Fertile Mindscape

The bumper crops rising from Dartmouth's organic farm include more than plants. After a year of full-scale operation, the student-run enterprise has proven fertile ground for everything from poetry to history to science.

Amy Thomas '97 secured a Rockefeller grant to write poetry at the farm, two miles from the Dartmouth campus on the Lyme Road. "When you're a writer what you are doing and where you are living informs your metaphors," she says. "The farm is a synthesis of what is important to me—art, poetry, nature."

Amy Crowell '97 combined her women's studies and environmental studies majors in an independent study on the traditional agriculture of Iroquois and Algonquin women. Crowell planted the "Three Sisters" of Native American farming—corn, beans, and squash—from seeds she obtained from a cultural preservation organization.

Christine Kosonen '98 is writing children's stories based on the farm. Researching Upper Valley folklore, seasonal celestial events, and wildlife, she plans to incorporate the farm's sense of place, "and its magic the magic of imagination," into fictional children's tales.

Matt Stembridge '99 collected oral histories from farmers in the Upper Valley and his home state of Washington. His project was funded with a First Year Summer Research Grant from the College.

There were class projects as well: environmental studies students analyzed soil, and an architecture class designed farmstands and greenhouses.

And, of course there was the food. According to fulltime in tern Jim Hourdequin '97, the farm sold produce to the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, Dartmouth Dining Service, Hanover Inn, and students at a twice-weekly farmer's market stand at the Collis student center.

Dartmouth Gothic: ChristineKosonen '98, Jim Hourdequin'97, Lisa Core '98, and MattUngerer '97.