Community Campus Farm Update

Hello! It’s been a few years since this blog has been active, but we are trying to start up again. I’m Esteban Caballero, and I’ve been involved with the Campus Community Farm for about a year now. Soon, I’ll be graduating from St. Mary’s College. I’ll be around the campus in a staff capacity, so hopefully I can continue to be involved with the Campus Farm!

There is some very sad news to report first. Dr. Kate Chandler passed away in April of 2017 after a two-year battle with cancer. As a way to honor her legacy, the Farm was renamed to the Kate Chandler Campus Farm. Her passing affected the campus as a whole, but especially the Farm itself. She was a wonderful guide for the work of the Farm for many years. She got students motivated to work with her, taught them the skills they needed, and empowered them to take ownership of the Campus Farm. Under her leadership, which she did out of the goodness of her heart, the Farm was running well. After her death, the Farm community on-campus has struggled to find another leader and focal point, which led to a meeting at the end of the Fall 2017 semester.

The short-term plan for the semester was for the Religion and Ecology class, taught by Dr. Von Kellenbach, to have a farmwork requirement as part of their grade. There were two Teaching Assistant, Alex B. and myself, that would organize farmwork for the class and be there at the farm to show them what needed. We were aided greatly by Bonnie, a master gardener who works at the college and lives in area. She taught us what we needed to know about the planting season, which neither of us was familiar with.

The semester is now over, and we’ve seen great progress! There will be more updates about what we’ve been working on, and what the future looks like. There is still much work to be done, but the motivation is there for students. The students in the Religion and Ecology class wrote reflections on their farm work. Here’s one student’s experience with farmwork:

“My experience on the campus farm this semester provided me with this very opportunity. Through farm labor, I was able to recognize my connections to the land, water, animals, place, and people. It was a new experience for me considering I have never engaged in farm work or even gardening of any kind. By actually getting to touch the soil with my hands, I feel I have been able to renew my connection with the land. Wearing shoes and constantly walking on paved ground deprives us of experiencing this connection. Feeling the earth, and getting your hands in the dirt, though, is incredibly refreshing and can remind us of it. Not only tilling and preparing the soil, but also actually getting to plant seeds was a very rewarding experience. It is very exciting to think that a small seed will one day become a ripe plant. We took care to plant the seeds far enough apart that they would have room to grow, and cover them with soil but without packing them in too much. In total, so far I have helped plant two beds and prepare multiple others. We even hammered in posts and strung up string between them for green beans to eventually grow and use as support. The most connection I felt between myself and food, though, was through the rearing of a sweet potato sapling. I was charged with the task of caring for it throughout the entirety of the semester until it grew stems that could themselves be planted in order to spawn even more potatoes. I have put much care into watering and nurturing my sweet potato, and have grown quite attached. I experienced much excitement at watching it grow, not for the purpose of wanting to eat the results, but simply because I was happy it was thriving. I am glad that I had this opportunity to connect with a plant. I have also developed a connection with the people that I worked with at the farm, since we bonded over shared labor. We worked together on all our tasks, and were able to make conversation as we worked. Lastly, I now have a relationship with the campus farm since I have spent much of my time there. I have really enjoyed my time spent working at the farm and will hold onto memories of this experience and all the connections that I have realized.”

Keep your eye out for more posts about the future of the farm!