Fall 2017, Business & Operations Internship: Tracking Progress, Developing Systems and Setting Goals for 2018

by Kristen McDowell, Environmental Studies, ' 19

I started working at the farm part time during the summer of 2017. Although I was only there for about twenty hours per week, I quickly learned the ins and the outs of the farm and the practices we use. I depended heavily on my experienced co-workers to teach me how to work with the tools I was given and to tell me what to do next. It wasn’t until the last few weeks of the summer that I finally felt like I knew what I was doing, and could be the one to guide others down at the site. As the school year was approaching, the farm crew and Kristyn were sorting through a devastating yield of garlic (due to the leek moth) when Kristyn asked us if we were interested in doing an internship at the farm for the semester. After a lot of thought, I decided that I was not ready to give up my time at the farm and that this opportunity would be too good to pass. In the 2017 fall semester, I took on the Business and Operations Internship.

I worked on the farm for about twelve hours a week and spent another three hours entering in harvest, sales, and donation data. I also led crews of volunteers on the site to assist me in my duties for the day. My ability to lead and assist people at the farm has progressed greatly over the past few months, but there is always room for improvement. While at the farm, I spent most of my time harvesting and washing, or organizing the tool sheds, wash station, and field. All the while, I was thinking of better ways to carry out the tasks I was doing in that moment. When it came time to enter data, I was able to collect those thoughts. Here, I could introduce different systems to better the way we complete our work.  

Student volunteers working in the field on one of the last Farm Fridays of the season.

Student volunteers working in the field on one of the last Farm Fridays of the season.

The farm’s supervisor, Kristyn Achilich, is always challenging us to think critically of new ways we could make the farm more efficient. This is how the idea of my internship evolved, as well as the new layout of the farm. The farm crew’s job is to constantly be thinking of how we are working and how we could improve. My focus this semester was to revise the GAP plan and to replace the record keeping systems that were being used.    
As I worked through the semester entering data and attempting to establish a uniform way in which we collect data, I ran into an obstacle. Half of the crops we sold were measured in pounds and the other half were measured in different units such as bunches, pint, or quart. How was I supposed to find a total for pounds harvested, sold, and donated, if we measured all of those numbers in bunches? At my meeting with Kristyn that week I tried to explain to her my frustration and convince her to start selling everything in pounds next year. She, however, had a different idea in mind: the conversion sheet. The conversion sheet was something Kristyn often mentioned over the summer, but the farm crew (including me) did not see any value in this. However, once I reviewed the data, it made total sense. We needed a reference to calculate how much a bunch of this, or a pint of that, weighed in pounds. This way, while I was recording bunches harvested, sold, or donated; I could put an equation in the Excel spread sheet to multiply the number harvested by the weight of one unit. This would give me the total weight of food harvested, sold, and donated. The conversion sheet suddenly went from an idea that I originally thought was nonsense, to one of the most useful tools for analyzing data.

Saint Michael’s College Farm Conversions 

(an excerpt)

Crop	Unit	Average Weight of Crop Unit (lb)
Basil	bunch	0.4
Beans	½ lb bags	0.5
Beet	bunch	0.52
Beet	each	0.05
Cucumbers, Lemon	each	0.3
Cucumbers, Slicers	each	0.3
Eggplant	lbs	1
Eggplant	each	0.52
Fennel	bunch	0.65
Flowers, bouquet	bouquet	N/A
Sunflowers, cut	stem	N/A
Flowers, cut	stem	N/A
Garlic	each	0.075
Garlic	lbs	1
Garlic Scapes	bunch	0.25
Garlic Scapes (bulk purchase disc.)	bunch	0.25
Greens, Arugula	½ lb bags	0.5
Greens, Claytonia	½ lb bags	0.5
Greens, Lettuce (Wintered)	½ lb bags	0.5
Greens, Lettuce	½ lb bags	0.5
Greens, Mixed Greens & Asian Greens	½ lb bag	0.5
Greens, Spinach (Wintered)	½ lb bags	0.5
Greens, Spinach	½ lb bags	0.5

          The conversion sheet allows the farm crew to convert three bunches of kale to a little under one pound. This is significant because we measure everything we do on the farm in pounds. At the end of the season we want to know how many pounds of food we harvested, sold, and donated. However, when we harvest kale and many other crops, we measure the yield in bunches. In addition, when the farm crew looks at a kale bed they guess how many bunches can be harvested, rather than how many pounds could be produced. The conversion sheet gives the farm crew the opportunity to convert those numbers into pounds. In addition, it is a teaching tool for new farm crew members to know what the weight should be when harvesting, so they can become familiar with the look and weight of a bunch of kale. The conversion sheet also allows us to sell crops in the way that customers want to buy them. For example, if a customer wants to buy a pumpkin, they don’t want to have to guess how much it will weigh and figure out which one to buy. They want to be told it will cost three dollars; plain and simple. The conversion sheet may not seem significant, but for a farm that needs to continue its current harvest, sale, and donation procedures, it is crucial. 

