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buckets of collard and chard

New this semester – cooking tips, recipes, and what to do with your CSA share!

Are you a new student CSA member? Don’t know a chef’s knife from a paring knife? Can’t tell the difference between collards and chard? Never fear, the Food, Farm, and Sustainability Blog is here for you!   This semester, we will posting weekly recipes, cooking skills, and announcements of classes or other events to help you learn how to cook (or become a better cook than you already are), how t
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display of CSA vegetables

Free Veggie CSA shares for Hampshire College students!!

FundCom and the Hampshire College Farm are excited to announce that in order to increase food options for students, we are offering FREE Hampshire College Farm Vegetable Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Shares to mod residents – sponsored by the Student Activities Fund! Individual Mods in Prescott, Enfield, and Greenwich are eligible to sign up for free CSA shares beginning on August 1. Share availability
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fundraising poster

Help support Hampshire College’s future with a 48-hour matching gift challenge! #div4ward

Help celebrate our newest graduates – and Hampshire College itself! We need your support! An alum has offered to match dollar for dollar — up to $250,000 — all gifts contributed between Thursday, May 16th, at 6 p.m. and Saturday, May 18th, at 6 p.m. Donations of any amount will be doubled and we can raise $500,000 for Hampshire’s future in 48 hours. Please give today at donate.hampshire.edu and foll
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Nursing sow with piglets

Student research leads to Gloucester Old Spots pig breeding program

As many of you may know,  one of our recent graduates created a Gloucester Old Spots pig breeding program here at Hampshire College.  For her Division III project, April Nugent conducted research on the nutritional and environmental impacts of raising breeding swine on pasture vs. woodlots. We thought you might be interested learning the results of her research, which can be found here: https://drive.google.com/a/ham
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laughing farmers covered in mud

Welcome to fall ’18!

Dear students, faculty, and staff, Welcome (back) to Hampshire College!! We hope you had a lovely summer and are settling into the rhythm of the new semester. Lots of things have been going on here at the farm. We have a new litter of piglets and two new barn kittens (Bert and Ernie) who are getting bigger every day. Our staff and student crews have been (and will continue to be) working hard to plant, grow, hoe, and
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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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Students learning about tractors

What’s happening at the farm?

There are so many things happening at the farm right now, it’s hard to keep track! First, we want to welcome our new summer student crew. These terrific students work hard all summer long planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting to bring the Hampshire College community its fresh vegetables, herbs, and flowers for the dining hall and the Hampshire College CSA. They also help tend the animals – including
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Chef showing plated food to 3 students

What do you know about the faces behind our food?

Dear Hampshire Community, How well do you know the faces behind your food – meaning the staff involved in the Hampshire College food system? Have you ever chatted with Jamil? Toured the farm with Nancy? Bought bulk from Mixed Nuts? Please take a brief survey and let us know! https://hampshire.co1.qualtrics.com/…/fo…/SV_br9Q4IXTlmuLurX Thanks!  
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farmer on tractor next to student with hoe

Hampshire College Farm Summer Internship

Hampshire College Farm Summer Internship Starting date: May 21, 2018 Ending date: September 3, 2018 Pay rate: $11/hour The Hampshire College Farm Summer Internship Program provides a hands-on working and learning experience designed for college students interested in sustainable agriculture. Interns will work alongside farm staff to carry out daily operations of the farm’s diverse pastured livestock and organic veget
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Local food systems by the numbers

For those of you who are interested in local food systems, FINE (Farm to Institution New England) has written an interesting six-part blog series on food metrics, called “Measuring Up”. The entire series can be accessed here. Some highlights include: The struggle around defining “local”: While some institutions create their own definitions of local, others use third-party tools or federal/stat
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In Memoriam: Ray Coppinger, founding faculty member of Hampshire College and the Farm

The Hampshire College Farm is saddened by the passing of Ray Coppinger, internationally-renowned animal behaviorist and founding faculty member of both Hampshire College and the Hampshire College Farm. As many of you may know, the Hampshire College Farm originated in the late 70s as a research facility centered around a variety of aspects of raising sheep. One prominent part of the research involved animal behavior &
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Sow in straw hat by waterer

Researching and Raising Gloucestershire Old Spots

As promised in the previous post, we wanted to provide you with more details on the Gloucestershire Old Spot breeding program, a student-run project by April Nugent, 15F, funded by the Coppinger Research Grant. This study involves breeding heritage pigs in two separate environments (pasture and woodlot) and then comparing the pigs raised on pasture with the pigs raised on woodlot, with the goal of providing baseline
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The wildflower field is abuzz with activity

Passers-by the wildflower field at Hampshire’s main entrance may have noticed some “Bee” signs, along with some green flagging tape, in the middle of our beautifully-flowering field. These indicators surround a new, short-term home for a hive of honey bees who are being used to conduct research on a gut pathogen in bumblebees. Lynn Adler, a biologist at UMass Amherst, was on campus recently and noti
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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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Div III Agroecology Student Gains Valuable Insights at Vermont Grazing and Livestock Conference

A guest post by Div III student Joshua Minot, who is studying Acroecology with a focus on pasture-based animal agriculture. January 15th marked the start of the 20th annual Vermont Grazing and Livestock Conference hosted in Fairlee, Vermont—an event that brings together a wide variety of stakeholders from across New England. The conference was hosted by the University of Vermont Extension and offered an opportunity t
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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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Fall 2015 Farmer Speaker Series

Introducing a speaker series at the Hampshire College Farm that will bring local farmers and food producers to campus to share their experience and expertise with students. This series is organized by Robin Roblee-Strauss F’14 in collaboration with Hampshire Farm staff, and is sponsored by the Lydia B. Stokes Foundation and The Growing Farmers Collective.  
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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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