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Sustainable Hampshire
farm crew with dog sitting on tractor

Farming’s Future: Welcome to the New Summer Farm Crew!!

Another busy season is underway here at the Hampshire College Farm. This summer we have a terrific group of hardworking interns helping with everything from raising chickens to pounding tomato stakes. One hot afternoon, while cooling off over some ice-cold drinks and popsicles, we asked them about their experiences so far and their future plans. Blue DuRard Keller, a Hampshire College student, says that he has romant
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group of students cheering sweet pototo harvest

Support Hampshire College and the Farm – Donate by June 30th for a 1:1 Match

We hope you love Hampshire College – and the Hampshire College Farm – as much as we do. All the great work that gets done here, from a student-run heritage pig breeding program to delivering fresh, sustainably-grown Hampshire College Farm produce directly the campus dining hall, can only be done with your support. Together, let’s raise $150,000 between now and June 30th to support these great initiatives
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4 people in commercial kitchen

Faces Behind Your Food Presents: The Kern Kafe

Welcome to the second in a series of Faces Behind Your Food interviews with the folks here on campus who are involved in moving your food from farm to fork. This interview is with some of the hardworking staff at the Kern Kafe, including Eli Horowitz (Bakery Manager), Tori Bonazoli (Baker), Sheena Pee (Catering and Baking Assistant) and Elise Khanijao (Kern Kafe Manager). The bakery makes an assortment of delicious p
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Members of food system panel sitting at table

What’s new? A Hampshire College Food Systems Panel… and Cooking Class!

Here at Hampshire College we continue to make progress on our food systems work. Earlier this fall our Food Systems team conducted a survey of first year students in the dining hall, and discovered that few of them had a good grasp on what exactly the Hampshire College food system was or how it worked. To remedy this, we worked in conjunction with the Bon Appetit Fellow, Shira Kaufmann, and came up with both a Food S
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Hampshire College Food Systems Panel

Recently, the Kendall Food Systems Intern and Farm staff conducted a survey in the dining hall to find out what students want to know about the Hampshire College food system. In response to questions that we received from the survey, we are planning to hold a panel on November 29th (note new date) from 3:30-4:30 in the middle room of the dining commons. Please join the staff of the dining hall, the farm, the Kern Cen
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Thanks to volunteers, the Hampshire College Fall Festival was a big success!!

Thank you to all of the wonderful volunteers who made the Fall Festival such a success!! From selling popcorn to monitoring traffic, from pressing apple cider to showing off pigs, we really appreciate your hard work, and couldn’t have done it without you! Thank you, thank you!! Thanks also to the bands, the vendors, and, of course, all of the visitors who came out visit the farm. We hope you had a great time an
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3 people in cafeteria behind table featuring local food

Hampshire College Farm and Bon Appetit team up for a big win!!

Congratulations to Executive Chef Jamil Asad for his Local Food Challenge meal on September 26th, which was in the top three out of 44,000 Bon Appetit submissions in the country!! It featured primarily Hampshire College Farm produce, with a few additional products from Horse Listener’s Orchard and Four Star Farms. Go Team Local!! Did we mention that it was delicious? Because it sure was!! As many readers of thi
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Botanical explorer Joseph Simcox brings new seeds to Hampshire Farm

by Eve Allen, F14 On a warm Wednesday afternoon in early March, botanical explorer and ethnobotanist, Joseph Simcox, paid a visit to the Hampshire College Farm to distribute seeds in promotion of his Gardens Across America project. Joseph has spent decades circling the globe documenting, tasting, and collecting the seeds of thousands of rare and underutilized edibles. Visiting over 100 countries and collecting the se
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Seed Library and Hampshire Farm Series Spring 2016

Announcing a collaborative series on seeds, seed starting, and transplanting offered by the Harold F Johnson Library and the Hampshire College Farm. Vegetable Grower and CSA Manager Nancy Hanson and Science Librarian Heather McCann will co-teach 3 sessions this spring. Participants will learn more about the Hampshire College Seed Library and the resources available on campus for growing food. Bring your own seeds to
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Clean Energy Technology & Sustainable Agriculture course offered this summer

Clean energy is becoming a priority as our global community faces the challenge of climate change. At the same time agriculture is changing to meet the needs of a more environmentally aware consuming public. For the second summer, an intercollegiate and collaborative course brings together students at Holyoke Community College, Hampshire College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst to learn a variety of emergi
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Food, Farming, and Climate: Discussions at Hampshire and in Paris