A delivery that is on its way to Alliot, our dining hall!

            Some additional work that I did with the record keeping systems was, reform the farm stand and self-serve farm stand sheets, as well as add sheets for pricing, conversions, and CSA self-serve farm stand. These systems will create a more productive atmosphere for the farm crew when contributing and entering data, and lead to much less confusion for our customers. Kristyn wants to ensure that the systems we put in place are as straight forward as possible. It is part of the farm’s mission to encourage students to become educated through the site and to have access to healthy and organic food. However, if the self-serve farm stand is confusing in any way, students will be discouraged from participating. These practices intend to promote the farm’s accessibility and efficiency.

            At the end of the season when there were no more sweet potatoes to pull or garlic to plant, I finished collecting all last minute numbers to be entered into the system. Using the data, I came up with some totals.  

In the 2017 season, the Saint Michael’s College Farm harvested a total of 2,408 pounds of food, donated nearly 500 pounds and sold about 1,550 pounds, 400 pounds or so directly to Alliot. 

The discrepancy from farm to plate was about 380 pounds of food. This could be from a number of factors including the season-long improvement in our tracking harvest, sales, and donations or the composting of food aged beyond safe consumption. Now that the farm has several data collecting tools at hand, there should be less inconsistency in the future. However, these numbers grew significantly in comparison to last year. In the 2016 season, the site harvested a total of 1,775 pounds of food.  

That’s an increase of over 600 pounds of food in just one season. 

It is a testament to the value of ecologically driven agricultural systems, the open and honest nature of the farm inviting student choice and perspective, and some good old fashion hard work by hundreds of hands in the last few years.

Peppers, cukes and summer squash on display over the summer.

            This internship was a great opportunity for me to explore different areas of interest. It has made me come to realize that not only do I love to work outside, but I also love to analyze data. In addition, extending an already detailed system was extremely rewarding. The student who initiated the GAP plan put a lot of heart into this project, and it was very valuable to continue the legacy of her work. That is what is so great about the farm, there is always new and innovative ways to improve the system, and students will always be able to participate in its betterment. I learned a lot about the farm over the past few months and I am excited to see what next year brings us with the new record keeping systems, as well as the new layout.

The front page of the Saint Michael’s College Farm GAP Plan

Friends of the farm often have many questions about what we do across the field and down the hill from Pomerleau and Public Safety.  It's out of sight and out of mind for many, yet a small groups of students have integrated the site and all its learning into their academic quests.  Here are a few Questions & Answers I put together after showing my Fall Internship Product to my friends here on campus.

Q & A

Q: Is the food grown at the farm strictly for students or do you provide for the public as well?

A: Our mission is to provide food for people that do not have access to healthy and organic resources. A lot of students do not have cars or kitchens that would give them that access, so the farm’s focus is to provide for students. However, we do a lot of work with local veterans who have the same issue of not having access to healthy food. In addition, we donate food to the Intervale or other local initiatives.

Q: What is the most tedious crop to harvest on the Saint Michael’s College Farm?

A: Definitely ground cherries. If you take one off the plant too aggressively, they all end up on the ground. It also takes forever to pick them all off. I think we’re going to try and come up with a more efficient way harvest them next summer.

Q: Have you applied the skills you learned at the farm, such as self-accountability, data analysis, and critical thinking, elsewhere in your life? How so?

A: Critical thinking and self-accountability are both something I use in my other classes or when I have an issue at work I have to solve. I am constantly aware that I can count on myself more than others, which has made me a very independent worker. However, I think I did well this summer in trying to be more team oriented because it is so hard not to when there is so much to do. I have not, however, had the opportunity to analyze data outside of the internship.

Q: How is the new layout going to be more efficient?

A: The biggest advantage of the new layout is how much square feet there is for more food to be produced. The old layout was twelve plots that had eight beds in each. Now, there are four plots with fifty foot beds in them. In addition, there is a large portion of the farm that gets too much shade for veggies to grow. Instead, we are hoping to incorporate shade loving plants in this area like mushrooms, gooseberries and perhaps some more currants. It will also be a decent spot for some rhubarb. This new layout will give the farm more potential in later seasons.