SOUTH DEERFIELD — “It doesn’t have a manicure, though,” joked UMass Senior Caroline Holladay, holding a carrot that looked like a human hand Monday — her pink nail polish covered in grime.
Holladay said the carrot was grown at the university’s 89 River Road student-run farm. This year, the farm’s 21 acres (with 10 production acres) will yield nearly 100,000 pounds of produce. Thirty-six veggie varieties are grown including corn, pumpkins, gourds, peppers and squash. From planning to harvest, marketing to wholesale distribution, the entire operation is run by a dozen or so students.
“It’s cool to have power. A lot of schools have student farms, but not a lot of farms let students make decisions,” said Senior Liam Dillon.
Monday morning, the farm held an open house for Tricia Serio, first-year dean of the College of Natural Sciences, and Kevin Barry, director of produce and floral at Big Y Foods, a wholesale customer.
The Student Farming Enterprise program is run by Stockbridge School of Agriculture. According to the program website, it “began in the fall of 2007 with two students growing a quarter-acre of kale and broccoli through an independent study.”
Today, the farm is a trial-by-fire, real-world classroom that combines formal education with hands-on experience. In the fall, students come up with a crop plan, estimate how much yield they’ll get, then put it into action over the next year. The farm, while an educational program, is self-sufficient.
“All the revenue students generate from produce goes directly back into the program for next year. There is labor pressure because they have real-world commitments,” said Amanda Brown, a Stockbridge educator and the farm’s director. Students are paid for their work, about $46,000 total each year.
“Everybody divides and conquers. But we’re all working toward the same goal. It’s a cooperatively run farm,” Brown continued.
Along with serving 115 people through its Community Supported Agriculture business, the farm sells at markets and stands, supplies UMass dining facilities, and (since 2014) delivers weekly to Big Y supermarkets in Northampton, Greenfield and Amherst.
“I can attest the skills you learn in this program stay with you. I still use the same spread sheets and dig out old notebooks,” said Farm Manager Jason Silverman, a graduate of the program. Silverman also manages his own farming business in Conway. “Logistics, troubleshooting — it gives you a whole new lens to view farming,” he said.
“It’s been really refreshing to take a course so hands-on — because liberal arts colleges tend to be really theoretical,” said Mount Holyoke Student Julia Opel, working on the farm this year through the Five College Consortium. “It’s grounded everything I’ve learned.”
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