Campus Community Garden Ploughed and Ready to Grow

    Excitement is germinating at Hamilton College.  This fall, students, professors, and Bon Appetit have teamed up to establish a Community Garden at Hamilton.  Due to the strong enthusiasm and initiative taken by many members of the Hamilton Community, the garden, which is located behind Ferguson lot on the East side of campus, has already been ploughed and seeded.  
    The idea of a community garden at Hamilton is something that many individuals and groups have discussed in recent years. German and Russian Professor Frank Sciacca said that with recent emphasis on sustainability, organic farming, eating locally, and the Slow Food movement, "everyone's talking about food these days." 
    Government Professor and garden faculty advisor Peter Cannavo said that a garden at Hamilton "ties into the attempt to back local food production."  He explained that "the intensive centralized agriculture system we have now uses a lot of energy and chemicals in which the quality and safety of food is compromised." 
    The idea of a community garden is also an attempt to connect the Hamilton Community to Hamilton as a physical place, not just an institution.  Cannavo said that "food is one of the most tangible connections to where we live and this is a connection that has been lost over the past century."  A garden on campus will not only give students a way to get a sense of where their food comes from and to learn about gardening, but it will also give them a sense of place.  Cannavo added, "Decentralization of food production has made us passive consumers, and a garden is also a way of establishing citizenship in a democracy."  
    Emma Stewart '09 echoed Cannavo when she said that the main goal of the garden is to "connect Hamilton students with the land they live on and educate them about where food comes from."  Within the first weeks of the semester, Stewart, along with a small group of students including Corinne Bancroft '10, Andrew Pape '10, Marcy Carpenter '08, Jenny Stringer '08, Chris Sullivan '09, and Theo Collins '08 met regularly to draw up a proposal for a garden that they and fellow Hamilton students would develop and maintain. According to Collins, "a vision of an entirely student-run garden was something a few students threw around at the end of last year."  He added, "We discussed food ethics and sustainability at length over the summer."
    Simultaneously, a core of professors including Sciacca, David Gapp, Naomi Guttman, and Peter Cannavo were drafting plans for an 1812 Heritage Garden.  The plans called for a garden researched and developed by  "Food for Thought," a College Seminar taught by Sciacca and Gapp in Spring 2008, in conjunction with the upcoming bicentennial of Hamilton College in 2012.  According to Sciacca, the goal of "The 1812 Heritage Garden" or "BiCentennial Garden" is a reconstruction of a "kitchen garden" typical of the early nineteenth century in upstate New York. 
    At the same time, Bon Appetit was mulling over ideas for a garden on the Hamilton campus.  According to Executive Chef Reuben Haag, Bon Appetit has a garden at a college campus in Maine maintained by a local farmer.  A garden on campus would bring Bon Appetit's "Eat Local" philosophy to an extremely local level.  Haag said that he "loves every angle of local," as eating locally guarantees "better products, fresher produce, and it uses less carbon and energy."
    With strong alumni support from Graduates for a Greener Hamilton, students drafted a proposal for a student-run garden.  Teaming up with the Food for Thought Seminar seemed like a perfect move as students envisioned the garden as a place where classes could come and participate.  Collins said that including the Heritage Garden as a part of the community garden is "a prime example of how the garden can give back to the community in an academic sense."  The students combined their proposal with Professor Sciacca and Professor Gapp and brought it to President Stewart's Open Hour. 
    Students said that the President was immediately enthusiastic about the idea for a community garden. She advised the students and professors to contact Executive Assistant to the President and Secretary to the Board of Trustees Meredith Harper Bonham and Vice President of Administration and Finance Karen Leach.  The students and professors detailed their plans and requested financial support for the garden in a meeting with President Stewart, Dean Urgo, Bonham, and Leach.  In about a week, the administration notified the project developers that they would be receiving the $20,000 and plot of land they had requested for the garden.
    The money is for startup costs of the garden, as $13,000 is going toward a water line, around $1,800 is to pay Ed Crane (a local farmer who lives up the hill for advice and ploughing), and the rest toward a fence. While money is needed initially to establish and maintain the garden, the goal is for the garden to be self-sustaining and eventually to turn a profit.  In at least five years, students hope to make money that can go back into the garden by selling produce to Bon Appetit and a local farmers market.  
    Haag said that Bon Appetit will play a big role in creating a sustainable garden and that the food service is willing to buy "everything and anything the garden produces." On behalf of Bon Appetit, Haag has jumped into plans for the garden with financial assistance and help in picking out products that will do well in the upstate New York climate.  Along with seeds that Bon Appetit has already purchased for the students, the company has agreed to buy an extra $200 worth of seeds.  Haag hopes for large quantities of fresh herbs, chives, numerous varieties of squash, beans, and root vegetables to use in the dining halls.  He also hopes to use flowers grown in the garden for Bon Appetit catering events on campus.  Haag looks forward to next fall, which he said will be the most exciting time for the garden when there will be "real food in good quantity."  He revealed tremendous excitement and said, "I'm looking forward to going down and playing in the dirt." 
    The garden founders are looking for volunteers to get dirty in the garden as well.  The garden is about three-quarters of an acre; about one-quarter will be devoted to the 1812 Heritage Garden, and the rest will be divided into row crops, individual student plots, and common spaces.  Students who drafted plans for the garden emphasized that the garden is open to all members of the Hamilton Community.  Student volunteers will be needed for initial set up, in the spring and fall for planting, and throughout the year for general maintenance.  Plots will be available for individual students during the summers at Hamilton.  Emma Stewart said, "We want everyone to come together and grow."
    Theo Collins said that the garden "will reflect the connection to sustainability and food in the 'greening' of Hamilton supported by the administration."   As a part of the Community Garden, the 1812 Heritage Garden is a historical project that will connect the community experience to the curriculum of student research and will celebrate 200 years of Hamilton.  The garden will also beautify the campus and Cannavo hopes that the location near the new Admissions building will encourage all campus tours to stop by. 
    Many are impressed by the students' entrepreneurial work and how quickly the project came together.  Stewart and Collins estimated that the process, beginning with initial discussion this semester and ending with ploughing, took about a month.  Cannavo said that he was "incredibly impressed by how much the students took initiative and got funding."  Sciacca agreed and said that "the energy of the students is remarkable and without it, starting this project would have been difficult."
    The next step will be planting garlic in the garden this fall.  Volunteers will be needed in the spring for garden preparation such as making raised flowerbeds.  Planting will be after Memorial Day, most likely by student interns paid through grants. Collins said, "It's been really exciting to work on the garden.  We followed through and saw a positive response and backing from the administration."  He added, "We hope the community gets behind the garden."