture of the food movement

How to keep this movement going – passing on the torch to incoming students

How to communicate with administration and to end up with mutual goals

Incorporating the community building and fun aspect

How are other colleges dealing with timeline issues and keeping on schedule

WHAT DO WE WANT TO BRING BACK FROM THE SUMMIT?

Hampshire:

How can the campus café be more student-run

Networking skills

Domestic fair-trade

How to increase publicity

Ideas on how to communicate to Dining Services effectively

How to create levels of networking (i.e. local to regional)

How to get more hands-on student involvement (i.e. work-study or volunteers on food prep)

How to engage with other students and faculty who are not already involved with this

Continue 5-college interaction (have a post-summit conference!)

Mount Holyoke College:

How to create numeric goals with local food in Dining Halls (i.e. currently we have 4% local food. We should set a higher percentage goal!)

Bridging gaps between other orgs. & groups of different class, race, culture.

Communicate importance of food and making connections to food (i.e. Food is connected to health, ecology, culture, community, economics…so much more!)

Food and climate change

Food and personal food choices and its impacts

ACTION STEPS AFTER SUMMIT?

monthly 5 college mtgs

5 college conference with farmers and local producers and distributors

recruitment

connecting private vs. public schools

awareness and getting involved with the 5 college Dining Services committee

create a J-term class

collaborative 5 college & local vendors research about food distribution

give out CISA directories of local farms/markets

have a farm tour of the 5 college area!

Collaborating with processors and distributors

5 college network infrastructure

5 college agricultural/food certificate

create a 5 college contact/directory of point people and student orgs and community orgs involved with this food movement

Thank you to those who came and who shared your time and food!!!
Special thanks to those Mount Holyoke volunteers who helped cook, and clean!!

TENTATIVE POST-Summit 5 college Potluck/Meeting

Organizers: Gwen from Hampshire!, Morgan and Guenther from MHC!

Where: Hampshire

Date: Friday, November 9th (exact time TBD)

Goals:

Delegates share what they learned from the Summit

Elaborate on our Action Goals (from above) and delegate responsibilities

Plan the 5-college conference

Putting the Garden to sleep for the winter

Hello Folks!

Anna, Guenther, and Morgan had some help from about 6-8 lovely volunteers on Saturday Oct. 14th from 1:30pm-3:30pm. We gathered the pumpkin, potato, and acorn squash residue and took turns "wheel barrowing" to our compost pile. After the garden was cleared from most of the garden, we used hoes and shovels to turn over the soil and to make the soil loose for the oat seeds. We also even-ed out the soil from the beds along the pathways that were created this summer.

Working the soil was the hardest and labor intensive part of the work day on Saturday. But with good company and snacks from Guenther and Kate, we were all sustained in little ways. We then threw oats seeds throughout the garden which would serve as our cover crop.

From our preliminary research, oat seed was the best choice for cover cropping. Despite the late timing in cover cropping, there could still be potential for it to grow. According the UCDavis, oat seeds do fairly well in cool and moist weather conditions and will eventually winter kill but can still serve as mulch for erosion control and prevent weeds from sprouting.

More research still needs to be conducted on the germination of oat seeds and its benefits and potential problems.

Garden Project updates
Beth Hooker, Sandra Postel, Ruby Maddox, Sarah, Morgan, Guenther, and Anna met on Friday afternoon (Oct. 12th) to discuss the long-term plans for the Garden as well as the organization and roles of the students and administration. We are planning to meet again in the coming weeks to finalize all this. In the meantime, Morgan, Sarah, Guenther, and Anna are compiling documents/data/and notes about the Garden during the summer and what has been happening presently.

Garden Society updates
Now that the Harvest is over and Anna Lappe has gone, our current project is the Real Food Summit at Yale which will be happening on Nov. 3-4th. As a collective group, we chose Morgan, Guenther, Lena, and Elise as our delegates! Sarah Lince will be going as one of the planning committee members.
We have a Five College Potluck this coming Friday Oct 19th from 6-9pm at the Mount Holyoke FP house (across from the MHC gates and on 116), to discuss and have a dialouge about: What do we want to get out of the summit? How can we expand our networks among college campuses about local food? How can we incorporate local food onto college campuses? Come for some delicious food and a great discussion.
Please e-mail Sarah Lince: lince20s@mtholyoke.edu if you would like to help out.
Please e-mail Alison Grantham: grant20a@mtholyoke.edu if you would like to share something to eat.

Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures during our work day yesterday but it went very well and the weather was gorgeous. And...we made friends with a neighbor's cat after our work day! It was a nice way to end the day.

Thanks again to our wonderful volunteers who came to help out!!!

~Garden Love~

Local Gracious Recap and other updates...

The 2nd annual Local Gracious dinner was on Thursday September 27th in all the dining halls. We had several guests that joined the Garden Society as we ate together in Abbey-Buck: Beth Hooker, Sandra Postel, Ruby Maddox, and Ally Neher.

Unfortunately and fortunately everyone was so occupied with eating the delicious pumpkin soup, mashed potatoes, baked glazed acorn squash, and all the other local foods that we weren't able to get photos of the gastronomical experience.

