In 1996, a group of students got permission from Cornell University to start a student farm on campus. They called it Dilmun Hill. Their thinking was an agricultural university should have place where students could practice what they were being taught. Many faculty agreed with them, one of whom was Cornell Small Farms Program Director Anu Rangarajan, who was a vegetable specialist for the state at the time.
As with many student projects, there was concern from the administration about what would happen once the group of students graduated. Erica Frenay, who has her own farm and works at Cornell Small Farms on agroforestry and online courses, was a rising junior at Cornell in 1999. She came across a flyer for Dilmun Hill’s VSA program (Volunteer Supported Agriculture). The idea was that students would volunteer their time and be paid in produce. Erica was very drawn to the idea of working on a farm and payment in healthy local produce, so she got involved. By the next year, she was part of the leadership team.
On the latest episode of Small Farms Radio, Erica remembers those early years of planning the student farm as she is joined in conversation with Ryan Maher, who previously worked at the Cornell Small Farms Program before moving to his new role on campus as the Organic Coordinator for the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station — which includes serving as the staff manager for Dilmun Hill. Even though Erica and Ryan worked together for 8 years, they never discussed Erica’s history with Dilmun Hill.
Erica remembers that planning the farm’s yearly operations took up all the capacity of the student group. There was nothing left for thinking about big picture tasks like infrastructure, or convincing the administration that the student farm was a worthy investment. The group of faculty and students then discovered that the area where they had been growing market garden vegetables was contaminated with lead and arsenic. The land had formally been an orchard, and years of pesticide applications had accumulated in the soil. So, the farm had to move to adjacent land that was not contaminated and start over.
Despite the challenges, with faculty support and continued student interest, the farm survived. Erica’s memories of healthy vegetables from the student farm are forever contaminated, but she is pleased to see that Dilmun Hill has grown and garnered support from the university. Erica notes that one of the many things that early group of students needed was an anchor at the university, someone who would help carry the knowledge from year to year. Thirty years later, that is Ryan’s job.
Their conversation starts with Dilmun Hill and pulls back to think more broadly about the value of student Farms. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts.
