Ideas Beyond Farming
- Established Farm Projects
- Future Farm Dreams
Future Farm Dreams
College Farm Conference
Furthering the discussions and strengthening these connections made on the farm field trip would help all parties, and ideas for a conference of college community farms sometime in the winter were discussed, especially with Dartmouth, but were never manifested. However, continuing to make visits, and working on organizing a conference with the schools visited in 2010, as well as others, would be wonderful, highly educational and interesting.
Seminar and Lecture Series
The main point of the HCCF is education, and educating beyond farming itself will open up the experience to more students than those interested in the farm for its own sake. Some ideas of ways to go about this are to start a bi-weekly seminar series, taught by students involved in the farm, or by faculty or staff or other community members who are interested. Perhaps a food discussion could be held, where everyone prepares produce from the garden, or a lecture on herbal medicine, or an art professor might be interested in teaching about botanical sketching for an afternoon. These seminars could also be mini-lectures by alumni, or other visitors. Think creatively about how to bring people down to the farm and to educate them and yourself.
Outdoor Classroom Space
Along with the idea of education is the hope that Hamilton may begin to utilize the farm as more than just a place to grow vegetables, but also a space where a plethora of disciplines can find relevance. Professors bringing their classes to the farm, and all visitors need a place in which they can gather comfortably. An outdoor structure, such as a gazebo or something along those lines, would be ideal. This makes the farm a place people want to be, as any landscaping, tidiness, and beautification does.
Pre-Orientation Harvest Program
Several of the other college farms visited had a farming trip as a pre-orientation option, which would be wonderful to implement here. Both Amy James and Andrew Jillings are in favor of the idea, and would be useful resources in starting it up. The program would have students spend the first couple of days on the ropes course and doing team- building activities with the other pre-orientation groups, and then go stay at local farms before heading off to the ropes course at the end of the week. Like the Hamilton Serves day, this would be a way for new freshman to find out about the farm, and may be just what some want to do for their pre-orientation trip.
Haunted Farm for Halloween
This would be the most epic, most terrifying, most disturbing haunted farm ever, not to mention a terrific party.