However at all the dining halls, feedback posters were waiting for students to express their thoughts about their local food eating experience. Many students expressed through words and phrases while several drew images. There were many thanks to Dining Services for putting so much preparation and efforts in making the Local Gracious Dinner possible. Some of the comments that students left included:

"Unbelievable...absolutely delectable. I am forever gracious for this stupendous dinner. Thank you."

"This was the best gracious dinner I've experience in my 3 years @ Moho! Thanks!"

"Fresh home-grown food feeds the body GOOD!"

"OH My GOD sooooo good!!"

"I wish it was like this everyday!"

"The pie was amazing! And the fresh broccoli! I wish everything would taste this good all the time! Great job, everyone involved!"

"Yummy!"

"Yay for Dinning Services! Thank you!"


General Garden Society Updates:
1) At our meeting yesterday afternoon, we discussed briefly about our budget and possible ways to fund for the long-term and also what we should do with the money we currently have.

2) We will be having a garden "work day" TBD next weekend Oct 13th or the 14th to prepare the garden for the winter.

3) There was much discussion about the Real Food Summit at Yale University that is going to occur the first weekend of November (Nov. 3rd & 4th).
For more info visit: REAL FOOD SUMMIT

4) We need to raise $300 for the Real Food Summit so we are planning to use our extra pumpkins and acorn squash to make pies as a fund raiser!! If you would like to order one, please contact mhcgarden@gmail.com by Friday Oct 12th because we will be baking the pies next weekend and delivery them on Monday Oct 15th.

5) Keep an eye and an ear out for upcoming field trips to farms and cooking parties as well as potlucks!!!

If you get the chance to explore the Pioneer Valley, visit some of the farms around the area! There's an amazing farming community here in Western Mass. Pioneer Valley Farm Directory

In addition, Guenther has recommended these places to visit:
People's Pint - restaurant in Greenfield
Food For Thought - bookstore in Amherst
Hungry Ghost - bakery in Northhampton
Cafe Evolution - in Florence

If you get the chance to ride your bike, go for some ice cream! Some local, delicious ice cream places where they homemade their treats:

McCray's Farm
55 Alvord St.
South Hadley, MA

Cooks Farm/Falyvors
125 Maple St.
Hadley, MA

Harvest Extravaganza Recap

On September 23, the MHC Student Garden had its first annual HARVEST EXTRAVAGANZA! As noted by Anna in her post below, all in attendance had a blast-- between the delicious apples, cider donuts and cider from Atkins Farm (Amherst, MA), making new friends and learning harvest skills with others; creating our beautiful banner, to the petrol-free harvest parade where we delivered all of the garden produce to dining halls around campus.

I've posted below some photos that the illustrious pumpkin-pie baking, produce-weighing mistress herself (Allison Grantham) took throughout the day. Check 'em out!






Waiting for the harvest to begin!
All told, we had about 75 folks join us.

Garden folks digging for potatoes in Plot F

Gettin' our hands dirty in Plot E

Beth Hooker and Allison Grantham,
weighing in the final harvest

Dana Lindsay, helping out with the harvest

Lovely people exhibiting their artistic inclinations on the banner

Check out those veggies!

Loading up the harvest produce in carts to deliver around campus

The parade, just getting started at the Delles-- produce in tow!

1st Annual MHC Harvest Festival Parade-- success!

Food, Politics, and Social Change

Anna Lappe came to our campus on September 26th to deliver a speech entitled The Power of the Plate. Nearly 300 people from MHC and the Five College area came to hear Anna. Sarah, Morgan, Guenther, and I got the opportunity to meet her before she spoke to the rest of the MHC Community at the Odyssey and we spoke to her about our garden. She seemed really down to Earth and we were so happy to have her at Mount Holyoke.

Erin Coates '08 talking to Anna and getting her book signed afterwards


From left to right: (Top Row) Ruby Maddox, Sarah Lince, Anna Wei, Beth Hooker, Ally Neher, Sandra Postel/ (Bottom Row) Morgan Lindsay, Anna Lappe, Elise Evans

LISTEN to Anna Lappe's Speech (approx 1 hour)

Harvest Scars and Success!

I remember coming home when I was 12 years old and encountering my mom's boyfriend, who stared at the scars on my legs and told me that "nice girls" shouldn't let there legs get all beaten up. Aside from being awkwardly uncomfortable by his comment, I nodded, ignored what he said, and continued to get scars on my legs. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I purposely get my legs all bloody and bruised. I still wonder how in the world some women can keep their legs all nice and smooth unless they don't leave the indoors. OK, so maybe I'm less careful than other women.

