On Tuesday the Farm Center staff hosted a gathering to celebrate Earth Day and the start of the growing season. Students, faculty, and staff traveled down the winding paths and across the grassy fields toward the farm and enjoyed an afternoon of sunshine, seeding, shelling, and the sounds of folk duo Dear Hills.
Student workers Sky Loth and Walter Poulson prepared trays of potting mix and everyone helped to seed Mr. Warner’s Red Popcorn–a heritage variety that was given to the Hampshire College farm by Richard Warner in 1998. Mr. Warner lived in the white house closest to the main entrance of campus- now home to the college’s Communications department. Mr. Warner tended an 11 acre farm with one dairy cow and a small garden and orchard. He was famous around these parts for his cultivation of a red variety of popcorn and even earned the title of “Popcorn Prince.” The legacy of Mr. Warner’s Red Popcorn continues at the Hampshire College Farm where vegetable farmer Nancy Hanson grows the popcorn every year for the CSA. You can learn more about Mr. Warner’s popcorn HERE.
In addition to planting corn, visitors to the farm were amazed by two pedal powered farm implements- a corn sheller and a grain grinder. Applied Design Professor Donna Cohn demonstrated these contraptions to curious bystanders. Cohn has recently received a grant from the Gates Foundation to develop a labor-saving pearl millet thresher for communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. More on that HERE.
Professor Donna Cohn demonstrates the corn sheller to an eager audience.
Stay tuned for more events at the farm in the future! If you are a member of the 5 college community, you can always get involved by joining our CSA!
