2023 was an eventful year with lots of new developments and records broken at LaFarm – so it’s hard to pick just a few highlights… but here goes!
In the fall of 2022 we experimented with planting a variety of flowers in our high tunnel to overwinter. While some of them didn’t survive the cold, the snapdragons and carnations did, and they provided us with some extra early blooms. Dining used 85 bouquets of these to decorate for commencement and 75 more for reunion. These flowers were also available for students and families to purchase during these events, and they launched our new “Office Bouquet Program,” where offices on campus can receive weekly deliveries of LaFarm flowers throughout the season.
It is always challenging to get food into the dining halls during the spring semester, since the growing season doesn’t really begin until the semester is over. In 2023 we had a new approach to this challenge, growing a large amount of different storage crops like butternut squash, sweet potatoes, beets, and carrots that can keep over winter break and then feature in early spring semester meals. This strategy accounts in part for our record-breaking production levels this year.
2023 was the second year of our Capital Blue Cross funded summer fellowship program, where students have a wide variety of experiences working in the local food system. This year, we deepened our partnership with ProJeCt of Easton in a way that greatly helped them while also enriching our student experience. Every week, our farm fellows would harvest fresh produce, wash it, pack it, and drive it over to the ProJeCt of Easton pantry. Once there, they would help distribute the produce, thus getting a chance to see the whole process from seed to customer.
Of course, 2023 will always be remembered as the first year we had use of our new greenhouse. Read on to learn about all the ways it transformed LaFarm!