While national leaders met in Paris this past week to work toward collaborative solutions to climate change, author and 5 College professor Michael Klare delivered the annual Jackie Pritzen Lecture here at Hampshire College, focusing on conflict and resource depletion in the climate change era. Klare described a future in which croplands in Africa, Asia, and America turn to dustbowls, fisheries fail, and billions of
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November Farm Bulletin

Monthly updates from the farm recorded by Owen Aptekar-Cassels F14 with input from Farmers Nancy Hanson and Jason Dragon. The shift in weather patterns that made this an amazing growing season also affects the lives of insects. This year’s experimental Brussels sprouts crop, the first on the farm in 10 years, was covered in gray aphids that do well in warm weather. Next season the farm plans to adapt by introducing l
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Report: Accounting Systems for the 100% Local Food Challenge By Joshua Minot and Shelby Gaiss

In March of 2015, student interns Joshua Minot F12 and Shelby Gaiss F13 were tasked to track and record Bon Appetit’s local purchasing practices in the context of Hampshire’s 100% Local Food Challenge and to conduct preliminary research and analysis around the Real Food Challenge in comparison to Hampshire’s Sustainable Food Purchasing Guidelines. Over the past several months, the interns have worked to identify all
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Farm Field Trip Series: Wingate Farm

Join Hampshire College Farmer Jason Dragon and Program Coordinator Jess Wissemann on field trips to local farms! Participants will learn about various sustainable farming practices from the farmers themselves and may have opportunities to get their hands dirty with some volunteer work. We will be visiting several farms including two alumni farms right here in the Pioneer Valley. Learn about our regional food system f
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Finding beauty through Farm Work: Reflections on the Growing Season

Owen Aptekar-Cassels is a third-year student at Hampshire College and one of 4 Hampshire students who worked as a vegetable farm intern this summer. I’ve been meaning to write this blog post for months, but I’m only now, when popcorn and pumpkin plants that started off so small and strong are now fruiting and dying back, getting the chance to write it. Farming can make other things slip to the side, I’m learning. My
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1200 Pounds of Blueberries Bound for Campus Dining Hall!

How many blueberries would it take to feed Hampshire College for a year? This was the question campus farmer Nancy Hanson asked dining service general manager Jim Lachance last July. Farmer Nancy proposed to take her hard working crew of student farmers out of the campus vegetable fields and up to the blueberry barrens of the Berkshires to pick enough berries to supply the dining for the entire school year. According
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Students Pick Local Strawberries for Campus Dining Hall

On Tuesday morning, the Hampshire College Farm crew teamed up with students attending the summer Food, Farm, and Sustainability Institute (FFSI) to pick nearly 700 pounds of local strawberries at historic Warner Farm in Sunderland, MA. The purpose of the trip was not only to provide a fun learning experience for the summer farm crew and FFSI students but also to harvest berries that Bon Appetit will use in pursuit of
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greenhouse

Part II: National Science Foundation Course Envisions Renewable Energy Systems on Hampshire’s Farm

Guest Post by Joshua Minot F12 Continued from Part I Professor Fred Wirth and Farmer Pete Solis extol the design features of the farm’s wind turbine. In their second week at Hampshire College, students enrolled in the National Science Foundation Course Clean Energy Technology and Sustainable Agriculture moved on to investigate wind power and solar thermal technologies. Fred Wirth, associate professor of physics
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Part I: National Science Foundation Course Envisions Renewable Energy Systems on Hampshire’s Farm

Guest Post by Joshua Minot F12 From June 8th through 18th, Hampshire College was home to a National Science Foundation supported course that explores topics of sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and manners in which the two can compliment each other. As part of a broader six-week course in partnership with Holyoke Community College and The University of Massachusetts Amherst, the time spent at Hampshire serve
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Pancake Breakfast with Mixed Nuts!

To cap off our exciting Earth Day events, the Hampshire College Farm teamed up with Bon Appetit and Mixed Nuts to host a pancake breakfast at the Roos-Rohde house this morning. Students, faculty, and staff followed the scent of fresh flapjacks across campus and gathered at the Community Garden for an outdoor breakfast in the sunshine. Jim Lachance, General Manager of Bon Appetit Dining Services at Hampshire made his
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