Fall Farm Crew

The winter solstice is just about a week away.  As we tuck in with family and friends, warm lights and open hearts, on the farm we simultaneously tuck in one season and plan for the next.  One of the best elements of running a farm is the opportunity to reflect on the successes and challenges of each year as they present themselves again and again.  Our farm is growing, evolving and productive, however, I'd consider our most successful crop to be each cohort of students who move through the leadership tier of the farm crew.  This Fall's crew was no exception.  Read on to discover a bit more about our student farmers.  Be well, eat well, rest well.

See you on the farm in 2018,

Kristyn

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Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.

- Ovid ___________________________________________________________________________________

 

Jonah Fanelli, ’18 is a senior Environmental Studies Major with minors in Political Science and Sociology, and originates from Clinton, CT. After graduation, he hopes to do a service year involving sustainable agriculture and environmental education, or pursue work in environmental policy. In his free time he likes to hike, bike, and swim in the warmer months, and is an avid skier in the winter.  

His work on the farm began in the fall semester of 2016 while taking Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture, and he has continued this fall as a work-study student employee. While not the cushiest of work-study positions, he finds the opportunity to spend time outdoors with his hands in the soil to be well-worth the hard work. He has found that having the farm as a sanctuary separate from the rest of campus has had a balancing effect on his academic and social activities here at Saint Mike’s.  

 Graham Kaigle, ’18 is an Environmental Studies with a focus in Justice and Sustainability. After taking Professor Achilich’s Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture course, he soon realized a potential career path and true passion.  Graham’s time working on the St. Michael’s Farm has taught him a lot of things, but as he nears the end of his internship and soon, graduation, he now sees that the Farm has taught him a lot about community. Not just ecological community but the importance of a healthy farm crew community that has similar values, goals and beliefs in relation to the aims of the Garden Program. He finds himself truly thankful to have had the opportunity to have been a part of such an empowering space on campus.

youth growing up in the greater Burlington area Graham says that he had little knowledge of Vermont agriculture. However, as he grew older his interest in this aspect of the Vermont culture became a burning passion, which he is now pursuing as a future career. Over the past two academic semesters Graham has been an intern with the Garden Program on campus further expanding his knowledge surrounding sustainable agriculture in Vermont. Graham came to St. Michael’s unsure of what he would do with an ES major.

Ivy Luke, ’18 is a Biology and Spanish double major with a minor in Environmental Science. She has been involved with the Garden Program since her sophomore year when she started volunteering through MOVE. Now, Ivy is one of the co-leaders for the program Outdoor Volunteer Efforts within the MOVE program. She also worked as part of the summer ’17 farm crew. The Farm here at St. Michael’s has become a really important part of her time in college, and she really enjoys working with other students and getting them to engage with the site and experience firsthand what it takes to grow the food that we eat. Through volunteer groups, classes that use the garden, and even running the weekly farm stand, Ivy teaches her peers about local food and the importance of the work that we do. One of her many goals after graduation is to continue studying food systems and sustainable agriculture.

  

 Elizabeth (Lizzie) McCarty, ’18 is an Environmental Science major from Newton, Massachusetts. She first came down to the Farm through a Sustainable Food Procurement class and fell in love, becoming a volunteer in the Fall of 2016 and then working full time on the Farm the Summer of 2017 and continued her regular volunteer schedule this Fall. She is interested in food security and education, and believes that you can’t fully understand where the food you eat is coming from until you dig your hands into the soil and harvest your first vegetable. She has a particular interest in working towards breaking through barriers within the food system, which she has been able to explore throughout the courses she has taken here at Saint Mike’s centered around sustainable agriculture and food systems. She enjoys photography, hiking, and has recently begun to experiment with cooking, especially using fresh produce from our Farm. At school, she is a part of Green Up leadership and a member of the MOVE Service Trip Committee, through which she will be volunteering in South Dakota in May. Post-grad, she hopes to work in the field of farm education.

Kristen McDowell, ’19  is an Environmental Studies major with a focus in justice and sustainability. She is from Castle Rock, Colorado and stayed in Vermont for the summer of 2017 to work at the Saint Michael’s College Farm. At the end of the summer, Kristen made the decision to stay at the site for the rest of the semester through an internship as well. Kristen was able to be a part of the garden within her first week of being at Saint Michael’s with her orientation group. The group built raised beds, prepared the field plots, and helped out with various chores within the garden. Since then, Kristen has returned to the site with several classes and a volunteer group. From seeing the garden transform over the past couple of years, she became more and more impressed with the potential of the Farm. The site has the ability to have a farm stand to sell fresh and organic food to the students and staff of Saint Michael’s in addition to donating it to families who cannot afford healthy food on a regular basis. Kristen thoroughly enjoys watching the plants sprout and being a part of the process that brings the harvest to people who need it most. She hopes that after her time at Saint Michael’s, there will be opportunities to give to her community in a similar way. Kristen’s favorite thing to harvest in the garden are the peppers and strawberries and her favorite vegetable is broccoli. Kristen hopes to encourage her peers and professors to go down to the garden and become a part of the wonderful community the site has to offer.

 

Tiana Dunne, '20 is a biochemistry major from Baldwin, Maine. She was hired as a work study student to work at the St. Michael’s College Farm the Fall of her first year at Saint Michael’s. She had no previous farming experience, but was eager to learn about the food growing process. She is most interested in soil chemistry and how environmental factors and mineral composition can play such a crucial role in the success of the growing season. In the year and a half she has been working on the farm she has seen the site take off structurally, as well as the program growing a more robust following on campus.

Tiana took her knowledge of food systems and farming back home where she worked on a large scale vegetable production farm during the 2017 summer. She was able to contribute what she has learned at the SMC Farm and in the classroom to this farm, as well as bring what she learned from this experience back to Saint Michael’s this Fall. She is excited to see how the Permaculture Site will progress in her remaining years, and hopes that all students get to experience the Farm in some way while they are here.