We are now in our fourth year of
production here at Farm to YoU NH at UNH (36 Spinney Lane at the Fairchild
Dairy in Durham, NH). It has been an amazing adventure to see how the student participants
of this program have transformed the way in which this farm runs and all the ideas
we have put into action.
Starting in 2012, the students (with
help of one instructor, SAFS lecturer Andrew Ogden, and a production coordinator/teaching
assistant) have built two 90ft x 30ft high tunnels as well as formed two
growing fields that comprise roughly a half acre. Farm to YoU NH began producing
food in October 2012; just two months after the tunnels were finished and the
class itself began in spring 2013. We now deliver a variety of crops ranging
from salad mix and head lettuce, to tomatoes and peppers to the UNH Dairy Bar,
Conference and Catering, and the three UNH Dining Halls here on campus. In
total, we delivered 2519lbs to the Dairy Bar, 1,800 to catering, and 672lbs to the
dining halls in the 2014-15 school year alone. Three new initiatives during
this year for Farm to YoU NH include micro-greens production, cut flower
production, and hydroponic lettuce production.
In the fall of 2014 the class
decided to plant
a pollinator bed from the middle of the outdoor growing field in hopes of attracting beneficial insects to our field by
providing them a habitat. Dr. Cathy Neal,
landscape extension specialist here at UNH, provided plugs of pollinator plants
to use in the pollinator bed. In the summer
of 2015 it was decided to add a second pollinator bed below the field and the
high tunnels, which was planted with transplants that were seeded in the high tunnels. This helped increase the natural flow of the pollinator population
throughout the field and high tunnels. It has also added to the aesthetic beauty
of our fields.
This semester, we are growing
strawberries, garlic and a combination of winter rye and hairy vetch as a cover
crop in the fields. In our unheated high
tunnel we are growing onions, carrots, kale, Swiss chard and an array of herbs. The heated high tunnel is growing kale, Swiss
chard, spinach, Mache (a very cold hardy leafy green vegetable), head lettuce
and salad mix. We just constructed a
germination incubator which is a foam box with a heating pad where we will begin to grow two varieties of ginger and turmeric.
We are currently in the process of
establishing this year’s crops! We have discussed and intend to grow some cultivars that were bred by
University faculty, Dr. Becky Sideman and Brent Loy. Dr. Sideman has
developed a tomato variety grown from hanging baskets which would minimize the space needed to grow tomatoes! Dr. Loy is a plant
breeder who has multiple varieties of melons and squash available from numerous regional and national seed vendors We will be using a variety of his squash in our “Three Sisters”
planting of corn, beans, and squash. Brent has also created a spineless variety of
summer squash which makes harvesting much easier! Using these varieties will
allow this program to hone in on all of the University's assets.
In the last four years the class
has flourished, networked, and has made a name for itself. We
have implemented the use of four separate teams that all play important roles
to our class as a whole: Propagation, Production, Records Keeping, and Social
Media. Each team has various responsibilities and tasks to accomplish throughout
the semester, which allows the class and farm to function smoothly.
Fifteen to twenty-five students have actively participated in the course
each semester since the start of the program. The class offers a great opportunity
for students to gain practical first-hand experience about vegetable production
and farm management all the while getting their hands a little dirty.
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| THEN- 2014 |
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| NOW- 2016 |