But to me, I don't regret the scars that I have. To me, they are each beautiful because they remind me of the all the experiences that I had. There is one on my elbow from falling off my bike when I first learned how to ride. There is a few on my ankles when I got badly bitten in the Amazon. And there's a whole bunch I got this summer working at the farm. And alas, as I was taking a shower after our harvest this afternoon, I found a huge, bumpy bruise on my left shin - probably from when I slipped after the wheel barrow got caught on a rock. (Please, ladies, be a little more careful than me!) As I silently cursed myself for inviting another bruise on my leg, I also chuckled at myself for being silly and reminiscing how wonderful the harvest was today. Not only did it take us 25 minutes to harvest all the pumpkins, acorn squash, and potatoes in our 1/2 acre garden, but we were also able to "parade" through the campus to deliver our produce carbon-free to our dining halls. (us & we being 30+ student volunteers!)

I'm sure I can speak for the rest of the crew (Morgan, Sarah, and Guenther) that we cannot begin to express our thankfulness to all the students (and Beth Hooker!) that came to help with the harvest. They came willing to spend their Sunday afternoon and reconnect with the food, the land, and with each other. That to me was beautiful despite how crazy I felt this afternoon and how painful my bumpy bruise is. And of course, this would not have been possible without the support of the faculty and staff. And most importantly, thank you to our summer interns (Morgan, Sarah, and Ally), who spent all summer growing the food!

But it is not over! We harvested, but the best part is yet to come! Our produce will be cooked by our lovely Dining Services for our Local Gracious Dinner on Thursday September 27th and served from 5-7pm at all the dining halls. The other produce will be from other local farms around the area.

Stay tuned for some more garden updates!

Garden love,
Anna

Happy Fall!

After a month without water, it finally rained last week relieving us of the dry spell that farms all over Massachusetts and probably New England were facing. And like many typical days after New England rain, the exact opposite weather appeared the next day: sunny, blue skies, and hands down beautiful. There was a cool, crisp smell in the air that reminded many of us that fall is finally here.

Just this past week, the Center for the Environment hired three students to manage the Garden. Morgan Lindsay '09, former Summer Garden Intern, will take the position as the Garden Project Coordinator. Layton Guenther '09 and Anna Wei '09 have both been hired as the Garden Co-Managers. We also held our first Garden Society meeting this past Friday and we are happy to say there were many interested students in attendance. As Morgan, Sarah, Guenther, and Anna explained the history and mission of the Garden, we also discussed upcoming important dates, possible field trips, and how students can get involved in this new and wonderful project!

CROP/GARDEN UPDATES:
Anna and Guenther have taken the water responsibilities from Morgan and Sarah. The pumpkins, squash, and potatoes are ready for harvesting! Aside from the few occasional grubs and bugs, the crops are doing well.

Important Upcoming Dates:

Friday September 21st
Next Garden Society Meeting
4pm @ Wilder ALL WELCOME!

Sunday September 23rd
HARVEST EXTRVAGANZA!!!
1pm (note change!) @ the Garden (on top of Prospect hill)
We will be harvesting our pumpkins, squash, and potatoes for our Local Gracious Dinner in all the dining halls. Around 3pmish, we will hold a Harvest Parade through campus and deliver our produce to the dining halls! Please come when you can!

Post-Harvest Extravaganza...
Pumpkin Pie Making!! In Dickinson House for the Garden Tea for Faculty&Staff the next day. Contact grant20a for more info.

Tuesday September 25th
Garden Tea with Garden Project Team and Faculty & Staff
4pm @ Cassani Lounge in Shattuck Hall

Wednesday September 26th
ANNA LAPPE!!!
7pm @ Hooker Aud.
More Info: Anna Lappe Talk

Thursday September 27th
LOCAL GRACIOUS DINNER
5-7pm @ all the MHC Dining Halls

Friday September 28th
Dance,Music,Celebration Garden Party (TBD)

INTRODUCING THE....Co-Garden Managers!! (please do applaud...)

Layton Guenther

Hey! My name’s Layton Guenther, class of 2009, and I’m a Critical Social Thought major from a small suburb outside of New York City (Pelham, NY). My involvement with the MHC Student Garden stems from my relatively new passion for examining the politics of food production, both in certain historically agriculture-centered communities across the globe and in our own backyards here in the Pioneer Valley. Last summer I worked on a soil remediation project in New Orleans, LA, where I had my first taste (literally) of organic food growing in a small community garden, and spent my last few weeks of August working at Red Fire Farm over in Granby, MA. Having spent the whole summer working with those wonderful folks this past summer of ’07, I came back to MHC craving the rewarding, if not dirty, work of making food grow. Besides farming, I’d have to say that making music, riding my bike and cooking delicious food are some things that make my little heart skip a beet. (Get it?)

Anna Wei

As an Environmental Studies major concentrating in Sustainable Food Systems, Anna Wei first became interested in sustainable agriculture when she attended a summer program at in ecovillage in Brazil learning about permaculture. It was there that she began to realize the importance of food and its relation to everything: culture, health, politics, economics, and the environment. This past summer, she started her first growing season as an intern at a 10-acre CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm in Waltham, Ma (Waltham Fields Community Farm). She wants to continue with small-scale, organic farming in hopes to build stronger, healthy, and local communities that are connected with their food and land. Anna has also developed a recent fascination with the ecological relationships of insects in agriculture. When she is not at the Garden, you can find her exploring the outdoors, playing the guitar, or eating yummy food.